Of Goddesses And Mere Mortals: A Review of Moxie’s “Eternally Bad”
Article by Rebecca Romani
They’re big! They’re BAD! Men need to fear them! Don’t try this AT HOME!
“Eternally Bad,” Moxie Theatre’s final production in their 10th season, takes on the little known stories of Badass Goddesses in ancient times and retells their tales, reveling in the violence, the jealousies, the pettiness and just plain destructive (self and others) behavior that they engage in to take down the inconvenient, ungrateful and unworthy people- mostly male, in their lives.
At times fun, and buoyed by the fantastic music of Candye Kane, “Eternally Bad,” in a world premiere production, is long on non-stop energy but short on depth.
The cast puts in a valiant effort, but why Moxie, a strong company with sincere feminist leanings, would chose such an uneven production to finish a strong season dedicated to celebrating a decade of woman’s work, is a bit of a puzzle.
One reason might be Comicon. The show’s first week coincided with ComicCon and the script by Javier Velasco is based on the book of the same name by Trina Robbins, one of the first great American female cartoonists. Robbins was at both Comicon this year and the show’s opening night. Robbins’ 2001 book illustrates the larger than life lives of various goddesses and other take-charge women throughout history with irreverent wit and asides. Valesco’s script, on the other hand lists heavily towards sarcasm and repetition. While certain stories, like Isis and Pele are fun, it all follows a predictable pattern: men are (fill in the blank), Y was fantastic ruler/Goddess even though she banished, killed, ate, executed various people (mostly men- yay!).
It’s hard to tell if Velasco understands second wave feminism- which fought for equal pay, reproductive rights and so forth, or understands it so well that he has taken its less attractive elements and satirized them, fleshing out what a man imagines second wave feminists to be.
“Wicked” and “Cellblock Tango” from “Chicago” (“He had it coming, he had it coming all along…”) this isn’t and, frankly, Robbins and her articulate, smart vignettes deserve better.
Another issue with the show is that Velasco, who is also the director, reproduces one of the primary criticisms of second wave feminism (now long past, by the way)- that of speaking for or exoticizing people of color. Over half of the goddesses portrayed belong to non-European cultures: Japanese, Aztec, First Nations, Indian and Hawaiian, and there is hardly a non-White actor in the cast. That and some slightly stereotypical/Orientalized portrayals (the Aztec goddess holds a sombrero, faintly Hollywood American Indian music serves as Bear Woman’s theme music) are disquieting and disheartening since Moxie has done so well with the stories of diverse communities this season. In addition, the pairing of stories with accents is a bit questionable- Navajo Bear Woman as a Borsch belt Diva with a yen for flesh left a bad taste and raises some concerns about intentions.
That said, the actors do well with the action that careens through the play without a break, shifting quickly from story to story. Rae K. Hendersen is a very strong “Maid/others,” clear and sure in her delivery. Devlin and Melissa Fernandes have great timing and vamp well as “Crone/others” and “Earth Mother/others,” although Devlin occasionally came across as a bit forced and over the top gleeful as her characters committed mayhem.
Erik Dugan (“Adonis”) and Michael Parrott (“Guy”) filled in the main male roles and in general handled the register changes well. Parrott was solid, but Dugan seemed a bit off, with movements and delivery suggesting he was either fighting off a bad cold or suddenly perplexed to find himself playing a disdained Adonis and other pretty boys in such a production.
The musical numbers by Candye Kane, a phenomenal local Jazz singer and songwriter, are some of the strongest elements in the show. Bold and well written, her Jazz and Blues infused songs give each story a shape and depth that the acting/writing alone cannot supply. Again, though, execution is key and a number of the voices were simply not strong enough to rise above the pre-recorded instrumental accompaniment or were flat. In addition, Candye Kane’s beautiful bluesy flourishes were done in by singers who don’t have a good command of the idiom.
Visually, the production is also a bit of a mixed bag. In general, the costumes worked well with each story being portrayed, but the initial choice of day dresses with their indifferent cuts and odd color patterns in the open and the end were unfortunate and unflattering, to say the least.
Kristen Flores’ sets were one of the most striking parts of the show. The sets incorporated beautiful stencils of various cultural elements in panels or sections while David Scott’s unexpected video projections provided an intriguing set of visuals of various goddesses, contemporary female figures, buildings and so on.
“Eternally Bad,” raises excellent questions about early portrayals of female entities and how women seem to have been treated in ancient societies. However, the rather old and rather tired trope of men are awful/girl power uber alles is a bit juvenile and wearing to sit through for one hundred minutes.
That’s unfortunate because Moxie has produced a very strong season of premieres with stellar casts, excellent visuals and a superb collaboration between director and script.
Eternally Bad” continues through August 2, 2015. See www.moxietheatre.com for more information on dates and show times.
