Sleeping Weazel Lets the Women Speak

(Veronica Anastasio Wiseman, Graciela Femenia Tully, Judith Nelson Dilday, Raijene Murchison, Alex Casillas, Luz Lopez, Louise Hamill Sleeping Weazel’s ‘The Audacity: Women Speak – Photo:David Marshall)

by James Wilkinson

‘The Audacity: Women Speak’Conceived and arranged by Charlotte Meehan. Directed by Tara Brooke Watkins. Video Design by Elliott Mazzola. Scenic Design: Rita Roy. Lighting Design: Bridget K. Doyle. Costume Design: Mirta Tocci. Presented by Sleeping Weazel in Nicholas Martin Hall at the Boston Center for the Arts through April 6.

There are two elements to The Audacity: Women Speak, Sleep Weazel’s new multimedia production, that I think rather perfectly sum up its goals for the audience. The first is a visual motif created by lighting designer Bridget K. Doyle. A patch of light will come up on an empty spot on the stage, one of the seven women who comprise the cast will enter said space and then they begin to speak. Although it may seem like an incidental detail, the order of that sequence is vital to what they’re doing. The second element comes about halfway through the show during a barrage of video clips featuring the current Commander in Chief making sexist remarks as far back as the eighties and as recent as his presidency. As the clips play, the woman on stage begin to groan. First in frustration, then it rises to anger before finally, they’re filling the space with their screams. Something is being released.

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