Like the rest of the theater world, the Williamstown Theatre Festival has spent a year shut down. But that gave it the chance to put a season’s worth of adapted-for-audio productions online with Audible Originals, where you can reach them without a three-hour drive to northwestern Massachusetts.
As with any theater season, some plays are better than others, though all feature first-rate casts (some of them with big names), as well as top-notch sound effects and interesting post-show interviews with playwright, director or both. As a whole, it’s quite an achievement.
And the full seven-play season is included with an Audible Plus online membership, $7.95 a month.
Written by Shakina Nayfack
Directed by Laura Savia
“There’s always going to be something you’re gonna wanna fix. Welcome to being a woman.”
Does anyone besides me remember the play “The Women” by Clare Boothe Luce? It first appeared on Broadway in 1936. It made a delicious film in 1939 with Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, and a bevy of characters played by the cream of the Hollywood crop. Ultimately, in this comedy about women, gossip, and divorce, the action moves from sophisticated urban New York City to a small dude ranch in Reno, Nev. There, where everyone is in some stage of divorcing their never-seen men (it’s an all-women cast), female intimacy brings out truths and removes the gossip. Reality becomes the tone of the day and honesty wins out over illusions. It’s a comedy.
In Shakina Nayfack s world premiere play, a vibrant, international group of transgender women band together at a hotel in Thailand to confront the challenges and joys of gender confirmation surgery. Despite the group s warm welcome, Kina prepares for her life-altering operation all alone. But a caring nurse, a wise couple, and a karaoke-loving bellhop may be exactly who she needs to ignite her truest sense of self.
As the provided synopsis above suggests, this is not exactly light and common everyday subject matter. While there are moments of levity, the dialogue and the characters are tough and quite gritty. Some may have trouble coming to grips with the frank, rather graphic, no holds barred elements which are plentiful in this piece. It did not take much for me to envision audience members unable to sit in their discomfort giving up and leaving the performance early.