[ssba]

The Bachelorette

Reviewed by Jessica Salans

Mine is Yours Theatre Company

Closed

Everyone is unhappy.

In Leslye Headland’s play, fat, fat Becky (Hannah Pell) is getting married to the rich and handsome, Cal. Meanwhile, friends-since-high-school prom-queen Katie (Hayley Brown) and Gena (Sarah Lyddan) are going to party for an evening at the invitation of maid-of-honor Regan (Cloie Watt Taylor). Katie hates her retail job but loves drinking until she can’t bring the bottle to her mouth, Gena still pines for the boyfriend she dumped two years prior, and Regan is in a controlling, no-sex relationship with her partner. The women are in a lavish hotel room the night before Becky’s wedding, and they’re ready to get f*cked up.

If you saw Yours is Mine’s The Bachelorette, you probably left with a sense of relief that your life probably isn’t as shitty as theirs. The characters are nasty, hard and sad. We are able to laugh in astonishment at the antics because the cast plunges fearlessly into the characters’ messy given-circumstances. Pell, Brown, Lyddan and Taylor are classically trained, vibrant and multi-dimensional, bold in their ability to be ugly and hard.

Jessica Hanna beautifully orchestrated the animal den, which was surprisingly tender and heart-breaking in vignettes throughout the story. These allowed for a resurgence of otherwise drained empathy.

Mine is Yours Theatre Company, The Other Space @ The Actors’ Company. Closed. https://www.mineisyourstc.com/