The Female of the Species (Joanna Murray-Smith)
At first blush Female of the Species bares a lot of resemblance to Eureka Day, a play I wrote about earlier this month: they both satirize a traditional liberal environment/mindset (in this case Feminist personalities,) and they both deal with themes that after their publishing would come to be far more associated with the political right rather than the left, and despite that fact they both are arguably apolitical.
What I mean by that is that neither play is making a political argument, but the audience can easily put one on it if they wish too.
Both plays are extraordinarily funny, both are largely traditional plays (although Eureka Day uses a technological innovation to great effect,) and both feature complex characters. Given these similarities it is perhaps surprising that while I only admired Eureka Day, I love Female of the Species.
At the top of Murray-Smith’s play we’re introduced to Margot Manson, a famous and celebrated feminist author and thinker caught by writer’s block after decades of being on top. She’s soon visited by Molly, a stranger (she thinks,) who spends some time puffing her up before handcuffing Margot to a desk and revealing her true intentions to kill Margot in retribution.
Retribution for what? This is where the interesting political allegory comes in: Molly believes that Margot has been irresponsible in spouting off all of her ideas to an impressionable public: Margot’s writing encouraged Molly’s mother to abandon her (In one book Margot says that women should be mothers, in a later book she says women should let go of their children if they’re unhappy and go find themselves,) then Molly neutered herself because Margot said “procreation is genetic masturbation”, and finally Molly dropped out of school after slaving away on an essay only to be told by Margot (who doesn’t remember this incident at all,) that she has no talent. (and unsurprisingly Margot has little positive to say about leading an average life.)
All of this adds up to a thesis stated plainly in the text that Margot, and people like her, court celebrity by saying incendiary things, but take no responsibility for people who act on what they say. Just like we saw Alex Jones do recently in his court cases, Margot feebly insists that no one would take what she said seriously, that she had to exaggerate to get her point across, that it’s not her fault if other people react to her.
And that is interesting in and of itself, but the play hardly rests on that, because this isn’t a dry intellectual exercise of the danger of dying by one’s sword, but is instead a fantastically funny, fast, exciting romp of a show. Even while chained to a desk Margot continues to puzzle out titles for her next book. Even while trying to command respect Molly gets distracted by delivering a tirade to Bryan who she perceives as being anti-feminist.
Who’s Bryan? Well, like any great show The Female of the Species continues to pile on problems for Margot (and Molly,) by an increasing number of people entering the room and not helping Margot escape. First there’s her daughter, Tess, who looks like she might defeat Molly before it’s revealed that Margot called her a waste of talent and a mediocrity, then Tess’s dimwitted husband comes in and tries to get Tess to come home, and that’s only the beginning.
By the end of the show we’ve seen feminists, post-feminists, anti-feminists, bystanders, and people just trying to make a buck on outrage. Everything ends as it always must: with people pacified by the promise of money and fame, playing all angles of the strife we’ve just bared witness too.
As a Producer
This is exactly the show we’re looking for: social satire, wickedly funny, not terribly expensive to produce. It’s also the first show of the year that I feel I could quickly cast from the people in Houston, so that’s a plus.
As a Designer
We’ve ignored the designer side of things for a bit, but this show gives a lot of opportunity, especially for props who has to make an entire bookshelf of Margot’s published works.
As a Writer
Let’s return to the question of why I love this play and not Eureka Day. Both are smart, funny plays, but The Female of the Species allows everyone to be irrational and unlikeable while trusting the audience to connect with the charisma of the actors. All of the characters are thoroughly exasperating, throughout the play everyone’s virtues turn to vices, but everyone is so ridiculous that it never wears on one’s nerves.
I don’t frequently shy away from my character’s rotten sides, but I think this is a good example, like the show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, that we often show humanity best by showing it at its worst.
