Playwright: Rebecca Lenkiewicz. At: Shattered Globe Theatre at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: 773-327-5252; www.shatteredglobe.org; $18-$34. Runs through June 3
The BBC's marvelous 1974 dramatic series, Shoulder to Shoulder, related the history of the women's suffrage movement in Great Britain, the title coming from the marching anthem of the suffragettes. The series later was big hit on PBS. Her Naked Skin acknowledges Shoulder to Shoulder as its inspiration and source, which makes me wonder why it was written. Despite a strong production by Shattered Globe, Her Naked Skin doesn't satisfy as history or as a play about women.
Part of the reason why is that it can't decide what it wants to be. Set in 1913, it begins as a history play about the suffragettes and the repressive reactions of the male-dominated political establishment, all material that the earlier TV series (and book) covered in far more devastating detail and depth. However, the politics quickly disappear as prominent historical figures such as Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and Lord Curzon vanish after two or three scenes.
That leaves Her Naked Skin as a play about women discovering and empowering themselves, and confronting social norms including sexual and sensory experiences. The play's fictional story explores these aspects, set within the history of suffragism.
The central tale tells of fictional suffrage leader Lady Celia Cain and the working-class follower, Eve Douglas, she meets during one of the many brutal imprisonments suffragettes endured (forced feeding, rape, denial of due process). They have a compelling affair but ultimately Lady Celia breaks it off, unable to overcome the ultimate English taboo of choosing a partner beneath one's socioeconomic class. Indeed, both Celia and Eve are victims of their own conventionality, although the play barely touches this aspect. Audiences in the UK (where this play began) would understand this instinctively, but U.S. audiences do not. What makes the play more bittersweet is that Cain also leaves her liberal and supportive husband apparently because he cannot fulfill her physically (after years of marriage and a number of children), something which he ruefully comes to understand.
Shattered Globe has created a powerful physical production with the help of Andrew Hildner's dominating two-story prison set (with nifty hints of lacy Victorian ironwork) and Lindsay Schmeling's good period costumes. The huge cast of 18 is mixed in quality, but the lead performances by Shattered Globe stalwart Linda Reiter (Lady Celia) and Sheila O'Connor (Eve) are quite wonderful (and they both are lovely women, if I may be forgiven a sexist opinion). Tim Newell is persuasive as the unhappy Sir William Cain, who risks his career to defend his wife's name. Under astute director Roger Smart they engage our sympathies, but they cannot knit together the play's various loose ends and subjects.
FYI: British women gained the vote in 1918, two years ahead of U.S. women.
