To the editor: Generally, maybe you simply want a lady to assessment a play written, carried out and directed by ladies.
Charles McNulty is an clever, insightful critic. However he missed the mark in his piece on “Indignant, Raucous, and Shamelessly Attractive” on the Geffen (“‘Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous’ lives up to its title, but the plot lumbers,” June 19). Whereas he perfunctorily praised the actors, set design and manufacturing, he opined it was “hamstrung with exposition” with “sluggish” writing and a plot “like an previous automotive whose engine simply refuses to start out on a chilly winter night.” In doing so, he completely missed the purpose.
The very options he dismisses made the play. It isn’t nearly growing older and intergenerational change “swerv[ing] unexpectedly … right into a cutesy fairy story.” It’s about ladies, on this case Black ladies, who’re pressured to mouth the phrases of males and captively take heed to them whereas being invisible besides as erotic props. So the phrases on this play, spoken by the actors, all have nice which means.
There was not a fairy story ending, however reasonably a tough selection made by a robust older lady to embrace herself whereas empowering and supporting a youthful lady. The viewers understood, as evidenced by its rapt consideration and a standing ovation.
I anticipate most ladies critics would have gotten it. McNulty didn’t.
Vicki Freimann, La Cañada Flintridge
