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Faithless Bitches at the Courtyard Theatre |
Post-porn stars go into Bitch battle
FAITHLESS BITCHES
Courtyard Theatre
FAITHLESS Bitches is billed as a “post-post-feminist romp”.
If post-feminists object to the monolithic, man-hating tendencies of the preceding generation, then presumably post-post-feminists object to this objection. Unfortunately the writing of Harold Finley and Dave Turpin is guided more by their romper impulses than by their thoughts on this ideological spat, and the result is an entertaining but absentminded piece of theatre.
We begin at the graveside of Chesty, a notorious porn star whose nipples protrude through the top of her coffin. The funeral culminates in a sword fight between Monique Masters and Pamela Fairchild, two warring actors looking for promotion into the Hollywood mainstream.
Pamela’s hatred of Monique deepens when the latter is given a part in Tinseltown production Faithless Bitches, and it is mainly this rivalry that propels the play to its gun-toting climax. The acting ability, however, is in the supporting cast: in Nils Hognestad’s louche Rocky de Palma and Lou Harvey’s portrayal of the producer, Debby Blake.
The construction of the piece robs the premise of its dramatic appeal. We are not given the opportunity to see Pamela’s jealous hatred of Monique develop because it is already there in scene one, albeit for personal rather than professional reasons at this point. In the course of the play we move from Monique and Pamela fighting with rods (opening scene) to Monique and Pamela fighting with guns (closing scene), and that is a technological rather than a dramatic progression. Indeed, since it is revealed by the end of the play that almost every character has a gun, we might wonder why people don’t start popping caps at each other over Chesty’s mortified nipples, and cut the next hour and a half.
Clearly this is intended to be a frolicking, spoofy piece. It is not a great example of its genre because although the jokes are sometimes smart, the action and the comedy do not coincide. Nonetheless, some of the lines might still raise a good laugh played to an audience who accept the play as more of a pantomime.
Faithless Bitches is at its best when the writers give the characters some room to weave their own destruction. In the most accomplished scene, Debby’s disinterest in the production ideas of Ricardo Queintes is suddenly reversed when he accidentally mentions his scandalous, and in Debby’s opinion highly marketable private life. Realising that Debby plans to publicise his personal difficulties, Ricardo desperately scrambles to escape her moneymaking machine.
The business at which he excels – the commodification of intimacy – is turned against him in what could with a bit more work be a captivating and comic downfall.
Until December 6
0870 163 0717 |
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