Playhouse Creatures

Yesterday, I went to see SLU Theatre's "Playhouse Creatures." The play is set in England of 1669; theaters had just reopened after Puritan suppression and women are allowed on stage for the first time. The play focuses on five actresses from the Playhouse Theatre and shows how they have to work extra hard at what they do to show they can perform too. I really liked the play for many reasons. First, they used a lot of comedy, and the comedy was often pointed at typical feminist roles such as doing laundry and pleasuring men. Second, I really liked how the women were witty and how they stood up for what they believed in. At one point in the play, one of the actresses yelled at a male in the audience who was making fun of their performance. To give a little more background, the Playhouse actresses would perform on a stage for the largely male audience who came to the theatre. One of the men in the audience apparently thought their performance wasn't that good so he yelled rude things at them. One of the main actresses didn't hesitate to respond and yelled back at the man. I thought that was great that she did that, because that shows that she doesn't allow people to put her or her friends down.

While I thought the play was very good, it also left me a little confused. Very often, the women would use the f@$% word; this really confused me because I didn't expect that people used it that long ago. Maybe I am just naive, but I assumed that the f-word wasn't around that long ago. I assumed that people spoke in very proper ways without the use of cuss words. It would be interesting to find out when cuss words did enter the English language. This way, I could be better informed and wouldn't feel like it doesn't fit with the play.

Source for synopsis: Playhouse Creatures synopsis and information card (presented at box office before play)