Getting Dirty

Freshwater Theatre Company's remount of "Dirty Girls Come Clean" equal parts humor, drama

Although it is chock full of hilarity, Dirty Girls also manages to take on weightier issues with ease.

Image credit: Matt Black

Recommended by the Editor

Coming Clean by Getting Dirty

By: Lauren Peck

Equal parts hilarious, irreverent and heartbreaking, Freshwater Theatre Company's remount of its production Dirty Girls Come Clean at Nimbus Theatre speaks volumes about women's experience with what society defines as "dirty."

Framed as a series of confessions, 10 women share stories of dealing with the "dirty" label in a wonderful mix of movement, song, short plays and more. While each of the performances is self-contained, similar threads run through the pieces, offering a great meditation on issues such as sexual frustration, dementia and the shame that women often face.

One of the best things about Dirty Girls is its sense of humor. The show is replete with hilarious one-liners that I'll be giggling about for weeks, and Amy Salloway's Dr. Seuss parody "Oh the Fucking You'll Do!" is one of the funniest things I've heard in a while. It captures the tone of Seuss perfectly and, thanks to a published Dirty Girls anthology including Salloway's piece, you can keep it hidden from your children right next to Adam Mansbach's hit children's book parody "Go the F**k to Sleep."

Courtney McLean's performance of "Talkin' Straight/I Would Go Gay for You" is also worth mentioning. She is uproariously funny as she recounts the tale of her one-and-only lesbian encounter. A superb storyteller, McLean relishes in the embarrassing details, and it feels as if you're hearing one of your friends tell a story you'll ask them to repeat again and again.

Mame Pelletier's performance of Allison Witham's piece "Elegant Humor" also shines. Witham imagines the life of a 1950s housewife who becomes obsessed with setting bigger and bigger cleaning challenges for herself just for the thrill it gives her. Whether she's describing letting stray animals in to destroy the house or burning the drapes, Pelletier pulls off the perky, happy housewife with an eerie sort of calm, and I would definitely pay to see a full-length show starring Pelletier as Witham's loveable crazed cleaning lunatic.   

And even though it is chock full of hilarity, Dirty Girls also manages to take on weightier issues with ease. In many shows, the jump from comedy to drama would feel heavy-handed, but in Dirty Girls, the jump feels like a natural progression in its exploration of the "dirty girl" idea. There can be humor in refuting the label, but it is also rooted in a lot of pain.

Among the dramatic pieces, Kjersti Bohrer's "Million Dollar Pete" stands out. She recounts her experiences with a horrible patron when she worked at a strip club, and gives an unflinching look at this seedy world full of shame, desperation and pain.

The closing performance of the night by Ariel Leaf also hits on hard topics such as abuse, rape, and incest. However, Leaf also manages to encompass the overwhelmingly redemptive message of Dirty Girls Come Clean in her piece: "Yes, I have a past ... but despite all that, I'm done feeling dirty."

+ Dirty Girls Come Clean continues at the Nimbus Theatre through Jan. 28. For tickets and more information, visit freshwatertheatre.com.