Feminist Law Prof Darren Rosenblum spotted an announcement about a new (really off-Broadway) play in previews in NYC at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in Greenwich Village. The play is “That Pretty Pretty; or The Rape Play.” Here‘s the press announcement:
A fragmented exploration of the dirty things we find irresistible: guns, gals, jello wrestling, war, and tons of profanity.
A pair of radical feminist ex-strippers scour the country on a murderous rampage against right-wing pro-lifers, blogging about their exploits in gruesome detail. Meanwhile, a scruffy screenwriter named Owen tries to bang out his magnum opus in a hotel room as his best friend Rodney (“The Rod”) holds forth on rape and other manly enterprises. When Owen decides to incorporate the strippers into his screenplay, the boundaries of reality begin to blur, and only a visit from Jane Fonda can help keep worlds from blowing apart. Sheila Callaghan’s THAT PRETTY PRETTY; OR, THE RAPE PLAY is a violently funny and disturbing excavation of the dirty corners of our imaginations.
“Rape and other manly enterprises”? Yuck.
One reviewer found aspects of the play clever:
One tiny moment seems to sum up the methodology of That Pretty Pretty for me; it’s not a particularly significant moment in the play but it shows how things work when everything’s working together: in a moment of frustration, with Agnes and with her blog, Val mentally shifts gears. She says “let’s get SUBTEXTY”:and everything changes. The lights turn subtly peach, desert-like; a soundscape of wind and wind chimes comes up; one of the women languidly lights a cigarette and the next few lines of dialogue are fraught with overweight pauses.
Umm…the play’s publicity poster alone makes me NOT want to see it, clever or not.
-Bridget Crawford
