A Coupla Crackpot Crones
nytheatre.com review by Ed Malin
August 10, 2012
In A Coupla Crackpot Crones, experienced comic lesbian duo Terry Joan Baum and Carolyn Myers (well-known for the early '80s play Dos Lesbos) offer some very funny skits. Never the same show twice and audience-interactive, this is an evening of honest humor.
Coming out to one's mother has always been such a difficult scene to write, so here there are several portrayals: the good old sitcom scenario, the Restoration Comedy scene where mother and daughter kill with looks and fight with fluttering fans, the gothic horror story wherein a young woman is howling at the moon with desire for her female friend, and a recent take on a mother coming out to her daughter.
Theresa Thesaurus asks the audience for a cliche, which she writes out and then dissects to find the Goddess implications within. Then there is the patented 1920s "plot genie," a book which brings the audience's suggestions to life on stage.
Eve in Therapy finds an empowering, not-so-Satan-like doctor helping a woman to be herself.
Add in Baum's stories of running for Mayor of San Francisco and the Pope's objections to Dos Lesbos being performed in Rome during Pride Fest 2000 (a year of some importance to the Establishment) and you can see these are ladies who care and have lots to say.
