Theatre Review: Ladyship Sails Through The Historical Woes of Women
Based on the colonization of Australia, Linda and Laura Good’s Ladyship focuses on the poor women that were taken from their homelands, like Ireland, and forced into labor camps within this “new world.” As I watched the musical, during the New York Musical Festival, I realized certain groups, from blacks to indigenous or LGBTQ to poor, can, honestly, look back at their history and say, “Ugh, we alway got the short end of the stick.” I know that phrase seems too light for the darkness we have been subjected to in our past, but Ladyship shows that resilience is born from oppression.
You have to be hurt to be strong and you have to know fear to know bravery. Certain virtues are born, directly, from and as counters to darkness, and throughout Ladyship this reigns true. From the beginning, you can’t help but reflect on how the 18th century “injustice” system is very similar to ours in how it treats the poor: guilty until never proven innocent. The musical centers around Alice and Mary Reed; two teenaged sisters accused of stealing a handkerchief, enslaved, and shipped off to Australia to, again, colonize the “new nation.” On their horrendous treatment, as “criminals,” I could only imagine what slaves or indigenous people went through, who were considered less. For these women, their poverty and their gender made them open season for male whims; whether it be sexual or the mere vicious desire to destroy someone’s life because you can.
Directed by Samantha Saltzman, with choreography by Sara Brians and musical direction by Simone Allen, in having female creatives steering the female cast/leads, Ladyship amplifies that the strength of femininity is born, in part, by our ability to love despite all the abuse we undergo. No food but moldy biscuits. Staying a dark, ship’s basement, with no lighting, until Sunday Service. Rape, sexual assault, and the “allowance” of men to have your bodies, in exchange, for some food and water, are topics or, at least, constantly mentioned throughout the show. In terms of style, Ladyship feels like a pop-infused Les Mis combined with Little Women. It is a story about strong, smart ladies that never completed their potential because they were never seen as having any.
As you watch the mournful Mrs. Pickering, (played powerfully by Brandi Knox), you wonder when her children went to bed if they pondered why their mother never returned to hold them. As you watch the bright, sweet Mary (Caitlin Cohn with a stunning soprano) or the tough, bold Alice Reed (played with strength by Maddie Shea Baldwin), you imagine a world where these two women were allowed to put their hearts and minds in whatever ever field to benefit society. As you see Lady Jane Sharp (played elegantly by Jennifer Blood) or Kitty MacDougal (played nobly by Noelle Hagan), you cry at seeing two women from completely different classes and ages in their life, still wind up chained and pushed around by men. Even the fierce Lisa Karlin as Abigail Gainsborough cannot escape that all her wit cannot outwit a patriarchal system. So then what? Perhaps, the brightness of Ladyship is that it proves positivity may not change your situation but it does see you through it. Click Here For More Information On Ladyship.
