  The
Women By
Sheila Barth Some
plays never lose their poignancy or
relevance. Such is the case
with Clare
Boothe Luce's biting satire "The
Women," which last
appeared on Broadway in 1936 and has reappeared throughout the years on stages globally. and as a hit movie. There have been several
spin-offs
of this 2-1/2-hour social satire,
but the
original remains the
queen of female cattiness.
But don't get the idea'
this play is
for women only. Men also
enjoy it and laugh heartily. Award-winning
director Scott Edmiston,
who has directed several
plays at Gloucester
Stage Co. and elsewhere,
has done a
great job conveying in
full measure what Clare
Boothe Luce
intended - the back-stabbing,
hair-pulling, gossiping, immoral,
egotistical practices of
leisurely
wealthy women and their battle to control, retain their husbands and maneuver around their husbands' infidelities. It's
also the social
transition of woman from marital
subservience -- from blue collar to blue blood -- to modern womanhood, verbalizing independence
and winding up - gasp! --at the
divorce ranch in Reno
These women play Bridge, patronize salons and health spas, dye and perm their hair, get manicures, air their furs and diamonds at lunch, and deliciously gossip about each other, spreading rumors to ensure they reach gossip columnists like Walter Winchell. Their pseudo-friendly sarcasm is biting, stabbing. They pretend to protect their friend from harm's ear after reveling in manicurist's and salesgirls' gossip about whose husband is "keeping" a tasty, perfume saleswoman from Sax or a chorus girl, yet gleefully let it slip out for wider circulation. Instead
of stereotypes, "The Women" has interesting, finely defined
characters. Mary Haines, played
well by
Anne Gottlieb, is a wealthy
mother
of two who is confident in her husband's
love, only to become shaken by the news that he's keeping a
young blonde salesgirl. Sylvia, (Maureen
Keiller) has a lethal
tongue that lashes at her friends
while indulging m self-praise
(she's considered best dressed
on Fifth
Avenue and in the local
gossip
columns), and she secretly has a young lover. Pretty,
money-grasping, immoral
salesgirl
Crystal Allen (Georgia Lyman)
dug her
claws into Mary's husband
and won
him; aging Countess de
Lage (Mary .Klug), who has been
married three, four or
five times
(who's
counting)?, is ditsy
and provides comic relief; sweet,
newly-marred Leggy (Aimee
Doherty) adores
her frugal husband, and
became enmeshed with
these socialites; and ever-pregnant,
heavyset Edith Potter (Kerry A. Dowling) constantly complains,
shamelessly dislikes her infants and
giving
birth - but retains her
husband by
doing so. Satiric author Nancy Blake, played sharply by Nancy E, Carroll, is single, observes, interacts, intercedes and narrates. Character actress Ellen Colton portraying three characters -- gossip-mongering manicurist Olga, Reno divorce ranch manager Lucy, and a wealthy dowager -- is fun overall, and Alice Duffy, as Mary's doting; understanding mother, Mrs. Morehead, is delightful. The
entirely female cast of
20, including
little Sophie Rich as Mary's
little daughter, give solid performances.
Their
roles are strong and
must be portrayed with precise timing,
vituperative spouting, hair-pulling,
name-calling, back-stabbing: candor; laced with . humor, and they do dust fine. They
remind women
why they never trusted their best friend meeting
their beaux,
or sharing
real secrets with
friends, for fear
of
hearing it
on
the grapevine
in no time. That's
the way it was to
Clare
Boothe Luce's day, and it
obviously
hasn't changed, judging from
the audience's enthusiastic applause.
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