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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. Women Laughing Alone with Salad Also see Susan's review of Hay Fever
The inspiration behind Women Laughing Alone with Salad was a blog post of the same name that showed a series of stock photos of comfortably dressed women smiling or laughing as they hold bowls of salad. Callaghan begins her play with a scene of three diverse women (Gilbert, Meghan Reardon, Janet Ulrich Brooks) sitting together on a park bench, each with her own salad bowl, laughing uncontrollably. The playwright uses the image of women enjoying salads as a gateway into society's ideals of women. She begins with the idea that women who eat salad are happy, healthy, and desirable—unlike those selfish, unattractive woman who would rather eat dessert—and drives it to hilarious, absurd, unsettling heights. Generously proportioned Meredith (Gilbert) yearns for satisfaction of body and soul in a world where the images she sees depict women as thin, conventionally beautiful, and happy with their salads. Slender, blonde Tori (Reardon) would appear to fit the mold, but her exasperated boyfriend Guy (Thomas Keegan) sees the strain that goes into her maintaining the façade. And then there's Sandy (Brooks), Guy's mother, who was a political activist in her younger years but now devotes all her efforts to radical anti-aging techniques. That's about all the audience should know going in. Callaghan's insights shoot out from unexpected places, with the impact of Fagan's direction intensified by Melanie George's choreography and Joe Isenberg's fight choreography. Jared Mezzocchi's video designs also add measurably to the sense of disorientation. The play is one of 50 new works by women playwrights being showcased by professional theaters in the Washington metropolitan area through the Women's Voices Theater Festival. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
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