Salt Lake actress Shaz Bennett has taken the phrase "stand up and act like a man," changed the gender and come up with a one-woman show full of irony.
To "stand up and act like a lady," one discovers by watching Bennett's creation, is to be disillusioned, astonished, sometimes blinded, occasionally battered, but to react with dignity and humor.Advance billing for the show calls it "a comical look at our times with an honest amount of the pain." But don't expect an evening of sitcom rejoinders or comedy club one-liners. The comedy here rarely gets above the level of wry.
In "Stand Up and Act Like a Lady," Bennett lets us eavesdrop on the lives of 30 women. She opens the door a crack, we peek in on a moment of enlightenment or confusion, then she slams the door.
Bennett, who also performs with the Salt Lake improv comedy troupe Show Your Teeth, wrote her one-woman show so she wouldn't have to wait around for someone else to cast her in the kind of parts she'd like to play.
The show is directed by Show Your Teeth colleague Stevie Ray Dallimore.
"We're just a couple of geeks trying to figure out what we're doing in the world," he explained before the "world premier" Friday night at Artspace.
Her cast of characters ranged from a topless maid to a salesperson for atmospheric suits (for those pesky holes in the ozone layer). There was a rape victim; a wife who was appalled that Blondie had become a career woman; a romance novelist; a woman who had performed her own abortion; a woman whose boyfriend had been shot to death; a woman who wished her problems could be resolved in 30 minutes, like her favorite sitcoms on TV.
According to Bennett, much of her dialogue comes from overheard conversations or from conversations she has imagined for the men and women she see has seen around her, especially in less sheltered places than Utah.
A few of the characters and their points of view may not sit well with local audiences, but if diversity doesn't bother you you'll find "Stand Up and Act Like a Lady" honest and occasionally moving.
Not all of Bennett's insights are profound enough to knock you off your feet, but she does paint - with just a few strokes of the brush - an accurate picture of a cross-section of American women's lives.
Bennett and Dallimore are definitely on to something here. With a bit of rewriting, they'll have a show worth taking on the road.