The Theatrical is Feminine and the Feminine is Theatrical

The films women tend to connect with are "theatrical” “absurd” or “campy” because films about womanhood feel like making a movie about a play. Except, no one auditioned and the writer didn’t bother to finish it. The director is a tyrant about the material but won’t let you see it, and in any case you’ll get shot if you step off stage.

When we step off stage together, we speak an entirely different language. We’re talking about the play. Some of our castmates seem wholly unaware that we’re on stage. The conversation feels urgent and impossible. The only words we have, we’ve learned from the play.

We are left with forms of expression that spite language. The gorey hunger of Ginger Snaps, the longing and rage of Jennifer’s Body, the gallows humor of Forbidden Fruits. Our language is ‘absurd’ because our situation(s) are absurd.

We are held to the dictates made in our absence and mad with need to write our own plays. 

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