Stage Review - Don’t Limit Women (Drunken Owl Theatre)
Stage Review - Don’t Limit Women
Presented By: Drunken Owl Theatre - Seattle, WA
Show Run: January 10 - January 12, 2025
Date Reviewed: Saturday, January 11, 2025
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
There are so many performing arts experiences in and around Seattle, quite frankly too many to name, and it seems like every month I’m fortunate to discover another new venue, new theatre company, or even a new genre in the arts. Of course, when I say ‘new’, I really mean new to me. Seattle has long been on the cutting edge when it comes to entertainment on stage, and whether it is a straight play, a musical, burlesque, comedy, live music, or anything else you can imagine on a stage, it’s likely to be happening on any night somewhere in the region. The latest unique and “new to me” experience is located in the back room of the Jules Maes Saloon in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle, in an environment that feels like entering a speakeasy, beyond the Jules Maes bar and eatery, and beyond the game room and pinball machines, where Drunken Owl Theatre takes up residence once a month to present an evening of theatre, music, and poetry threaded together with a theme set by artistic director Kevin Finney. This past weekend, January 10 through January 12, the theme was one of strength, fortitude, and determination, all focused on the unique experiences, relationships, and emotions of women. As always, the Drunken Owl programs feature the work of local playwrights, and is hosted and performed by local artists. Titled “Don’t Limit Women”, the program on stage this past weekend featured a one-act play, “The Visit” by Romney Humphrey, and two short plays, “The Hikers” by Robin Ellen Brooks, and “Let Go Now” by Pamela Hobart Carter. In addition to the plays, the poetry of Kaitlyn DeMeyere was featured, and read by the poet, and music was performed by local artists The Hot Grapes.
The blend of music, theatre, and poetry creates an experience unlike anything else on stage in the Seattle area, and with the theme of female experience and empowerment, this revue makes for a thought provoking evening. There is more about experience than empowerment, if I’m being honest, and that starts with the plays. The first, “The Visit”, which features actors Brynne Garman and Monique Preston as mother and daughter mourning the loss of their respective husband and father, when an old friend of his, played by Christina Williams, arrives at the door with mysterious intentions. This work examines how the loss of a man impacts three different women, depending on their relationship when he was alive, as well as the relationships among each other. It also looks at feelings, and the freedom in opening up to each other, contrasting that freedom with the hurt that perpetuates when we keep ourselves closed off. The play drags a bit toward the end, putting a fine point on how difficult it is to end a story tightly, and it’s a bit dark and melancholy, leaving the audience going into intermission on the proverbial downbeat. The second play, “The Hikers” is the polar opposite, it’s upbeat, funny, and is all about acceptance and loving each other despite our flaws and wrinkles. In it, Christina and Jane Martin Lynch play a pair of hikers on a first in person date, when they come across two others on the trail that neither can shake. The first, it turns out, is Jane’s character’s depression, played by Monique, and the other is Christine’s anxiety, played by Brynne. This hilarious piece gets funnier the more the couple tries to shed their respective emotions, and even more so when the emotions discover each other and agree to meet up and “share notes”. As the piece progresses, the principals go from trying to distance themselves from their emotions, to accepting them through their partners’ acceptance. The final piece is “Let Go Now”, which finds Monique and Brynne fighting over the possession of a box, something the former insists it’s time to get rid of, while the latter can’t seem to part with it. The play starts with an argument that seems like it’s the standard mother-daughter disagreement about heirlooms but it soon turns a bit more serious when what is inside the box is revealed. It’s the most avant-garde of the plays, but it does tackle loss and the different ways that mothers and daughters handle it.
The plays most certainly deal more with female experience than empowerment. That responsibility falls on the shoulders of local poet Kaitlyn DeMeyere. Her poems “Sleep Millennial Child”, about quieting her mind so that she can sleep and rest before the impending daily battle against society, “Your Body My Choice”, about the men who constantly make decisions on her behalf, and “Monsters Lurking Within Mirrors”, about her battle with image and her eventual self-acceptance, are all about the power that she finds within herself to tell society that she is not to be taken lightly. I found Kaitlyn’s poetry to be one of the highlights of the evening, her prose is very well structured, and her delivery is strong. I’d love to hear more of her work.
The final piece, The Hot Grapes, a local group consisting of female and non-binary musicians playing their second performance together, perform songs by popular artists that combine the two sub-themes of experience and empowerment. Led by Delia Finney on keyboards and lead vocals, the band also consists of violinist/fiddler Sam Farqhuarson, bassist and vocalist Oli Moseley, and percussionist Betsy Boyer. Their strong harmonies bely their limited experience together and Delia’s lead vocals accentuate the messaging of the songs they perform during this show. The band starts the show, leads off after intermission, and plays between the second half plays and poetry from Kaitlyn, the limited doses of each of the aspects of the entire package make the program as engaging as it is.
Don’t Limit Women, the January offering from Drunken Owl Theatre, is a special combination of music, poetry, and theatre, threaded together with the common themes of experience, enablement, and empowerment, created by and performed by some of Seattle’s most talented creative artists. The formula is unique among theatre companies in the area, the Jules Maes Saloon is the perfect venue for this type of production, and if this is what Drunken Owl Theatre brings to its monthly revues, it’s something every theatre lover in Seattle needs to see at least once.
Drunken Owl Theatre presents a monthly revue of performing arts featuring original works in poetry and theatre from local creatives and music performed by Seattle artists at the Jules Maes Saloon in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle. To follow the group, keep up to date on their upcoming presentations, and to get tickets, visit https://drunkenowltheatre.org/.
Photo credit: Kevin Finney and Christina Williams
