First ever Fem Fest West  provokes mixed results

Free coffee and homemade cookies aside, the first-ever Fem Fest West - an Oberlin spin-off of the Cleveland-based feminist theater, Red Hen Production's, original Fem Fest - met a full Little Theater crowd with mixed results last Saturday. While the informal dramatic performance highlighted an eclectic mix of music, monologues, readings and interpretive dance, not all of the evening's works stood by the feminist theme.

Some of the works were truly a success. Excerpts read from Claire Chafee's "Why We Have a Body," for example, were simple and direct, but the underlying importance of the work stood out: the author's simple commentary on the life of women. Read by junior Patricia Comstock and sophomore Jessica Umphress, Chafee's words sunk deep into the audience as if the speakers were referring to their own lives.

There were, in addition, a few monologues that added to Fem Fest's overall achievement. "Songs for Valerie," a short work written by sophomore Rumaan Alam, examined the role of a woman (performed by sophomore Sarah Rooney) working as a secretary for her poet spouse, T.S. Eliot. The work focused subtly on the issues surrounding womens' career roles in relation to higher ranking males. Despite temptations for Valerie's character to be angst-filled and strictly political, she was, contrarily, honest and thoughtful, declaring with confidence that she didn't care what other people thought. Her point of view is still a feminist one, just less obvious than some of the other Fem Fest works.

In addition to Fem Fest's successful pieces, however, there was an almost equal number of works that had little to do with the so-called feminist theme. Jane Armitrage's "Thoughts on China," for example, was simply a show-and-tell recollection of experiences and memoirs of her visit, extending for over a half-an-hour.

While Armitage initially stated a fear of being "an ugly American" on her trip, she went on to list more than a few instances that entirely supported the idea of dubbing her so. She told of taking unconsented photographs of locals, upsetting them; traveling with a pack of loud, typical American tourists; showing-off a cluttered collection of "authentic" souvenirs, purchased only to feed her childhood dream of digging her way to China through holes in the backyard. Her piece was not only irrelevant and out of place with the rest of Fem Fest, but also drew upon inaccurate stereotypes of the Asian culture. Rather than admitting her ignorance, Armitage said that the Chinese "want to share their culture, but they don't know how."

The final piece of the evening, a monologue written by Red Hen member Linda Eisnestein and performed by co-member Zoe Kiefer, discussed the character's emotions surrounding the fact that she had to surgically lose her tongue in order to give it to her disease-stricken son. The piece was incredibly well-acted and raised several complicated issues surrounding the character's tough decision, while framing oft-stated feminist questions in a new, surreally skewed context.

While Fem Fest aimed to incorporate a well-rounded mix of thematic works to educate its audience about active feminism, unfortunately, it met its goal only half way. The event could be saved for future years, however, if careful planning ensures that all the works stick to the topics and careful attention is paid to keep issues relevant. Especially since Fem Fest deals with political topics, its content should no doubt aim to be politically correct.