Playwright: Rona Munro
At: Seanachai at Victory Gardens,
2257 N. Lincoln
Phone: ( 773 ) 871-3000; $25-$30
Runs through: May 15
There's a lot to like about director Kimberly Senior's revival of Bold Girls, playwright Rona Munro's tightly focused spotlight on the lives of four women in Belfast, circa 1990. For one, Munro has crafted four distinct, memorable females who burn their essences into our brains; each one is different, each one has a compelling story; and each one makes us care. It's this last fact that wraps us up in their stories. For another, director Senior's direction is, for the most part, subtle and on-target. She has a great ensemble to work with, four actresses who don't just play their parts well, but who inhabit their roles completely, making it difficult to imagine these women have lives outside the microcosm they've created in the tiny Victory Gardens studio space.
Jacquelyn Flaherty is Marie, a decent young woman struggling with meager finances, two young children, and living on memories of a husband who, at best, she has idealized in his absence. Christy Arington gives the necessary spark and sass to her Cassie: promiscuous, full of life and humor, but ultimately desperate, so willing to escape the strife of her West Belfast existence, she will sacrifice contact with her own children. Cassie's mother, Nora ( the always fascinating Wendy Robie ) , older and content with life's small pleasures: redecorating her livingroom, a night out at the pub with her daughter and friends, and so content she is permanently blind to the alternatives life might offer. And then there's Deirdre ( Amanda Putnam, appropriately enigmatic, conflicted, and spooky ) , a wayward and lost 16-year-old whose knowledge of the secrets of these other three women threatens to unravel them.
In spite of its socio-political trappings, Bold Girls is really little more than a tarted-up soap opera, an Irish East Enders with some bite and fanciful flourishes ( and these flourishes, such as Deirdre's lyrical speeches from behind a scrim, tend to detract rather than add to the atmosphere and plot arc ) . But that's not such a bad thing. A good soap opera with strong characterization, a forward moving plot, and some surprising revelations ( i.e. drama ) can make for an evening of powerful entertainment.
And powerful entertainment is just what the Seanachai Theatre Company delivers here. With Bold Girls—and its excellent acting and inspired creative touches—you're not just witnessing a play, you're immersing yourself in it. You forget the world rushing by outside on Lincoln Avenue and you get caught up in the lives of four very sympathetic women who, like many of us, make the best of a world filled with disappointments and dashed dreams. In the end, Bold Girls doesn't really need its Belfast trappings, because it's a story about connection between people anywhere … how those connections are lost, and the part that forgiveness and growth play in forging new ones.