Women’s issues take stage in two UCI plays

Tom Titus

Women, and the overriding issues that affect their lives, will

take center stage at UC Irvine this weekend and next in back-to-back

plays focusing on the female of the species -- one in a comic vein,

the other a more serious exercise.

Tonight, UC Irvine will open a two-weekend engagement of “Big

Love,” a comedy by Charles Mee with its roots in the writings of the

ancient Greeks. Next Thursday will see women’s issues explored in a

more frightening style, if the title of Amy Bridges’ play is any

indication -- it’s “The Day Maggie Blew Her Head Off.”

“Big Love,” directed by Annie Loui, is described as an audacious

updating of Aeschylus’ “The Suppliant Maidens,” in which 50 unwilling

brides flee their pre-arranged marriage to 50 cousins (although the

UCI cast numbers only 16), finding sanctuary in a sunny Italian

villa.

A safe haven, however, is hard to come by, as the prospective

grooms arrive in hot pursuit. But murder, not marriage, is the game

plan of the fugitive females. The nuptials are derailed by carnage,

mayhem and flying wedding cake.

The play -- containing strong language and nudity -- is billed as

a hilarious battle of the sexes and promises to offer theatergoers a

unique experience.

“I like plays that are not too neat, too finished, too

presentable,” playwright Mee has been quoted as saying. “My plays are

broken, jagged, filled with sharp edges.”

“Big Love” will be staged at 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and at 2

and 8 p.m. Saturdays through Feb. 1 in the Winifred Smith Hall on the

UCI campus. Reservations are being taken at the box office. Call

(949) 824-2787.

“The Day Maggie Blew Her Head Off” earned playwright Bridges the

1997 Edward Albee Play Lab Award in its initial production. It’s

described as a “blistering dark comedy of a young woman’s fatal

struggle with weight and low self-esteem, driven by society’s skewed

standards for the ‘ideal woman.’”

“The message is clear -- women continue to struggle,” director

Teresa Pond said. “Our culture contradicts itself, and the fallout is

tragic. We teach our young girls to reach for the stars, but we do

not give them the tools to find their way there.”

The audience, Pond asserts, will sit “as both witness and judge at

the trial of Maggie’s life. Was she wrong, or was she right? As

cultural representatives of a society at odds with itself as to how

women should be constructed, where do you start -- and, more

importantly, where do you land?”

“The Day Maggie Blew Her Head Off” opens a week from tonight in

UCI’s Studio Theater, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays and

Fridays and at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays through Feb. 8. Reservations

will also be taken at the above box office number.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His

reviews appear Thursdays and Saturdays.