Ladies

A masterpiece of modern storytelling meets the magic of majestic theatre. I was lucky enough to have been alerted by a friend to catch the closing performance of LADIES. Had I seen an earlier performance I would have sent my sister a round trip ticket from Chicago so she could witness this incredible show. That’s how good it was. I was shocked when I went on Better-Lemons and read what the “critics” had to say.

Shocking. 60% sweet by critics?! What?! What show did they see? Crazy. That was an incredible piece of theatre. So well written, wonderfully directed, beautifully staged, so moving, thought provoking, relatable. Half the women coming out of the theatre were sobbing. You could feel the energy, the buzz... I overheard comments praising the experience... what is wrong with that picture, who are those critics?

Wow. Well, art is certainly subjective, and theatre is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I know I am not alone in wanting to heap praise on this performance. Clearly, I am the only audience member who knows that as an audience member, we can voice our opinions on Better-Lemons as well. Because after a run of a month, mine is the first audience review. But I caught eyes with so many women as we exited the theatre, and gave each other that nod of relief, of recognition, of knowing that we had just experienced a deep truth. A telling of a tale that has been stifled, suppressed, hushed, and ultimately silenced through the years, I am appalled that the powers-(and critics)that-be are still trying to find ways to invalidate it! For every reason they gave as a critique, I thought it even more worthy of praise.
This show is a must-see. A wonderfully fresh, honest, creative, yes, extremely creative, and inspiring piece of theatre that entertains as much as it stirs up feelings... all of them! That, in my humble opinion, is great theatre.
If there was a Super Sweet score, I would have chosen that.

Overly fictionalized and with too much time devoted to contemporary ramblings, Kit Steinkellner’s version of these Ladies only occasionally manages to engage.

Even in the darkest, most unenlightened era, there have been women prepared, often driven, to buck the strictures placed upon their gender. Ladies, Kit Steinkellner’s illuminating world premiere play directed by Jessica Kubzansky at Boston Court Pasadena, imagines what it must be like to be this kind of person, ready to risk pariahdom for the sake of personal freedom.

All this heavy ‘think piece’ type work might easily fall flat in lesser hands. But rest assured, these mitts are masterful. Poignant, dramatic, extremely funny and above all intensely human, “Ladies” is an extraordinary play. ‘Dynamic’ seems too small a word to describe each and every performance. ‘Perfect’ is fitting, though each actor might still find new moments to shine as the freshly workshopped piece continues its first run all month.

The four appealing actresses do their best to bring the characters to life. They generously give themselves over to sex scenes that must have been difficult to rehearse with straight faces. They find moments of humor and irony in the dialogue. Their warm performances assure us that there is a promising dramatic sensibility somewhere behind all this script’s meta-theatrical posturing. And the production, if a slog, does spark curiosity about the Bluestockings and their proto-feminism.

Although there is little in the way of linear narrative, this examination of 18thCentury Femininity contains plenty of thought-provoking moments. Four actresses – Meghan Andres, Carie Kawa, Jully Lee and Tracey A. Leigh – do a wonderful job bringing their respective 18thCentury “Bluestockings” to life. For those as unskilled as I am, the Bluestockings were creative women, far ahead of their time in their attitudes. Playwright Kit Steinkellner has condensed 100 years of activism into illustrative lives of the four, yet worries her subjects into subjective moments that seemed to go with her own interpretation of their “proto-feminist” views. Steinkellner’s words spill out of their mouths through the devise of donning red sunglasses, which were non-existent in the 18thcentury. In my view, the attempt to portray her own doubts and fears to contextualize her play decentralizes the women themselves as subjects.