The Bacchae gets a modern update in Nasty Women. (Photo courtesy of Capital Fringe)

By DCist contributor Amanda Brenner

Reminds us of: A Bacchanal to which Sharon forgot to bring the booze, an SNL skit that was cut during dress rehearsal.

Flop, Fine or Fringe-tastic?: Flop.

If I were to run away to a feminist retreat, I hope that I could take a seminar on something a little more empowering than yarn bombing.

Nasty Women of the Ecstatic Rainbow Mystical Retreat, a modernization of Euripides’ The Bacchae, takes millennia of gender-based injustice and crafts it into a tame little story in which young feminists of Thebes channel their rage into arts and crafts. Dionysus—their guiding god and patron of physical ecstasy, hysteria, theatre, and the most drunken of revelries—would be displeased.

Nasty Women attempts to draw parallels between the power struggles of 405 B.C and the new wave of woman-identifying activists who have expressed their feelings of disenfranchisement under the current presidential administration. The Bacchanalians, displeased with their foolish king, even wear pink “pussyhats” to drive this point home.

In attempting to be topical, “Nasty Women” becomes much too expositional. It adds nothing new to the discourse of modern feminism, nor does it employ any dramatic technique to draw an emotional response from its audience. Conflict is easily solved. Sinners are redeemed. The modern equivalent would be President Trump and three liberal students from the American University Women’s Collective buying a timeshare together in Florida.

Nasty Women also doesn’t explore its large performance space enough. In scenes meant to suggest gaiety, actors huddled in downstage corners, producing a claustrophobic effect. This disconnect made it hard to feel fully immersed in the play.

Equally jarring was the frequent use of disdainful slurs against women. Nasty Women lacks the satirical bite to use such language without making its (largely) progressive audience cringe. That language is almost as misguided as a comedic rap segment that evoked memories of fever dreams.

To be clear, none of these shortcomings reflect on the cast: Tony Greenberg, Robert Heinly, and Marketa S. Nicholson in particular stand out. Greenberg has the unique sort of voice that could make him a lovable character actor on a sitcom. Ideally, these talented actors will receive more nuanced roles in the future.

Where to See It: Atlas Performing Arts Center, Sprenger Auditorium on July 19 at 7:15 p.m., July 20 at 5:15 p.m., July 22 at 8:30 p.m., and July 23 at 6:00 p.m. Buy tickets here.

See here for all of DCist’s 2017 Capital Fringe coverage. All shows are $17, with a button ($7) required for entry.