Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Jen Silverman’s COLLECTIVE RAGE is smart, playful, and oh-so-queer

• By drediman
• September 13, 2018
• No Comments

Ana Villafañe and Lea DeLaria in MCC Theater’s production of “Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties” by Jen Silverman at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Last night, MCC Theater’s production of Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties by Jen Silverman opened Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. I hadn’t been familiar with Ms. Silverman’s works in the past, but I was curious to see this piece, as I had read that it had been produced previously at the excellent Woolly Mammoth in Washington, DC, as well as across the pond in London. The play follows the interconnected journeys of five women (all named Betty) as they each make jarring, life-altering queer breakthroughs.

In Collective Rage, Ms. Silverman eschews naturalism in favor of an episodic, boldly stylized aesthetic. It’s a daringly theatrical approach that, in lesser hands – both in writing and execution – has the potential to be excruciatingly pretentious. As it turns out, her play is well-informed, playful, and totally of the moment. Indeed, it rides the current queer-embracing, gender-challenging zeitgeist to sensational effect. She takes one of the musical Kinky Boots’ central tenets (“You can change the world when you change your mind”) and spins it with inspired gusto. Even if the play ultimately doesn’t register as an important piece of playwriting, at a brisk 90 minutes, it’s a hugely entertaining, often hilarious effort that smartly and thankfully refuses to outstay it’s welcome.

As for the production, it’s a smashing one.  As directed by Mike Donahue, Collective Rage is punchy, polished, and unapologetically in-your-face. It also features a quintet of bravura, consistently-toned performances from its all-woman cast. Ana Villafañe (who gave a star-making performance as Gloria Estafan in On Your Feet, a very different show) and Adina Verson as Betty 2 and Betty 3, respectively, were particularly smashing, giving heightened, deliciously satiric performances. But really, the entire ensemble (which also features the likes of the wonderful Lea DeLaria and Dana Delany) – the play really is, to borrow from the play’s title, a “collective” effort – deserves high marks and praise.

RECOMMENDED

COLLECTIVE RAGE: A PLAY IN 5 BETTIES
Off-Broadway, Play
MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through October 7