The Female of the Species
Writer: Joanna Murray-Smith
Director: Erica Lovell
Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo
November 1 – November 23, 2024
Directed by Erica Lovell, the Old Fitz Theatre’s production of Joanna Murray-Smith’s delightfully wicked The Female of the Species is fast-paced and entertaining. There are laughs a-plenty as the satirical lines and sometimes deliberately farcical situations are delivered by an excellent ensemble cast with panache.
The triggering incident in the play is every celebrity’s nightmare: having their personal life invaded by an admiring but disturbed fan. Margot Mason (a dazzling Lucy Miller), the world-renowned feminist writer, is on the phone to her publisher, about the completion of her current work. Unfortunately, Margot is now suffering severe writer’s block, but this problem quickly goes onto the backburner when a young intruder arrives. Molly Rivers (Jade Fuda) is a former student of Margot’s who at first appears to be overawed at meeting her idol. This admiration though, soon takes a sinister turn. At gunpoint she forces Margot to chain herself to her desk.
Molly’s real objective is to demand answers from Margot. She believes her mother’s reverence for Margot’s feminist ideas led her mother to give Molly away at birth, then commit suicide, clutching a copy of Margot’s famous work. Their ensuing dialogue, with the disturbed student misinterpreting the writer’s bewildered attempts to explain and save herself, are both nail-biting and satirically humorous.
Their tense but comedic dialogue is interrupted by the arrival of Margot’s daughter Tess (Lib Campbell), who it emerges has chosen conventional domesticity as means of avenging herself on her mother’s feminist dictates. She appears to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown caused by her noisy toddlers. Her burnout is so severe that she enters on a long and beautifully performed litany of the woes of a worn-out mother seemingly oblivious to Margot’s danger.
The three female characters are shortly joined by the men in their lives. Each of the men are enmeshed in their own interior dialogue and seem oblivious to the drama of the hostage situation. Tess’s stockbroker husband Bryan (Doron Chester) arrives, searching for his wife who has left the children unattended. Bryan goes off on a hilarious rap-style riff about the inconsistencies in Margot’s work, but as a metrosexual is also happy to don a rose-printed pinafore and serve soup to the company. Next, Bryan’s taxi driver, Frank (Joe Kalou), macho and ripped, wanders in, probably out of sheer curiosity of viewing a famous feminist. Last of all Theo (Mark Lee), Margot’s gay publisher, arrives to query the progress of her latest work. Theo and Margot’s association go back to her early career, leading to one of several surprises at play’s end.
The set (Paris Burrows) beautifully evokes Margot’s country cottage residence, with its backdrop of trees, bird sounds, piles of books and personal bric-a-brac suited to an intellectual workspace. The play’s energetic pace leaves little time to contemplate social change since its writing in 2005, but instead aims at extracting as much comedy from the various characters’ contemporary self-absorption and confusion.
With its exceptional and energetic cast clearly enjoying their roles, this fast-paced production at the Old Fitz is a must-see for its sheer fun and the terrific work of its creative crew.
