Hip Shot: ‘Not Your Granny’s Revolution’
Not Your Granny’s Revolution
Goethe Institut
Remaining Performances: Wednesday, July 22 at 6:15 pm. Thursday, July 23 at 8:00 pm.
They Say: A storytelling play created by Laura Zam (“A name to know”-The Washington Post) and ensemble cast. What does it mean to be a woman in today’s world? Five females find revolution in a Paris tryst, a royal beheading, and fighting AIDS.
Ann’s Take: Long ago when I was in college, my good friend began embracing the term “chick” as an appropriate way to describe a new generation of feminism. I think “chick” is a rather brilliant signifier, describing female-specific content that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Plus, this coinage reclaims the word from its more demeaning form (an activity socio-political-activist-types adore). So, at the risk of scaring off male audience members and pissing off old-guard feminists, I’ve decided Not Your Granny’s Revolution is a chick show—that is, a show about chicks who have moved past the sensitive diatribes and onto the self-aware humor of personal discovery.
The show features seven vignettes by five female writers/performers, all participants in Laura Zam’s local solo performance lab. (Zam, though, does not appear in the show; nor do her stories.) While each performer’s technical ability varies and some pieces are reminiscent of a college Women’s Studies open mic, the content is captivating. A common theme of female self-reliance holds the pieces together, but beyond that the stories are wildly different – engagement stories, activist stories, childhood stories. No piece grows stale. No piece is self-indulgent. And yes, even men will find them funny.
See it if: You like good stories told by witty women.
Skip it if: You think the theater has enough female voices now that Eve Ensler gave us The Vagina Monologues.
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3:06 am
I was really touched by this show (and I have a Y chromosome) and would even go as far to say it’s a Fringe highlight.
I think Fringe needs to create a category for “Storytelling” because work like this doesn’t fit neatly into Comedy, Drama, Dance, Experimental, Musical or Solo (for Best of Fringe voting, at any rate).
I agree with Ann, this is post-feminism, in the sense that it’s by women and about women (but it didn’t make us men feel uncomfortable…
I just don’t get the title.