Body Shaming and Self Image

Women Laughing Alone With Salad – Theatre Wit

 

This unabashed comedy by Sheila Callaghan is raw, ruthless and revolutionary. It aims its pointed wit at all sorts of targets: women with other women, women with men, men with men and mothers with their sons. It also tackles corporate America, the pharmaceutical industry, body shaming, self image and the ever-present diet craze. It is, quite simply, a little over two hours of very adult humor, spot-on observations, complete nudity, explicit wild sex and just about something for everyone. It’s a hoot!

Ms. Callaghan’s satirical play began at LA’s Center Theater Group, as part of their Writer’s Workshop. It was later developed more fully at Washington D.C.’s  Woolly Mammoth Theater Company. The idea for this comedy was inspired by 18 photographs posted by Edith Zimmerman at “The Hairpin,” a feminist internet blog. It featured a collection of absurdly funny advertising photos that pictured lovely, lithe young women, sitting by themselves, enthusiastically enjoying their plates of tossed greens. Looking at these pictures, one would think that women, when left on their own, find such jubilation in eating a dish of vegetables that they simply have to burst out laughing.

This irreverent comedy is brilliantly directed at Theater Wit by Devon de Mayo (“The Burn” at Steppenwolf, “Harvey” at the Court), in its Chicago premiere. She’s strongly supported by Arnel Sancianco’s, sleek, sparse and stylish scenic design, dominated by gorgeous, eye-boggling projections by Joseph A. Burke, superb lighting by Heather Gilbert and a joyful sound design by Shain Longbehn. Mieka van der Ploeg has worked her usual magic, designing costumes that add a new dimension to each character, particularly in Act II; and Jesse Gaffney meets the production’s unusual property demands, particularly in creating all things mixed green. Add to this, some expert violence and intimacy choreography by Rachel Flesher and you have a production that’s a must-see.

Ms. de Mayo’s cast is topnotch. Each actor is terrifically talented, blessed with great comic timing and thoroughly likable. In addition, the quartet relate so well to each other in every scene. The salad-munching ladies are played by Jennifer Engstrom, as sardonic Sandy, Guy’s image-obsessed mother; Echaka Agba, as the gregarious, voluptuous Meredith; and Daniella Pereira, as sylphlike physical fitness devotee, Tori. Japhet Balaban is equally impressive, both as studly man’s man, Guy, and as the the tough-as-nails female foreperson of the pharmaceutical company.   

Callaghan’s comedy opens with three women entering to the buoyant beat of the soundtrack. Each actress carries a bowl of salad. Together they share a park bench where they wordlessly savor their greens with much relish. The ladies prance, pose and preen seductively, eventually laughing at how ludicrous they they look. Behind them, photos of gorgeous models eating salads flash across three giant LED panels, and the actresses mimic and mock these images.

 Then a handsome young man enters the scene, breaking the women’s reverie with his loud cellphone argument. The women eventually drive him away with their shrieks of laughter, and the scene shifts to a disco. Guy, a horny young man, is there in search of sex. His interest is piqued by Meredith, a sensual, buxom young woman who’s very confident and secure with who she is at this moment in time. After an initial failed attempt at seduction, Guy finally entices Meredith to join him at his apartment for a menage a trios with his live-in girlfriend, the very slender Tori. The boisterous sexual encounter ends with the women wrestling around the stage. 

We also meet Sandy, Guy’s wealthy, divorced mother. She’s so obsessed with maintaining her youth and style that she goes to obscene lengths to achieve both. The audience soon comes to understand why Guy hates this materialistic, narcissistic woman so much as, through their arguing, we learn about the history of an aggressive mother and her spoiled son.

In the second act, Sheila Callaghan flips around the whole picture. In the corporate conference room, the three actresses now play mad men in the advertising division of a pharmaceutical company. The lone actor is costumed in serious drag as their coldhearted female manager. This turnabout allows the playwright to lampoon men, just as she did the women in the first act. Here she satirizes the unbelievable lengths to which advertisers will go to sell their product. In this case it’s some kind of magical medication that will make women become perfect, flawless females. During the guys’ ad presentation, photos of women flood the screens, depicting svelte ladies stuffing salad into their mouths; an now we’ve come full circle in this hilarious send-up about gender, body shaming and self image. 

The laughter never stops in Sheila Callaghan’s irreverent satire. With her quiver filled with poison arrows she takes careful aim at both genders and skewers every cliche about sexual stereotypes and self-image. At the same time Ms. Callaghan lampoons the out-of-control advertising industry that keeps perpetuating these myths and expectations. Devon de Mayo’s production is smart, candid, courageous and filled with surprises. This perky, polished, professionally-presented presentation is intended for adult, liberal-minded audiences who enjoy laughing and being enlightened.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas  

                     

Presented March 9-April 29 by Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago.

Tickets are available at the box office, by calling 773-975-8150 or by going to www.theaterwit.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.