Haley loves acting. Sweet and innocent, she doesn’t know that Broadway is the home of plays and musicals. She’s also as serious about her love of her craft as she is really talented in her. The combination earns the freshman the coveted role of Lady Macbeth in the University of Minnesota production, so of course all the girls older than her resent her.
Sophie Mackintosh’s “McBitchpremieres at the Chain Theater and brings Haley (Marie Dinolan) and four seniors together for a tight 85-minute exercise in youthful ambition and corrupting clash of egos. It’s (thankfully) not a direct take-off of Shakespeare’s royal bloodthirsty tale, but a highly entertaining, well-observed, and brilliant look at what it means to be a young woman in a BFA program in a post-#MeToo world. It is a drama played by
And it counts the revelatory star turn from Dinolan as its brightest spot. I stare at the bottom of the Cosmo with innocence. Dinolan can not only perform well drunk (tougher than you might think), but she’s also brilliantly equipped with her character’s raw ability to command the stage.
Or, in this case, a difficult celebration. A get-together, organized after the casting notice went up, will be held at the program’s current former de facto lead, Rachel (Caroline Orlando). Haley is invited by her sophomore Piper (Laura Claire Brown), an introvert. Her Piper faces the limits of her own talents and is probably unaware of how Ingenue’s presence at this intimate gathering affects her friends. Her upset Lexie (Natascha Nahrendorp) and depressed Cam (Morgan Louie) certainly don’t need her there.
McIntosh, director Ella Jane New, and their cast deftly navigate these social hierarchies. Rachel is neither a despotic queen bee, nor an overt queen bee, but her lead turn in the previous year’s “Hedda Gabler” ensures an unspoken sense of accomplishment that her friends can only admire. The way students interact and move through Brandon Scott Hughes’ sets — complete with “Hamilton” collectibles and posters from past college productions — is not to the needs of the writers, but the cast’s own. He seems to get information from his experiences with other actors.
Still, the interactions that take place outside the room provide a relevant and important backbone to play. These young women are confident and well-equipped, yet still working in a male-dominated world.
Are the professors who assess their appearance to determine suitability for roles supposed to mold them to the “real world” or help them overcome that obstacle? When new standards of intimate training require planning, how can we imbue romantic scenes with the power of instinct? Is there room for agency and ambition if your plans lie dormant in a tailored industry?
McIntosh evokes these questions sharply, never too minutely detailing any of them or turning her character into a mouthpiece. A college drama, a riff on both Shakespeare and All About Eve, and a showcase for Dinolan’s fiery charisma, it manages to wield heady themes.
McBitch
At Chain Theaters in Manhattan until September 10th. chaintheatre.orgRunning time: 1 hour 25 minutes.