Get merry, get naked.
Bras and Beaters
Fergie's Pub
1214 Sansom Street
Fri and Sat, 7 p.m., $10
(215) 413-1318
Odds are high that if you're past puberty, you've been scorned once or twice by the opposite sex. Psychology has taught us a valuable lesson on how individuals handle this matter: if you're a guy, you'll likely drink away your sorrows to oblivion. If you're blessed with the XX chromosomes, you'll bitch and moan to your girlfriends about your woes, self-loathing ultimately consuming you whole. If you fall into the latter category, Bras and Beaters is for you!
As part of the ongoing Fringe Festival, Bras and Beaters is a play starring six unnamed coeds, each with a different problem but united by a common theme -- they're horny and lonely. And when that occurs, people go a little nuts. The characters are conveniently clad in zip-ups and button-downs for their striptease later on, and the only props are five bar stools, some cigarettes and three martini glasses. Showing at Fergie's, a Center City bar brought partially to fame by its owner's foul-mouthed column in Philadelphia Weekly, man-haters can unite for 75 minutes of occasionally witty, sometimes intrusive and generally prosaic monologues. First-time playwright Jamey Collins set out to unveil what makes relationships difficult, but overall wound up simply lamenting the fact that they are. Granted, audiences can relate, and it's inwardly soothing knowing that some people's problems are worse than our own. Still, some insight could have made the play more engrossing.
The characters are typical. The vixen grows tired of casual sex, the virgin fears betrayal, the untrusting good girl frustrated with her boyfriend, and all their male foils; in the end, everyone just wants love. The show revolves around the women, who begin the show bemoaning ex-boyfriends and purging their emotional wreckage to the audience. For most of the performance, the men's presence is mostly to act out their counterparts' complaints. But closer to the end, each character becomes more introspective and less hostile, eventually realizing that love trumps one-night stands and a lifetime of defensive dating. Collins and the actors convey well the feelings of depression, insecurity, jealousy and longing that are often unwelcome intruders into relationships. Attests director Sally Story, "Even though we've been involved in dysfunctional relationships, it's worth it in the end because we grow from them; we go back to them, but we learn."
This is hardly unfamiliar turf for director Story, who says she always incorporates an element of sexual tension in her plays. Rather than employ dialogue to illuminate this strain, Story tried strictly monologue.
"I wanted to try it this way because you can still create that intimacy," Story says. "I think the audience still gets it that they're having a relationship with each other."
There are no scheduled performances after Fringe, but Story wouldn't rule out the possibility.
