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Women

Reviewed by Pauline Adamek
Theatre Asylum
Through Oct. 25

RECOMMENDED:

One of the hits of this summer’s Hollywood Fringe Festival is back at Theater Asylum.

For her hilarious play Women, playwright Chiara Atik has re-imagined the stripped down plot of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved roman à clef Little Women as viewed through the lens of the popular HBO TV series Girls.

It’s a clever device that works surprisingly well. Not only do both sources readily lend themselves to parody, they mesh beautifully. While not essential, some familiarity with the material will aid  in getting the many inside jokes and references. For example, Beth’s frequent coughing elicits laughs, as does her comment about only seeing a blank slate when she imagines her future. Her sisters’ callous indifference to her failing health is laced with mordant humor.

Set during the American Civil War, Alcott’s novel follows the lives of four sisters — Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March — tracing their transition into womanhood. Lena Dunham’s Girls is a comedy-drama that follows the social lives of a close gang of 20-something friends living in present-day New York City.

The new cast includes Lauren Flans, Erika Rankin, Brigitte Valdez and Jacquie Walters who play sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy, respectively. The quartet is dressed in costumes that approximate period style — high-necked blouses, long skirts and boots — but their speaking manner is entirely modern, mimicking the nasal monotone, idiom and motor-mouth stream of consciousness that pours forth from Dunham’s self-absorbed contemporary characters. Meanwhile, for greater contrast, the supporting characters are more formal in their speech.

My only quibble — even though there’s a line towards the end that explains it — is that Walters’s imperfect rendition of Amy’s British accent stands out as an odd distraction. This is a riff on the character of Jessa in Girls, the only blonde of the group, who affects a British accent and is an “artist” like Amy.

Directed exceptionally well by Stephanie Ward, the numerous scenes, played on a bare stage with furniture pieces, are short and snappy; the transitions — generally indicated by a handful of props — are swift, permitting a high energy and brisk flow to the short (55-minute) one-act.

Theatre Asylum, 6320 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; through Oct. 25, theatreasylum-la.com