Girl In the Red Corner MMA-themed play gets good reviews on first run
“Girl In the Red Corner,” a play set in an MMA gym, is enjoying a well-reviewed run in Washington, DC….
“Girl In the Red Corner,” a play set in an MMA gym, is enjoying a well-reviewed run in Washington, DC. Written by Stephen Spotswood, and directed by Amber Paige McGinnis, it runs from November 3-20 at The Atlas Performing Arts Center.
The sentiment of the play is universal – life is a fight.
When Halo signs up for mixed martial arts lessons, she thinks it might make a good hobby. Her trainer thinks she’s a light-weight. Her mother and sister think it’s just plain weird. Very quickly the lessons she learns in the ring bleed into the rest of her life and Halo finds herself battling against everyone around her. Now as she prepares for her first match, Halo realizes that life inside the cage and outside the cage are disturbingly similar. And that the only way to survive either is to fight.
Celia Wren for the Washington Post gave it a strong review.
The performances are strong in Girl in the Red Corner, Stephen Spotswood’s bracing, if occasionally schematic, new drama. The first production to emerge from the second generation of the Welders Playwrights’ Collective, Girl in the Red Corner follows a disadvantaged young woman named Halo, who finds empowerment in mixed martial arts.
Director Amber Paige McGinnis’s intense and visually striking production unfurls on an evocation of an octagonal fighting cage. The conceit emphasizes the ground-and-pound socioeconomic pressures affecting Halo, who has a checkered job history and lives with her underemployed mother. The odds seem fairer at the local gym, where Halo begins studying mixed martial arts with Gina (channeled with marvelous surly focus by Maggie Donnelly, the cast standout).
Spotswood spells out his character’s motivations too tidily, but the production is very enjoyable when it dwells on the wary-but-warming rapport between Halo and Gina. (Cliff Williams III directed the show’s creditable fight sequences.) A zinger of a scene depicts a practice-sparring session between the two women, who stay energized by mockingly chanting the kind of patronizing, reproving or insidiously belittling phrases that society often uses to keep women in line.
You’re being emotional. Don’t be so sensitive. Resting bitch face. Each insulting cliche prompts a blow. When the crowning outrage — Don’t forget to f***ingg smile! — propels a decisive hook punch, the impact feels more than a little cathartic.
In terms of authenticity, the level of technique looks like the physical equivalent of Ronda Rousey’s acting, but that likely doesn’t matter – there is not a great deal of crossover between hardcore MMA fanatics and discerning play devotees.
