Playwright: The Cast
At: The Neo-Futurists
Phone: (773) 275-5255: $12
Runs through: June 19
Three times Noelle Krim assembles a stack of large, cardboard blocks, aligning the patterns on different sides to construct portraits of three women. The first portrait is Krim's grandmother, the second is her mother. Krim doesn't introduce them, but the details of her narrative tip us off, and the final portrait of Krim herself confirms the relationship.
Between the block-building, Siri Sonty describes the struggle between traditional culture and being your own, contemporary person. American-born of Asian Indian parents, Sonty escaped the confines of the sari and an arranged marriage, the latter ending with the early death of her husband. 'Do I owe my culture my whole life?' she asks. Her question is echoed by her fellow cast members of different ethnicities, all equally weighed down by what they call the 'collective cultural grandmother.'
If there is a through-line to Inside My Mouth, it's found in the personal histories of Krim and Sonty. By force of facts or tricks of staging, their stories emerge as more compelling than those of their fellow writers and performers, Geneva Gallo and Sharon Greene. Like the polyglot platoon in old WWII movies, they represent a cross-section of female types: married, dating, lesbian with partner and widow, and all 29 years old. Together, they create a collective cultural grand-daughter: a profile—not a full portrait—of the contemporary, liberal, artistic younger woman striving for complete liberation, self-identification and self-acceptance. These self-ware women seem well along the way, with a sense of confidence and pleasure in whom/what they are that is infectious.
As directed (she prefers 'conceived and curated') by Gallo, there are several elements besides Krim's blocks that add theatrical interest, among them clips from Disney classics (Snow White and Sleeping Beauty), snippets of pop songs (String of Pearls, I Enjoy Being A Girl) commenting on the spoken text, and a small amount of fairly painless audience interaction. Dressed in jeans and black tops and casually staged, the women work the speckled floor that bears their names and four big, red sets of kissy lips.
The text offers enough moving and amusing moments to draw one in and keep one's ears alert. With very little that's overtly political, and without strident rhetoric, Inside My Mouth repeatedly contrasts the idealized woman (Disney fairytales) against the conundrums of life, the traditional woman against contemporary reality. Men have little presence in this show, even as dimly reflected images. Inside My Mouth is neither ground-breaking nor profoundly revelatory, but it's definitely entertaining and broadly appealing without self-indulgence.
'I am my mother's art, my father's science,' the women intone. 'I am older than I look, I am stronger than I look. I am ready.' And so is Inside My Mouth.
Also see: www.windycitymediagroup.com/theateropenings.html