Theater Review: The Drowning Girls

Aside from this play’s unusual title, it seems bland enough when you enter the theater and pass a collection of white wedding dresses. 

The set is the first shock: three somewhat smudged bathtubs (with water), which will be used by Alice (Emily Candia), Bessie (Carla Navarro) and Margaret (Sandra Ruiz) in various stages of late 19th and early 20th-century garb. They will dress, undress and splash around for about an hour while they discuss the status of women in the pre-World War I West.

It’s sad (and all too familiar) to hear these single “girls” in their 20s and 30s trying to talk themselves into marriage and seriously attempting to hook up with a handsome dude, or a rich one, or even just “one who asks you.” They even tell each other that “it will be the happiest day of your life.”

What’s with the bathtubs and the title? The play is based on the real case of a British man convicted and hanged in 1915 for the serial murders of his brides, and considers the plight of middle-class women of the time. Each of these brides of the bathtub is past the blush of youth and (by society’s standard) in need of a husband.

Ah, manipulation was so easy back then. And this (unseen) guy apparently had the pattern down pat. You will hear all about it.

The playwrights –  Beth Graham (Nova Scotia), Daniela Vlaskalic & Charlie Tomlinson met as university students and wrote this play for the Edmonton Fringe Festival in 1999. 

                                Carla Navarro, Emily Candia, Sandra Ruiz

                                    photo by Daren Scott

The three ladies are phenomenal as they charge from one scene to another and climb in and out of those tubs like pros (I can just see me slipping all over the place).

The script has a nice feel for lyrical – and often amusing – language. Hsi-an Chen’s gauzy, almost cloudlike backdrops are complimented nicely by Kevin “Blax” Burroughs’ lighting and MaeAnn Ross’ sound design to lend an ethereal quality to the not-so-ethereal goings-on.

How much has changed between men and women? That’s for an after-the-show discussion over coffee or a nice chianti. 

If you’re looking for a fascinatingly different theatrical experience, get thee to OnStage Playhouse.

“The Drowning Girls” plays through September 26, 2021 at OnStage Playhouse, 292 Third Street in Chula Vista.

For tickets: https://www.onstageplayhouse.org/2021-2022-season