Funny, Dark and Feminist

What’s not to like about a play that lives and laughs with modern feminism? The Constructivist theater group is streaming a live performance of Sheila Callaghan’s Women Laughing Alone While Eating Salad. Callaghan observed the tendency of advertising creators to pose attractive women enjoying a salad in their ads. Callaghan uses this as a focal for a dark comedy about feminism today. Director Jaimelyn Gray feels that the play challenges our constant exposure to images and delivers a social critique with humor.

Callaghan, 47, is a playwright and screenwriter who emerged from the Regional Alternative Theater movement of the 1990s and became newsworthy, with profiles of her by American Theater Magazine and The Village Voice. She has written a long list of plays, which have had varying degrees of success, was nominated for a 2016 Golden Globe for her writing on the Hulu comedy series “Casual” and a 2017 WGA nomination for her episode “I Am A Storm” from Season 7 of the comedy/drama series “Shameless.”

I asked Gray about streaming a live performance. “This pandemic challenged the theater community,” she says. “Of course, we want people to be in the room with us. But one of the blindspots we had was another audience, people with ADA requirements, families with children and caregivers, who can’t attend live performances. Live streaming can serve those people.”

Gray admits that getting the human connection between actors is a challenge when directing a Zoom performance. The actors are working from their own homes.

“I don’t have the courage or whatever you want to call it, to bring actors together in this environment. I’ve got blocking issues, audio concerns, and continuity problems. The way we have to deal with these things is so different than if we were together.”

Women Laughing Alone with Salad. is live streaming from Wednesday, September 30 through Sunday, October 4th, starting at 7:30 p.m. There will be on-demand access during the same period. (The viewing fee is Pay-what-you-can suggesting $20)