'The Mistress Cycle' raises feminist hackles
Let me get this straight: Getting involved with a married man is a good thing? That's what "The Mistress Cycle" suggests during its final moments when five very talented singer-actresses extol the virtues of becoming a mistress and "living outside the lines."
Huh?
Presumably composer Jenny Giering and lyricist Beth Blatt, the creative team behind this song-cycle, a cursory examination of famous mistresses through history, meant the song to be empowering. It wasn't.
Issues of infidelity and betrayal aside, the number encouraged women to accept second place, to be defined by what they are not, and to settle for a man who by his very pursuit of them reveals himself to be a liar and a cheat.
That's not empowering. That's settling. And that's the problem with this unsettling show. Performed without even a hint of irony that would make it somewhat palatable, Apple Tree Theatre's "The Mistress Cycle" left me slack-jawed.
And not in a good way. By the show's conclusion, the frustration I'd felt for 90 minutes had turned to anger. Maybe not anger exactly, but righteous indignation, which I expressed to colleagues who endured my repeated feminist rants as I wrote this review.
The show opens in modern-day Manhattan, where successful, single, thirtysomething photographer Tess (Charissa Armon) contemplates having an affair with a married man who wins her heart by kneeling at her feet and calling her beautiful. For all her sophistication and talent, it seems Tess has not quite let go of the princess fantasy (Don't get me started). It proceeds as a series of vignettes (sort of a Cliffs Notes account of history's notable seductresses) that introduce us to 14-year-old Ching (Carol Angeli Feiger), a 12th-century Chinese concubine; 16th-century noblewoman Diane de Poitiers (Susie McMonagle), longtime lover of France's King Henri II; Lulu White (Karen Marie Richardson), a famous 19th-century New Orleans madam; and Anais Nin (Angela Ingersoll), the 20th-century writer and sexual free spirit.
To characterize all of them as mistress is a misnomer. It certainly doesn't apply to a teenage girl sold into sexual servitude, a prostitute forced into the life at 13 or an enigmatic artist whose behavior may be the response to childhood sexual abuse. There's a big difference between these women, victims really, and Tess and Diane, adults who choose to sleep with another woman's husband. Yet "The Mistress Cycle" makes no such distinction. It's not that deep. It does, however, offer rationalizations like "the only sin is not loving with all your heart" and "I only belong to me" and Oprah-esque pop platitudes about moving forward after disappointment delivered (of course) by a powerful and sassy black woman.
That said, Giering's haunting, vocally demanding score has merit (the four- and five-part harmonies are wonderful). And while Blatt's lyrics can be facile, the number where Tess recounts her ill-suited former suitors is a wry, clever tune to which every single, thirtysomething woman can relate.
And Apple Tree's well-cast production has Kurt Johns' fluid, unobtrusive staging; Diana Lawrence's expert music direction; and a terrific cast (who manage to add depth to thinly sketched characters) to recommend it.
Unfortunately, it's not enough to temper the righteous indignation this "Mistress" rightly deserves.
"The Mistress Cycle"
2½ out of four
Location: Apple Tree Theatre at the Karger Center, 1850 Green Bay Road, Highland Park
Times: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 6 p.m. Sundays; through Jan. 5. Additional 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. shows Dec. 31.
Running time: About 90 minutes, no intermission
Parking: Free lot adjacent to theater
Tickets: $38-$48
Box office: (847) 432-4335 or www.appletreetheatre.com
Rating: Suitable for adults