Perhaps we must read Adrienne Rich or Andrea Dworkin or Alice Walker to realize how pervasively degrading, angry and punitive attitudes towards women persist. We don’t notice because we’re submerged from the onset. We don’t think to look for it. Once I honked to wave at a friend of mine (walking by herself) to get her attention. It never occurred to me she might have had ugly experiences from strangers. I was woke. The differences in our experience was made sadly, horribly clear.
When we enter the theater for Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., the space overpowers with bright white. Everything: chairs, walls, floor, steps, is brilliant white. Illumination? Starting from scratch? Emptiness? Playwright Alice Birch takes us through scenarios that illustrate the tilted dynamics between men and women. In the first, the female sexual partner wants to take on the role as aggressor, in the next, a dedicated employee wants to have Mondays off (her boss keeps wanting to make it about her gender) in the next, a woman lies down in the grocery aisle, dress up over head, genitals exposed. She explains she’d rather capitulate to the objectification of her body, rather than have the privilege taken by force. Though not in those words. What begins as nearly comical morphs into the desolate and grotesque. Birch gives us just enough information to pique and engage us.
We might look upon Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. as a succession of dialogues and soliloquy that examine components of what it means to be female in relation to men and other women. Perhaps an attempt at reverse indoctrination. Motherhood, for example, can be used as a kind of oppression if it’s not what a woman needs in her path to fulfillment. In a particularly heartbreaking passage we gather the grandmother/mother feels no need to claim maternity as part of her identity. Bearing children doesn’t work for all women. Women aren’t obliged to consider their destiny in terms of some debt to society.
As we might ascertain from the title, this call to arms is a somewhat cerebral anarchy. It presents situations intelligently, often with somber irony. It has a 70’s feel (appropriately enough) and its grievances are carefully, skillfully presented, with dry rage. There are slide titles, red lights, sirens, bells, culminating in a chaotic, stream-of-consciousness jeremiad, expressing intense brokenness and confusion. As a whole the show is beguiling, troubling, provocative, though perhaps not as integrated as we might hope. We arrive expecting urgency, but at the core it feels more calm.
The cast of four women and one man (Christie Vela, Jenny Ledel, Max Hartman, Lydia Mackay and Tia Laulusa) directed by Vela, are fearless and bring spontaneity and wit to this unorthodox reflection on hubris, the patriarchy, female identity and wasted purpose. The script (as discussed at the Talk Back) left much to the discretion of the venue, and STT’s Revolt felt quite authentic and poignant as they sorted out the shape, logistics and personal truths of the piece.
Second Thought Theatre presents: Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. Playing August 22nd-September 15th, 2018. Bryant Hall. 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd, Dallas, Texas 75219. 1-866) 811-4111. info@secondthoughttheatre.com