My overall impression
As a fan of the real-life backlash to the real-life product detailed in this play, I was excited to see what the Crooked Heart team would do in its exploration of “Bic For Her.”
The four characters at the imagined focus group for this pen had thoughts and reactions that resonated with my own. and I was pleased to see a trans woman included among the four, as I hadn’t considered that perspective before.
Writer Alyson Mead topic was handled thoughtfully, with solid performances of overlapping monologues done via minimalistic seated staging. I followed with interest, but I believe that alternating monologues with scenes of the women interacting together would have drawn me in further.
I was curious about a character discussed only in the third-person by the characters – a non-feminist in the focus group who did not understand the others’ strong reaction to a pen marketed toward women (as though women were incapable of using other pens.) It would have been fascinating to watch the debate between the four clearly feminist characters and one woman who isn’t already convinced that women are not in need of condescending marketers telling them who or what they write with.
That said, Mead and her team are on the right track – moments during the ‘internet reviews’ section of the play were especially vivid and sliced through the pinkwashing of Bic’s marketing disaster with cutting wit.
