Not Your Grannys Revolution
Goethe Institut
Remaining Performances: Wednesday, July 22 at 6:15 pm. Thursday, July 23 at 8:00 pm.
They Say: A storytelling play created by Laura Zam (A name to know-The Washington Post) and ensemble cast. What does it mean to be a woman in todays world? Five females find revolution in a Paris tryst, a royal beheading, and fighting AIDS.
Anns Take: Long ago when I was in college, my good friend began embracing the term chick as an appropriate way to describe a new generation of feminism. I think “chick” is a rather brilliant signifier, describing female-specific content that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Plus, this coinage reclaims the word from its more demeaning form (an activity socio-political-activist-types adore). So, at the risk of scaring off male audience members and pissing off old-guard feminists, Ive decided Not Your Grannys Revolution is a chick show—-that is, a show about chicks who have moved past the sensitive diatribes and onto the self-aware humor of personal discovery.
The show features seven vignettes by five female writers/performers, all participants in Laura Zams local solo performance lab. (Zam, though, does not appear in the show; nor do her stories.) While each performers technical ability varies and some pieces are reminiscent of a college Womens Studies open mic, the content is captivating. A common theme of female self-reliance holds the pieces together, but beyond that the stories are wildly different engagement stories, activist stories, childhood stories. No piece grows stale. No piece is self-indulgent. And yes, even men will find them funny.
See it if: You like good stories told by witty women.
Skip it if: You think the theater has enough female voices now that Eve Ensler gave us The Vagina Monologues.