It’s no insult to four of the five smart, funny, highly capable actresses who appear in MCC Theater’s New York premiere of Collective Rage: A Play In 5 Betties to say that just one of them walks away with the show. That would be Indecent alumna Adina Verson, whose extraordinary performance in Jen Silverman’s titillating, frustrating new play is the most compelling reason to see a production that may feel a lot longer than its 90 minutes.
Exactly how long depends in part on how many times you can listen to a certain slang term for a female body part before starting to roll your eyes, yawn or wonder what podcast you could be listening to instead of sitting captive in this cozy venue. Presumably, Silverman didn’t think she’d be shocking anyone with lines like, “I looked at my pussy last night…and I thought I’d never seen anything more interesting.”
That observation is made, incidentally, by Verson’s character, Betty 2, a wealthy, lonely housewife who life is forever changed after attending a dinner party thrown by Betty 1, another rich, bored matron—nicely played by a tightly wound, still-seductive Dana Delany—who spends her days fretting over TV news reports and nursing a rancorous grudge against her cavalier husband.
The party guest who ends up rocking Betty 2’s world is Betty 3, a flamboyantly narcissistic Latina who works at Sephora and gets her kicks seducing married women. “The first time I f—ed a girl I was like BINGO! I WON! I WON THE F—ING LOTTERY!” this third Betty, given juicy life by a hilarious Ana Villafañe, declares by way of introduction. Inspired by a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream she attended on a date, but didn’t fully comprehend (“It wasn’t really in English,” she explains), Betty 3 decides to quit her day job and dedicate her life to “The Thea-tuh,” casting the other Bettys as mostly inanimate objects in a Dream-based showcase she will “invent”—write would be too strong a word—and, naturally, star in.
Her cast will include Lea DeLaria’s arch but ultimately tender Betty 4, a butch lesbian carrying an obvious torch for Betty 2, and Chaunté Wayans’ languid, knowing Betty 5, who introduces herself as a “gender-non-conforming masculine-presenting female-bodied individual” and runs a hole-in-the-wall boxing gym, where she ends up coaching Betty 1 on how to let go of her aggression, among other things.
Silverman’s intention in bringing this motley crew together is clearly to send up enduring stereotypes and mores concerning gender, sexuality and class. But despite some deliciously wacky passages, fielded with frisky elan by director Mike Donahue, there’s little here that’s truly provocative. Uptown types like Bettys 1 and 2 have fallen for the earthy allure of Bettys 3 and 5 in countless movies, books and pop songs. And anyone who’s attended a few dinner parties in New York City, where Collective Rage is set—or belonged to a gym, for that matter— knows they can be breeding grounds for all kinds of unlikely relationships.
The play—Silverman’s, that is, not Betty 3’s, which goes predictably (if enjoyably) awry—is at its best when we’re allowed a peek at something recognizably human beneath the winking caricatures, and here’s where Verson’s presence is crucial. It’s not that Betty 2 is drawn more comprehensively or convincingly than the others, though her journey is given particularly vivid detail; a monologue identified in screaming subtitles, as all the scenes are, as “Betty 2 Watches Her Pussy Instead Of A Documentary About Lions, And Then Shares Something Profound With Us” is just as self-consciously outré as you’d imagine. But Verson plays it as straight and serious as a heart attack, so that her wide-eyed revelation is as moving as it is droll.
As Betty 2 reminds us, repeatedly, that she has no friends, and is thus even more desperate for connection than the other women, her increasingly unhinged earnestness becomes heartbreaking. Silverman and Donahue wisely give Betty 2 the spotlight in the play’s final moments, and when Verson delivers the weird, seemingly nonsensical but defiantly upbeat song that closes the play, you’ll be glad you stuck with Collective Rage, gratuitous references and all.
Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties opened September 12, 2018, at the Lortel Theatre and runs through October 7. Tickets and information: mcctheater.org
