Playwright Laura Cunningham's razor-sharp ear for dialogue carries the whole thing along like a breeze. How these very different women were drawn to each other in the first place is a mystery worthy of a prequel, but the fact that their friendship is ancient is beyond question. All are drawn in meticulous detail, from the uppity, graceless Martha (Heidi Howell), who uses "condo" as a verb, to the rough-talking redhead Nina (Lindsay Doleshal, also the director), who talks about that afternoon's sexcapades with her Jewish Buddhist-monk neighbor. But Beautiful Bodies, in addition to being a non-pandering meditation on womanhood and the disputable virtue of playing it safe, is also a smart, satisfying story about one of those nights when all the huge secrets get spilled and all the stale air gets cleared.Įach character enters the scene a stereotype - the neurotic actress, the mannerless yuppie, the depressed model - and emerges, at the end of the second act, both sympathetic and fascinating. Plays exclusively by and of girls can often seem like they're also only for girls, and preaching to the converted at that. As in Claire Boothe Luce's classic play and film The Women (whose wry, witty spirit is evoked here), men appear only as topics of conversation and offstage (e.g., on the phone). All are in a state of turmoil, with boyfriends being sought and dumped, careers soaring and floundering, and biological clocks ticking to beat the band.
The premise: Six thirtysomething women gather for a baby shower at a New York apartment. This is the Propaganda Troop's first production, and it is a hell of a debut.
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