Now seems to be the precise time for a production of "Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties" Jen Silverman's angry queer play directed by Mike Donahue for the MCC Theatre. The acting is outrageously good. Dana Delaney is the surprise here. Who knew she was one to take on a role in such a play after plum in popular mainstream shows China Beach and Desperate Housewives. She goes full out here as Betty 1, the arguably angriest of the Betties, an UES housewife who falls for her queer black boxing instructor Betty 5, played by Chaunte Wayans (yes of that Wayans family). Lea Delaria (Betty 4), and Anna Villafane (Betty 3) are edgy and sharp as the star-crossed lovers of the play but I think my favorite performance came from Adina Verson as Betty 2, another privileged but decidedly mousier housewife who discovers her vagina. Yes, reader, I did write that. If you are shocked easily by graphic language then I suggest you steer clear of this production which culminates in a loose interpretation of the tinker's play from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," here called variously "Pyramid and Thursday" and, my favorite, "Burmese and Frisbee." Pratfalls and bad behavior ensues. But this is ultimately a play about angry women and what happens when they are pushed to the edge by their partners and society.
It's also the right moment in time to examine the 14th amendment in Heidi Schreck's "What the Constitution Means to Me" at The New York Theatre Workshop. Directed by Oliver Butler and performed by Shreck herself, the play takes us back 30 years to when she made money for college by debating the 14th Amendment at various American Legion halls around the country. The play shifts back and forth from those days to the present as she continues to explore the meaning of the 14th Amendment, finishing with a real time debate with a 15 year old girl (Rosdely Ciprain at the performance I attended). Much food for thought here(did the 14th Amendment originally apply to women and people of color, for instance?). I must also mention Mike Iveson who Schreck essentially uses as a prop until the moment when he is cast into the spotlight to share his experience as an LBGTQ man and stops the show. And did I say mention that you will also be very entertained?
Jonathan Payne's "The Revolving Cycles" at Playwright's Realm directed by Awoye Timpo is an ernest play about racism in America that doesn't hit the mark. Again, as in "Fairview" Jackie Sibblies Drury's much overpraised play at the Soho Rep earlier this year, a playwright breaks the fourth wall and attempts to draw the audience in without earning it. There have been far better plays this year by black playwrights about the black experience in America including Aleshea Harris's "Is God Is" at the Soho Rep and Antoinette Nwandu's "Pass Over" at LTC. Let's acknowledge fine playwriting when we see it and stop giving slaps on the back to playwrights of color for inferior efforts. Two terrific performances keep "Revolving Cycles" afloat, that of Kara Young as Karma, a street kid trying to uncover the mystery of her one-time foster brother's disappearance, and Deonna Bouye shape-shifting in multiple roles.
In "Girl From the North Country" at The Public Theatre, Conor McPherson brings his rural Irish characters and Dylan songs to Duluth, Minnesota during the Depression. The play itself is clunky and forced but the arrangements of the Dylan songs are divine as is the dancing by the ensemble cast with standout performances by Mare Winningham, Jeannette Bayardelle and Todd Almond who delivers a bring-down-the-house interpretation of "Duquesne Whistle." If you love Dylan and don't mind sitting through the labored plot surrounding the songs this may be enough. It wasn't quite enough for me.
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