Word: aili
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...Make a Woman, I should explain, is the story of two women-Mary (Barbara Fleischamann) and Aili (Aili Singer)-who meet in a dress shop, relive their lives in several versions while attempting to choose the right dress (role), and end up, I guess, where a lot of us are now. Mary gives in, for a while at least, smiling and twisting as the men chant, "Pose, Smile. Change," again and again. Aili screams in despair...
...philosophy here is decidedly not anti-male. The emphasis is on women, fucked up and fucked over, but the men.-Joseph Volpe (Wolf) and David Starr Klein (Hunter)-are choosing among equally meaningless roles. At one point when Aili, forced into the role of "Big Mama," urges her husband out of bed and out to work, he protests, "But I went to work yesterday." And when Mary's daddy cheerfully attempts to teach her a song-"Roll me over/ in the clover/ do it again!"-her mother grabs the child away in horror. Daddy tears his hair, crushed...
...AFRAID. It would be so much easier simply to stop now, to choose and be done with it, to leave certain questions unanswered. Aili prods, "Keep going, Mary. Keep going until you know who you are." In the closet, the mannequin (Anne Barclay), an old woman now, with smile frozen, holds up a tattered veil. Frozen stiff with waiting. she holds forth the veil to the younger women; it is their turn to wait. And when He comes, she says, "strangle him with it." One solution...
...niche selection is somewhat limited. however. Though How to Make's protagonists. Mary and Aili. "try on" each of the available roles, every option is so unattractive that there is no real choice invoved. One may be seduced by the securrity of a haven into a life of bored housewifery. Or if power is your game. you may choose the emaculating Big Mama costume. If neither of these appeals, you can give up both power and security with the "loose broad" approach. Even the "enlightened" wife who keeps her career finds that her husband's work takes precedence over hers...
...production at the Caravan Theatre is lean, but not particularly hungry. The set and costumes are functional rather than decorative, and help to build an atmosphere in which the mechanical mass production of women is conceivable. Aili Singer and Barbara Fleischman lead a fine cast, all of whom turn in assured performances in difficult roles...