Fefu and Her Friends “My husband married me to have a constant reminder of how loathsome women are,” begins María Irene Fornés’s radical 1977 drama, which is variously about madness, women’s agency, and internalized misogyny. The speaker, Fefu, is herself “fascinated with revulsion”; she and her husband, Philip, play a game in which she shoots him and he dodges her “bullets.” (The gun isn’t loaded—or at least Fefu thinks it isn’t loaded. Uncertainty, of course, is part of the game.) Like the all-female cast here, Fornés and her longtime partner, Susan Sontag, rejected marriage and heteronormativity. In fact, the S/M relationship between the character Paula and her former lover, Cecilia, will feel familiar to anyone who’s read Sontag’s recently published journals. The madwoman in the play, Julia, is the most fascinating of the group; as Fefu sees it, she has chosen this fate. Unfortunately, Halcyon Theatre isn’t up to the challenge of Fornés’s vision, which demands swifter pacing and an ensemble far more in sync with each other—and with the text itself. —Suzanne Scanlon
Sister Cities Colette Freedman’s dark comedy may be based on a familiar premise—estranged family members are reunited by the death of a parent—but her agility with dialogue and gift for creating interesting characters make it extraordinary, particularly a powerful flashback in the second half of evening that pulls it all together. Chimera Ensemble’s production starts rough, though Norma Chacon and Rainee Denham turn in fine, passionate performances; Chacon in particular blazes throughout as the spoiled youngest daughter. Others in the cast seem stiff and uncomfortable, and the pace of the show is at times too slow. As it progresses, however, the quality of the acting and pace pick up, thanks in large part to Freedman’s superb storytelling. Ashley Neal directs. —Jack Helbig
