Review: Delightfully Absurd COLLECTIVE RAGE: A PLAY IN FIVE BOOPS Premieres at Woolly Mammoth

The world premiere of Jen Silverman's COLLECTIVE RAGE: A PLAY IN FIVE BOOPS kicks off Woolly Mammoth's season with a perfect balance between the really absurd and the absurdly real. Directed by Mike Donahue, it's the story of five very different women. All are named Betty Boop, and all are female archetypes fighting against their own oppressive forces.

Silverman drew her inspiration from the original Betty Boop, an exaggerated, cartoon woman held captive by the desire of heterosexual males. The Bettys in COLLECTIVE RAGE start out this way too, but become more powerful as they encounter and interact with each other, united in the cause of producing a play within the play.

The subtitle of COLLECTIVE RAGE offers a further explanation of what audiences have in store: "IN ESSENCE, A QUEER AND OCCASIONALLY HAZARDOUS EXPLORATION; DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL AND YOU READ ABOUT SHACKLETON AND HOW HE EXPLORED THE ANTARCTIC?; IMAGINE THE ANTARCTIC AS A PUSSY AND IT'S SORT OF LIKE THAT". The transitions between scenes are projected, all-caps phrases like this that prepare us for the Bettys' next antics, set to music and sounds that propel the story forward (music by Daniel Kluger and sound design by Thomas Sowers).

All five Bettys give striking and relatable performances, diverse in their representations of race, gender, class, and sexuality. Beth Hylton is utterly believable as Betty 1, an enraged Upper East Side housewife with a cheating husband. Dorea Schmidt is the highlight as Betty 2, a wallflower limited at first in every way by her boring husband, dowdy attire, and lack of friends. Her dramatic transformation is thrilling to behold, and Schmidt's delivery of one funny, emotional monologue about lions alone makes this worth seeing.

Natascia Diaz is inspired as sassy, glamorous Betty 3, who decides to quit her mind-numbing job at Sephora in order to become rich and famous. Betty 3's childhood friend Betty 4, played with emotional authenticity by Kate Rigg, tries to be supportive as she works on her truck and deals with the constant change surrounding her. Fresh out of prison and working on her own truck is Betty 5, a tattooed boxing gym trainer played by the memorable Felicia Curry.

Costumes by Kelsey Hunt border on caricature, providing instant clues about the characters' backgrounds and then adding and subtracting clues as the characters develop. For most of the play, the set (designed by Dane Laffrey) is shallow, bright, and devoid of all but the most necessary props. A fully enclosed space with doors built into the walls, this is the limited, claustrophobic world the Bettys inhabit, until some visually delightful surprises near the end that echo the chaotic turn of the plot. Some amusing, poetic moments also occur to emphasize the absurdity, perhaps by accident: a large poster of a faux red carpet comes down at the corners at just the right time; a piece of confetti gets stuck on Betty 2's foot and she delicately removes it; and as curtains close, the small head of an inflatable giraffe is caught in between.

The Bettys' play-within-a-play leads to commentary on the nature of fame and celebrity, and the true definition of "culture", piled on top of fascinating meditations on femininity, power, and societal expectations. The presentation of such sweeping ideas could easily have come off as highbrow and stifling, but the audience is in on every joke in this ironic version of the world we already live in. As the Bettys gain autonomy, we gain insight - through both laughter and tears.

Running time: approximately 1 hour 45 minutes, without an intermission.

COLLECTIVE RAGE: A PLAY IN FIVE BOOPS runs through October 9, 2016, at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 641 D Street NW, Washington, DC 20004. Tickets can be purchased at woollymammoth.net or by calling (202) 393-3939.

Photo: cast of COLLECTIVE RAGE: A PLAY IN FIVE BOOPS; courtesy of Woolly Mammoth.

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