Review: The Miss Neo Pageant (The Neo-Futurists)

By Chicagotheaterbeat @chitheaterbeat

  
  
The Miss Neo Pageant  

Created by Megan Mercier  
Directed by Stephanie Shaw
The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland (map)
thru June 22  |  tickets: $10-$20   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets 
  
  
   Read entire review
  

     

     

Hilarious, touching, and many things in between – everyone’s a winner in this pageant

     

  

The Neo-Futurists present

  

The Miss Neo Pageant

Review by Clint May 

It’s always a little daunting to wade into territory where men fear to tread, and a self-proclaimed work of feminism is intimidating to say the least. Thankfully, this is the Neo-Futurists we’re talking about, and even if you’ll never know ‘what it feels like for a girl’—as Madonna so famously put it—the female ensemble members are nothing if not just downright inviting. In their deconstructed epitome of exploitation, the beauty pageant, we see the feminine reality ripped apart, put back together, tightroped, honored, slandered, pounded, and apologized to. More carnival than not, The Miss Neo Pageant blends realism with abstraction, prose with poetry. Like many abstractions, it’s seams are gleefully messy, and we are allowed to skim the fun on the surface or delve deeper at our own volition.

Created by Artistic Director Megan Mercier and written with her fellow castmates, the pageant begins traditionally enough. Of course, this being them, their sashes are subversive missives with enigmatic labels of femininity—“I’m Fine,” “Unbridled Rage,” “Not Gonna Cry,” “Indiana” (why not). The first of several song and dance numbers establish that this is going to be unlike much of anything you’ve seen before. One by one, the girls take the center stage for their talent portions with an often daring physicality and a heart on the sleeve. Their identities meld and flow into and out of each other, becoming a free-verse apology to all the wronged women in her past or a stern request aimed at a paragon of womanhood like Anne Hathaway. Other talents skew to the symbolic, with an espresso service that seems a satire of the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Their stories are deeply personal and range from the scatalogical to the polemical. For sheer dedication to the bit, my hat’s off to Leah Urzendowski Courser for her slapstick take with skates (and later a sledgehammer) and Molly Plunk for her literal tightrope walking. Director Stephanie Shaw keeps the pacing breathtakingly brisk (at 85 minutes) but allows enough breathing room for each of the ‘contestants’ to have their moment in the spotlight.  At regular intervals, their revelries are punctuated by a ‘dance break’ to Shania Twain’s Man! I Feel Like a Woman! Anyone else remember when Chevy made men uncomfortable in their truck to that song?

With a cast having this much fun on stage, it’s hard for it to not splash over onto us with the force of Shamu at SeaWorld. It’s the balance of humor and pathos I’ve always adored from the Neo-Futurists, and it works here too. A person you’ve laughed with is a person you can most empathize with, and few other companies come close to achieving this blend. Breaking down the barriers to bring audience members up for a Q&A, plunking into their laps for an intimate conversation, or crawling into a steamer trunk as the world disappears—it’s got all the hallmarks of the Neo-Futurists’ best work.

So have some fun—this is no heavy-handed diatribe. No matter what the subject of their productions, the Neo-Futurists almost always entertain. I do encourage you to not just take that road even though it’s offered. In the jumble of language, non-sequiturs, humor and poignancy, there is a personal  message to be glimpsed through the fallout as it settles back down into the mind of the audience (that’s the beauty of a jumble, to see things in a new way). For me, it was that to be a human is to be a humanist, and by the transitive property that makes me a feminist even if I can never truly know what it feels like for a girl. All I can do is, in some way, help the world cease to need the concept entirely.

  

Rating: ★★★½

  

  

The Miss Neo Pageant continues through June 22nd at The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland(map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm.  Tickets are $10-$20, and are available by phone (phonenumber) or online through their website (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at NeoFuturists.org.  (Note: Recommended for ages 16 and up.  Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission)

Photos by Maggie Fullilove-Nugent

     

artists

cast

Megan Mercier, Jessica Anne, Tif Harrison, Molly Plunk, Leah Urzendowski Courser

behind the scenes

Stephanie Shaw (director), Nicci Schumacher (scenic and props design), Jill Bowarchuk (lighting design), Lara Miller (costume designer), Claudette Perez (sound designer), Maggie Fullilove-Nugent (production manager, photos), Rachael Staelens (stage manager)

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