By Summer Kiswani, Phoenix staff writer
The Second City cast of “She the People” put on a captivating show on Saturday night, March 2, at GSU.
The cast of six women gave it their all by portraying multiple roles in a series of sketches and improvisations in the two-act show which lasted just a little less than two hours.
The performance kicked off with a sound of glass breaking, representing the breakthrough of the glass
ceiling. All of the sketches called out stereotypes, sexism, and oppression with a comedic twist that had audiences laughing throughout.
The first act started with three of the actresses playing a trivia game. The cards they pulled from the deck each symbolized stereotypes from race, gender, or sexuality. This gave some of the women an advantage in the game over others, representing real life.
This transformed into my personal favorite part of the show, where all six actresses took turns imitating female commercials. They poked fun at the unrealistic aspects that such commercials portray. This varied from women advertising cleaning products, women’s razors, shampoo, etc.
Some of the other main themes that were presented in the first act were women having rights over their own bodies, dieting, confidence, equality, the wage gap, and sexuality. These themes were expressed in clever and humorous ways.
The first act concluded with an improv session. The cast interacted with the audience by asking some questions. The actresses were then able to flawlessly make an immediate funny statement based on the answers they received. This interaction with the audience made those attending feel like a part of the show. It kept the audience engaged and entertained.
The second act of the show also included important themes that focused on relationships, breakups, female safety, and female empowerment. One of the main takeaways was that women do not need to have a prince charming in their lives in order to be a queen. The societal messages conveyed in their performances were very empowering and had the crowd cheering. An act that I also think stood out was then the actresses lined up and one of them was quizzing the group on what to do when they go out for a girl’s night, while repeating that the goal was to “not get murdered.”
The final act of improv with audience input was my second favorite part of the show. They once again took random answers to a short series of questions, but this time they wrote them down and had each actress randomly pick one. Each actress then seamlessly integrated what they picked into a skit with another of the actresses.
The cast did a phenomenal job of showcasing their talent and chemistry with each other, especially with the improv sessions.
In the final sketch of the show, one of the actresses had just become the first female President of the United States. She then listed things that she would do as President which reflected real hopes of what presidents would enact someday. A couple of these included free college education and for all women to have rights over their own bodies. This scene was powerful and had the audience cheering.
Overall, there were some acts that were more entertaining than others and a few that felt a bit too
long. But it was a great show full of important messages mixed with humor. It did contain a lot of adult themes so I would say this is definitely one for mature audiences.
I would highly recommend “She the People,” and I give it an overall rating of 8/10.