Review: THE WOMEN Looks At The Scandal Filled Lives Of Manhattan Socialites in the 1930's

Friday 21 August 2015, 7:30pm, New Theatre, Newtown

Exploring the lives of the Upper East Side, Clare Boothe Luce's THE WOMEN exposes the backstabbing, infidelity and relationships that dominated 1930's middle class socialites. The 18 strong, all female cast expose the similarities and differences that exist between 1936 and 2015, proving some of the views of marriage and female independence are quite dated whilst the observations of human behavior are still relevant.

Centered on Mary Haines(Helen Stuart), the middle class 'perfect wife and mother' living on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, and her 'friends', the 'ladies who lunch' that spend their days playing cards, shopping and socializing, the truths beneath the façades is exposed. Mary's social set is dominated by married women from the newly wed Peggy Day(Lauren Orrell) struggling with the inability to conceive and the concern that her husband cannot support them, despite having her own financial resources, to Edith Potter(Emma Louise), the middle aged mother of 4 that keeps popping out children despite despising them. The group is dominated by the bitchy, bossy Queen B Sylvia Fowler(Jess Loudon) who thrives on scandalous gossip about her friend's husband's infidelities. Amongst the other destruction Sylvia unleashes on her 'friends' she finally stoops to set up Mary to discover her husband's philandering.

Utilizing a turntable, John Cervenka's set allows Director Deborah Jones the ability to make a well-paced performance that easily moves between the multiple locations that the society women frequent, from Mary's apartment to the beauty parlor, fashion atelier and health club. Alexandra Plim's costumes (costume coordinator) fit the period and also help establish the personalities at play from the structured leopard clad dominant Sylvia to the innocent Peggy in flowing dresses and the single, financially independent career woman, Nancy (Alexandra Plim) who favors the masculine look of pants.

Whilst THE WOMEN includes biting comic lines as barbs are exchanged between the women the text does appear stilted in the conversations with Boothe Luce favoring punchy lines over believability which may be tied to the era when she wrote the work. The delivery also demonstrates that there is a discomfort with the structure of the dialogue in both the vocal tones and the physicality with many unsure of what to do with their arms and hands which end up just being held at sides, focusing on hitting their marks on stage or utilizing the space with unusual and unnatural blocking. Jones' choice to have two women stand center stage of an apartment as they share gossip seemed particularly unusual given there was a table and chairs and a lounge already on stage. Whilst how a woman behaved and carried herself was different back in the 1930's there is an unnatural rigidity as lines are delivered which alters the flow of the work for the most part. Plim as Nancy and Cecilia Kelly as Miriam stand out as handling their roles and their dialogue with the right level of deportment and fluidity giving a natural realistic feel to their characters.

The work explores society's views on what made a good marriage, how women should behave as a wife and mother and how they interacted between themselves in the mid 1930's. These views that marriage and motherhood was a woman's main goal in life and the way for her to advance her status is dated as is the approach to personal finance and independence. Peggy is made to feel less of a woman because she can't have children and that she married someone who is unable to provide financially whilst she has her own money that she is told to protect from her husband. Nancy is painted as a bold, brash spinster that has chosen a life as a writer and a traveler as the society of the time doesn't seem to allow for a woman to have both a career and a marriage.

More relatable issues that translate to modern audiences are the response to infidelity and the interaction and relationships between women. Modern women still stay in marriages for financial and family reasons and they still escape marriages out of the feeling of betrayal and reputation. The difference is that whilst it appears that a woman's infidelity seemed to be tolerated as with Sylvia's affair where her husband's was not, modern society has evened the judgment.

The relationship between women is potentially the most relevant aspect of the story to modern audiences as shown in the modern shows on female relationships. THE WOMEN is in a way a 1930's version of Gossip Girl in the manipulation, deceit, backstabbing, and power plays of the upper classes and any venture into a schoolyard will show that a similar behavior plays out with girls across the world.

Whilst THE WOMEN is somewhat dated in some of its concepts it is an interesting look at how society has and has not changed in the last 79 years. This is an amusing play and refreshing to see women represented in theatre as powerful characters.

THE WOMEN

New Theatre

542 King Street, Newtown

11 August - 12 September 2015

To post a comment, you must register and login.