Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Zawe Ashton’s FOR ALL THE WOMEN WHO THOUGHT THEY WERE MAD is an observant, harrowing immigration play that’s also a bit overwrought

• By drediman
• October 29, 2019
• No Comments

Bisserat Tseggai (right) leads Soho Rep’s production of “for all the women who thought they were Mad” by Zawe Ashton. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

This past weekend, Zawe Ashton’s new play for all the women who thought they were Mad opened Off-Broadway at Soho Rep. Apart from her work here as a playwright, the multi-talented Ms. Ashton can also currently be seen co-starring opposite film star Tom Hiddleston in the riveting revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal on Broadway. Her play at the reputable Soho Rep is in essence an immigrant story gone horribly wrong, as it depicts the harrowing circumstances that lead to the mental and physical unraveling of an ambitious, on-the-rise African-born woman.

Ms. Ashton’s fever dream of a play is an interesting mixed bag. It’s at once observant but a bit heavy-handed. On the one hand, it hits on a lot of subtle anxieties of the immigrant experience. Indeed, the play’s tragic heroine (whose name is Joy) suffers through and ultimately succumbs to the cumulative weight of suppressed and neglected affinities, numerous personal sacrifices, career pressures, workplace sexual abuse, as well as substance abuse. At the same time, for all the women is also the work of a playwright still finding their voice. For example, the integration of inter-generational African women – past, present, and future – into the fabric of the play comes across as a tad too melodramatic and clunky.

Director Whitney White maximizes the hallucinatory and suffocating aspects of play, which is the right approach for the piece. Altogether, the Soho Rep production is strikingly acted and designed (much of the play takes place in a claustrophobic Lehman Trilogy-like office, courtesy of set designer Daniel Soule). The talented cast tries valiantly to calibrate the play’s overwrought construction and tendencies – sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. However, in the central role of Joy, the lovely Bisserat Tseggai gives a fractured, devastating performance of a woman literally falling apart at the seams. It’s a memorable performance.

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FOR ALL THE WOMEN WHO THOUGHT THEY WERE MAD
Off-Broadway, Play
Soho Rep
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through November 24