Annika Helgeson, Anita Parrott, and Colleen Edwards Photo by Owen Benfield

"How ill-beseeming is it in thy sex, " he notes, "to triumph, like an Amazonian trull, upon their woes whom fortune captivates."

So perhaps there's a bit of taking back the word intended when playwright/director/co-choreographer Kate Mueth titles her "modern day fairy tale salvaging Shakespeare's women" The She-Wolves.

A 90-minute dance/theatre piece presented by The Neo-Political Cowgirls, incorporating selections from Shakespeare's texts (Emma Tattenbaum-Fine is credited as text consultant and David Kastan as Shakespeare consultant), The She-Wolves is running at the 14th Street Y in repertory with MultiStages' production of Paula Cizmar's January and Eden Theater Company's mounting of D-Davis' Broken Thread. The three women-led companies form a resource-sharing cooperative called Femme Collective.

As depicted by designer Lianne Arnold's projections, the tale is told in the present day on the magical island where Shakespeare set The Tempest. Prospero, Caliban, Miranda and the like are all long gone, and hovering over the land as its rightful goddess is the unsettled spirit of Sycorax, penned by Shakespeare as a woman banished to the lonely island as punishment for practicing sorcery.

In The She-Wolves, Sycorax is played by Mueth as a disembodied voice who informs the audience, who she refers to as Hill Folk, that she's grown weary of her reign and wishes to name a successor from among some of The Bard's most underappreciated women characters.

Upon her summoning, eight of them enter, costumed like embryos by designer Yuka Silvera. They roll, crawl, and eventually emerge from their wrappings in a stylized birthing (Violet Spann is co-choreographer) before engaging in a kind of ritualistic communal ballet. Throughout the performance, they dance to an eclectic mix of music recordings supplied by sound consultant David Brandenburg.

They're introduced in a manner that confirms their patriarchal reputations: Katherina Minola, The Shrew (Anita Parrott); Lady Macbeth, The Witch (Rina Dutta); Ophelia, Breeder of Sinners (Annika Helgeson); Juliet Capulet, Disobedient Wench (Mariama Conde); The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Thief of Love (Shira Kagan-Shafman); Margaret of Anjou, Inhuman Strumpet (Mary Garrett Turner); Lavinia, The Pitiful (Colleen Edwards); and Portia, The Crafty (Vanessa Walters).

The bulk of the piece is a pageant where, after being introduced by the voice of a male MC (Josh Gladstone), who sometimes announces their height and weight, the contestants are offered individual segments to argue their cases before we Hill Folk vote by applause and cheering to select the winner, who will then be granted full agency. The others must return to the ways the playwright created them and much of society sees them.

Though the women all speak primarily in the words Shakespeare penned for them, it appears as though Mueth's intention may be to present their speeches in a more favorable context. Parrott's Katarina rolls her eyes and gives a perfunctory attitude when speaking of the simplicity of women. Conde's hula-hooping Juliet is seen as a free-spirited teenager just wanting to have fun. Helgeson's Ophelia might be mistaken for a free-loving 1960s flower child.

This is the second mounting of The She-Wolves since its premiere at The Neo-Political Cowgirls' resident home at The LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, and, although reviewing press was invited, Mueth made it clear in her pre-show welcome that this production, like many Off-Off Broadway shows, should be taken as a work in progress. (General admission seating in the small theatre is $35, discounted at $25 for 14Y Member/Students/Seniors/Military.)

It's certainly an enjoyable and discussion-worthy night of theatre at this point, featuring strong, committed performances with interesting ideas in staging, choreography and interpretations. The modestly budgeted production values suggest more elaborate opportunities in a higher-profile production.

Perhaps Mueth may want to reconsider how, for reasons I won't spoil, one contestant is given limited time to be featured and another gets none at all. They could be either more fully explored or replaced with characters like Measure For Measure's Isabella or King Lear's Cordelia. But more significant is the playwright's choice to have Portia of The Merchant of Venice's story be presented without any mention of the word Jew. As presented in the pageant, she's rightfully credited for using her intelligence and eloquence to break through sexist limitations, but there's no mention that her successful argument in court further victimizes the oppressed Shylock and rescues his anti-Semitic antagonist.

I look forward to seeing how The She-Wolves develops in future productions and will definitely be on the lookout for more interesting, issue-oriented projects from The Neo-Political Cowgirls.