Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Challenging notions of feminism and camp, respectively, in Eric Marlin’s WHAT A WORLD! WHAT A WORLD! and Melissa Maney’s HUNGRY WOMEN

• By drediman
• July 29, 2026
• No Comments

Currently Off-Broadway, you’ll find a pair of scrappy plays that endeavor to challenge pre-existing notions, namely of, respectively, camp and feminism. These would be Eric Marlin’s What a World! What a World! at The Tank and Melissa Maney’s Hungry Women at SoHo Playhouse. As always, read on for my further thoughts on these investigative new works, both of which give audience members welcome food for thought during the dog summer days.

WHAT A WORLD! WHAT A WORLD!
The Tank
Through August 2

Currently at the theatrical incubator that is The Tank, you’ll find the new two-hander What a World! What a World! (RECOMMENDED). Written by Eric Marlin, the play is a decidedly avant-garde investigation into the merits of the 1943 melodrama The Pearl of My Oyster, a film that seems to get increasingly absurd the more you learn about it. As seen through the eyes of a queer couple — who watch and re-enact passages from the movie — the play transcends the film, becoming a rigorous study on the nature of obsession and camp in a world where things are becoming less and less tangible. In the play, Marlin seems to be asking — why spend the time focusing on the slippery truth and dire life realities when you can indulge in your own capacity for escapism (Benedict Andrew’s biting adaptation of Jean Genet’s The Maids asked the same question)? As the queer couple, Queen-Tiye Akamefula and Annie Hoeg exude confidence and play off each other with trust and intelligence. Although their pacing could use a bit more rapid fire exhilaration, their depiction of the duo’s shifting power dynamics brings compelling dramatic tension to what otherwise could have been a dry intellectual exercise. They also acquit themselves admirably to the demands of the play as a piece of physical theater. If anything, the performers and the playwright take clear inspiration from the surreal works of Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland — who were recently seen Off-Broadway in Ars Nova’s production of And Then the Rodeo Burned Down — but without their clowning-inspired antics. And as deceptively directed by Ilana Khanin, What a World! What a World! unfolds with precision and genuine curiosity.

HUNGRY WOMEN
SoHo Playhouse
Through August 30

A little more straightforward and predictable is Melissa Maney’s new play Hungry Women (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED) over at the prolific and historic SoHo Playhouse. In short, the dark comedy — the winner of last year’s SoHo Playhouse Lighthouse Series — is an examination of feminism in a speculative alternate universe without the presence of men, essentially posing the question of what it mean to be a woman in the absence of men. More specifically, Maney imagines a past where the men are mysteriously killed off, a present in which the memory of them is fast fading, and a future that has formed its own systems of oppression. Throughout, there’s an overarching sense of history repeating and contradicting itself. Although the questions asked are worth asking, the play unfortunately only superficially touches upon the role of feminism — and by extension, queerness and heteronormative tendencies — in such a reality. Even its stabs at absurdity doesn’t quite have the same jarring bite as What a World! What a World! As it currently stands, Hungry Women comes across more as “what if” sketch scenarios rather than fully realized worlds (a part of me thinks it would work better as a radio play?). The play is most successful when it shifts to a more sensationalist mode (e.g., cannibalism and a seance play key roles), similar to what can be found in cautionary television shows like The Handmaid’s Tale and Black Mirror. Although advertised as being led by Julia Lester (a Tony-nominee for the last Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods), the piece is very much an ensemble piece. Lester is joined by Zoe Dean, Mariyea, and Sophie Zmorrod, and together they bring personality and life to the production, which has been resourcefully directed by Daniella Caggiano.