BITCHES
THE ANGRY SHOW
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Popular teen-queen Sindee (Abley) is devastated when she doesn’t make the squad, and her mother Charlene (Mike Meredith, charmingly masculine despite the housecoat) is no help. Bingeing on a bag of Fritos, Sindee tearfully relays the news to her mother, who reacts by slapping her upside the head for accepting such a crippling defeat. Charlene advises Sindee to find a way back onto the squad, pronto, “and when you’re done with those Fritos go make yourself throw up because it’s almost dinner.” Sindee vows vengeance on the girl who displaced her, sweet sophomore Angelatina (Kirk Pynchon, a terrific ingenue), and bullies her friends into carrying out various schemes designed to send Angelatina, if not to the morgue, at least to the bathroom for an extended stay.
What’s glorious about this production is the weird sense of nostalgia it calls up. You don’t have to have been a cheerleader in high school to remember the tension of friendships where three or more girls were involved and the politics of life within a clique. Sindee’s power over her friends, the quicksilver loyalties wavering under the slightest pressure, the casual cruelties–all of them ring true, even when dressed up in camp. You actually feel for Angelatina when, hustled by Sindee’s clique into believing she’s been accepted, she does the splits from pure joy, chirping “I’m popular! I’m popular!” while her mother looks on, comfortable and clueless. During Angelatina’s slumber party, where diaries are read aloud and cookies and Diet Coke consumed, it occurred to me only very late in the scene that I was thoroughly empathizing with a group of men in Dr. Dentons.
