Women Who Eat

What I liked

The technical elements were beyond impressive.
The set design was elevated way beyond what you would expect at Fringe and felt truly immersive.
The show has incredible actors who are not afraid to eat, kiss, kick, and scream on stage and who carry the weight of the violent premise. Each woman felt so specific in their characterization and as a group it was mesmerizing to watch and each of them was a stand-out. I can see any of them on Yellow Jackets today.

The directing was also quite bold in its choices. It is unusual that directing and performance elevate a script but in this case that is exactly what happened. I can only imagine what this team could do with stronger material.

What I didn't like

The incredible production design had a huge cost when it comes to the transitions. The breaks between scenes were very long and were made worse by the constant opening and closing of doors by someone backstage to check if the set was ready.

With such talented performers, directing and set design, I was actually a bit let down by the script itself.

There is a bold voice in the material, for sure, but it is untamed and unrefined.

The script did a good job at differentiating each one of the girls, but in it’s attempt to create an ensemble, the show failed at emotionally grounding them, setting a POV character to follow through the show that could have an arc. So while the script hits some beats, they feel mechanic rather than emotionally earned because we were not seeing a character experience those moments of catharsis. Had the script grounded on the character played by Devin, and given her an arc (ex. She goes having shame at her disorder and wanting to recover to accepting the rage and embracing her hungry side) it would have been stronger overall.

Since the script starts already at 200 it’s hard to go from there. Emotionally this felt stunted. It lacked character development at the front that could allow us to see character growth as the play goes on. Instead everyone remains pretty flat and except for eating people and wearing different clothes, they remain mostly unchanged.

The scene when the doctor comes in feels extremely long and both the writing and performance was too farcical for the world that had been set up and that undermined the rawness of earlier scene. The boat poem was equally long and unnecesary. The discussions about religion, power and female rage felt self-indulgent.

Rather than spending so much time on these superfluous elements, that real estate would’ve been better utilized by getting to understand where our characters were in their recovery and what are their hopes/dreams/weakenesses/wounds so when we get to the ending it actually feels like they’ve rehabilitated and healed in an unorthodox way. Without this work the script feels flat. And the ideas it’s trying to express doesn’t quite digest properly.

Basically the writer is doing the same thing the recovery staff is doing… shoving food we don’t want down our throats when we’re already too full to enjoy it.

My overall impression

Bold. Brash. Violent.
Women who eat explores the ways in which young women are treated at recovery facilities. We see a group of young women recover agency over their lives and eating in the most violent way possible.
Incredible performances, bold directing and impressive technical elements elevate an uneven screenplay that feels uncooked rather than raw.