In Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes, an empty nest becomes a full house—full of guests, full of dysfunction, and full of “pelvic bowl” exercises, which translates to clutching your crotch and attempting to breathe through it in order to awaken feelings of revelation.
Even without the benefits of said clutching, an audience member might still experience their own revelation: that this show is brilliant. Easy Women, by D.C. playwright Dani Stoller, is running at Signature Theatre through March 29. It’s part of the Heidi Thomas Writers’ Initiative, which supports an annual world premiere by a female playwright each year. The comedy is raunchy and uproarious, likely sets a record for the number of times “vagina” has been said on stage in 120 minutes, and still manages to be sweet, with a lot of heart.
In the opening scene, Lee (Shanara Gabrielle) shows up at her mother’s home in Florida, seeking refuge because her husband has kicked her out. She’s just one of matriarch Marian’s (Susan Rome) houseguests: Kitty (Jordan Slattery), who’s 18 and pregnant, has decamped there, as well as next-door neighbor Bobby (John Austin), a teen who clearly has eyes for Kitty.
When Lee arrives, Marian is eager to discuss any number of topics, including whether fringe is coming back and her resolve to practice “vocal purity” (read: give up gossip). But she refuses to discuss the reason Lee is there—which turns out to be cheating on her husband with eight men during one year. Said husband found out when Lee accidentally sent him a photo of her vagina intended for a Lothario named Todd. Who sends such things, Marian wonders? Everyone, Kitty helpfully informs her. Not back in her time, Marian retorts, to which Kitty replies: “It would have had to be a stone carving.”
As the story unfolds, Lee and her mother have to come to terms with the fact that she might be a sex addict. Marian, whose first husband had a penchant for adultery, finds it difficult to support her daughter and blames herself for perhaps contributing to Lee’s behavior. Tensions reach hilarious highs as the begrudging housemates deal with themselves and each other—dispensing fast-as-a-train one-liners that never fall short. (“We’re going to clean each other orally,” Marian proclaims when she offers each person a gift: a container of dental floss.)
The best way to cope, the group soon learns, is to gather in a circle, grab your pelvic bowl, and see if you can reach your heart in the process.
Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes runs at Signature Theatre through March 29. Runtime approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes, with one 15-minute intermission.
