House Broken
If a man had written The Domestication of Women he'd be pilloried for misogyny.
The desperate housewives of Desperate Housewives are all about changing their circumstances, but the trapped spouses in Jackie Ruggerio Jacobson's new The Domestication of Women: A Housewares Party in Two Acts, presented by Straw Flower Productions, choose to wallow in despair.
Julie (Gabrielle Corsaro) hosts a "Heart & Home" party — think a Tupperware or Mary Kay-type operation — managed by Lisa (Vivian Appler), a pushy seller determined to recruit Julie and her guests in the company's pyramid. Vicky (Krissy Johnson) covets the status-building goodies she can't afford, butch neighbor Cassandra (Sharon Geller) scoffs at the meaningless materialism, and Elaine (Hannah Tsapatoris) sits shell-shocked, abandoned by her adulterous husband.
At first, Jacobson satirizes a tired target: The ladies "ooh" and "aah" at a wooden bowl as Lisa exclaims, "This changed my life!" Price tags matter more than objects, and the guests brag shamelessly about their bargains. Beneath squealing glee about a crystal napkin holder lurks the strained belief that such gewgaws will create perfect households that their men will treasure.
Elaine's catatonia eventually draws their attention, and ugly truths emerge. Perhaps because of Tsapatoris' palpable agony, we expect the play to focus on her coping with her husband's infidelity, but the second act reveals Julie's flailing efforts to repair her own life by hosting another H & H party in her rearranged living room. ("When I'm going through something really disruptive," she remarks, "I move my couch.") Like the old joke about deck chairs on the Titanic, Julie frantically shifts pillows, trying to shape a harmonious feng shui. As their fragile worlds crumble, the women dive for pastries.
The vision is comic and extreme, but also cliched and bleak. If a man wrote this, he'd be pilloried for misogyny. Though director Jose Aviles wrings powerful performances from a fine cast, none of the characters is likable; all languish in suffocating families with monstrous husbands — except Cassandra, whose "boys," three dogs, eat from plates at her dinner table.
Undeniably entertaining and colorful (Mark Jacobson's set creates a spacious suburban living room in tiny Walnut Studio Five), The Domestication of Women would shock 40 years ago. Today, it just stings.
The Domestication of Women, Through April 7,Straw Flower Productions,Walnut Street Theatre Studio,825 Walnut St., fifth floor, 215-551-3376,www.strawflower.org
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