April 22-28, 2004

artpicks

Venus Attacks!

comedy

"Respect the cock and tame the cunt!" -- hardly subtle motivational speaking, especially from the mouth of creepily short Tom Cruise in Magnolia. That crass monologue is flipped for femmes in Venus Attacks!, a sharp de-motivational comedy about "love, sex and self-help." Using "Men may be from Mars, but women rule this planet!" as their calling card, co-creators Debbie Kasper (Roseanne and The Rosie O'Donnell Show staff writer, Emmy nominee) and Sheila Kay (actress and comic, American Comedy Award nominee) assume the pulpit in several parodic roles. We have Carmella Gambino, master of toilet-seat-and-remote-control humor and holder of the key to "awakening your inner bitch." Here to revive your self-esteem is Dr. Simpatico, master of the call-and-response chorus and the phrase "I love me so much I'm my own boyfriend." Also asking for a witness is Zelda Bing, a power-suited, cigarette-toting, thick-glasses-wearing proponent of lowering the standards for marriage because then there's suddenly "men everywhere." Finally, we mustn't forget Dr. Candy Box, a 98-year-old "sex-pert" who espouses this life-extending nugget: "It isn't about communication, it's about fornication." By toying with issues of body image, women's rights and men's wrongs, the seminar spoof finds solace between the sheets and humor in the hymen.

Venus Attacks!, April 22-May 30, $25-$35, Society Hill Playhouse, 507 S. Eighth St., 215-923-0210.

—Andrew Parks