Fringe Festival 2007, Circa Theatre
March 4 | Reviewed by Helen Sims

THE THEATRE Artists Charitable Trust (TACT) sponsored this one-off rehearsed reading of Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith’s new play Female of the Species. Circa 2 theatre was about three quarters full with an audience consisting mostly of theatre writers, actors and directors. Susan Wilson and six local actors had spent a day and a half rehearsing the play, with some input from Murray-Smith. Production elements were kept to a minimum in order to concentrate attention on the text of the play, whilst still allowing the audience to see it in the context of a performance. This was an introduction to Murray-Smith’s work for me, and I came away with an appreciation of her as an intelligent and witty writer.

The play drew its inspiration from the home invasion of Germaine Greer’s country home. The central character is Margot Mason (played by Donna Akersten), a stalwart of the feminist movement and highly successful writer of feminist books with titles such as “The Cerebral Vagina”. She is trying to churn out her latest book seriously behind deadline when she is interrupted by an intense young woman, Molly (Holly Shanahan) who professes to be a huge fan of her work. They talk for a while, but when Margot tries to usher Molly out the door she pulls a gun on her and takes her hostage. Declaring that Margot and her books are the source of her life’s considerable woes and her own mental confusion, Molly announces her intention to shoot Margot. Margot manages to delay her by talking – something that she has a great talent for.

Beginning with Margot’s daughter, the downtrodden housewife Tess (Michelle Amas), who is a great disappointment to her mother, several other characters unwittingly enter the hostage drama. They all find themselves siding with Molly against Margot. They also all present a different perspective on the modern place of feminism within their lives. The most hilarious account is probably that of Bryan, Tess’s well meaning but dull headed husband. Gavin Rutherford is hilarious as Bryan – it’s hard to believe he only had just over a day to prepare for this role as his comic timing is perfect. Jamie McCaskill and Peter Vere Jones make late entries into the piece as Frank the taxi driver and Margot’s publisher respectively. All of the cast were superb and relaxed with the piece, drawing out the comedy and keeping the play moving forward at a brisk pace.

Murray-Smith cleverly manages to explore her themes without the piece becoming too polemical. Second wave feminism and female relationships are the major themes; but there is also an interesting exploration of the social function of the writer and their relationship with their audience, especially when they send out mixed messages, as Greer has over her career. Except for Margot, all of the characters express frustration and confusion as to the impact of the second wave feminist movement and its transformation into an “industry” upon their lives. The range of perspectives offered are not reconciled, perhaps reflecting the fact that feminism is now a very fragmented ideology. Margot ponders the existence of a third wave of feminism having emerged, but most of the concentration is upon the impacts of the second wave of the late 1960s on this disparate group of characters.

The conclusion of the play felt a little too convenient in terms of diffusing the central conflict, and left most of the subsidiary ones hanging. A final twist at the end of the play was also a little contrived – the audience response was to laugh and I don’t feel that this was what the writer intended – instead of being a symbolic self–dealt death blow to second wave feminism the audience was just glad to see the old bag go. However, this is a highly entertaining and clever play and I would be glad to see a theatre in Wellington mount a full scale production of it in the near future. The play reading exercise is a valuable (and often very cheap) way to see emerging works. I hope it is continued and expanded.