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Uncommon Women and Others [1978] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


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"I feel as if I'm under-articulating."
Review date: 2005-02-13 Rating: 10 out of 10

Wendy Wasserstein's debut play, directed by Merrily Mossman and Steven Robman, is brought to hilarious life in this production starring Swoosie Kurtz, Jill Eikenberry, and Meryl Streep. Setting the play in 1970 at Mount Holyoke College, Wasserstein focuses on six young women who are about to graduate and go out into a world newly sensitized to feminist goals. Caught between traditional values of home, hearth, and finding a husband, and sexual liberation, women's liberation, and personal liberation, these women are on the cusp of a whole new way of life. The play opens a few years after graduation as the women meet to reminisce about their lives in college, where "milk-and-crackers" teas and "gracious living" have dominated.

Filmed on location, the play is both sympathetic and satiric, as an Emily Dickinson-reading "housemother" works to make these students into "ladies" while they explore options never before open to them. Discussions of Women's History courses, snapshots of Father-Daughter Weekend, and interactions among the various women as they explore who they are and who they will become illustrate the changing values of the times. Swoosie Kurtz, as Rita, is the dominant figure, a promiscuous and iconoclastic woman who wants to write the great American novel and who refuses to bend to convention.

In contrast to her is Streep, as Leilah, a shy student who avoids the spotlight and who plans to study anthropology in Iraq after graduation. Other characters include Jill Eikenberry, as Kate, who plans to attend law school; Ann McDonough as Samantha, who is in love and believes her primary role is to be as wife and mother; Alma Cuervo as Holly Kaplan, who is not sure what she wants her role to be; and Ellen Parker as Muffet, who becomes "partly liberated" but has yet to define her ultimate goals. Throughout the play, the voice of Anthony Scourby narrates a promotional film for the college, illustrating the gap between what is real (as we see it onstage) and what is ideal (as we hear the college PR).

Wonderfully poignant pictures of the social, sexual, and personal conflicts faced by these bright students in 1970 evolve as the students fumblingly make the transition between traditional expectations and unlimited possibilities. The humor is broad but to the point, and anyone who has attended a similar college in the same time period will identify with the conflicts experienced by these "uncommon women" on the cusp of true "liberation." Mary Whipple

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Reviews


"I feel as if I'm under-articulating."
Review date: 2005-02-13 Rating: 10 out of 10

Wendy Wasserstein's debut play, directed by Merrily Mossman and Steven Robman, is brought to hilarious life in this production starring Swoosie Kurtz, Jill Eikenberry, and Meryl Streep. Setting the play in 1970 at Mount Holyoke College, Wasserstein focuses on six young women who are about to graduate and go out into a world newly sensitized to feminist goals. Caught between traditional values of home, hearth, and finding a husband, and sexual liberation, women's liberation, and personal liberation, these women are on the cusp of a whole new way of life. The play opens a few years after graduation as the women meet to reminisce about their lives in college, where "milk-and-crackers" teas and "gracious living" have dominated.

Filmed on location, the play is both sympathetic and satiric, as an Emily Dickinson-reading "housemother" works to make these students into "ladies" while they explore options never before open to them. Discussions of Women's History courses, snapshots of Father-Daughter Weekend, and interactions among the various women as they explore who they are and who they will become illustrate the changing values of the times. Swoosie Kurtz, as Rita, is the dominant figure, a promiscuous and iconoclastic woman who wants to write the great American novel and who refuses to bend to convention.

In contrast to her is Streep, as Leilah, a shy student who avoids the spotlight and who plans to study anthropology in Iraq after graduation. Other characters include Jill Eikenberry, as Kate, who plans to attend law school; Ann McDonough as Samantha, who is in love and believes her primary role is to be as wife and mother; Alma Cuervo as Holly Kaplan, who is not sure what she wants her role to be; and Ellen Parker as Muffet, who becomes "partly liberated" but has yet to define her ultimate goals. Throughout the play, the voice of Anthony Scourby narrates a promotional film for the college, illustrating the gap between what is real (as we see it onstage) and what is ideal (as we hear the college PR).

Wonderfully poignant pictures of the social, sexual, and personal conflicts faced by these bright students in 1970 evolve as the students fumblingly make the transition between traditional expectations and unlimited possibilities. The humor is broad but to the point, and anyone who has attended a similar college in the same time period will identify with the conflicts experienced by these "uncommon women" on the cusp of true "liberation." Mary Whipple

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Jill Eikenberry
Swoosie Kurtz
Ellen Parker
Ann McDonough
Alma Cuervo

Creators:
Jill Eikenberry (Primary Contributor)
Ann McDonough (Primary Contributor)
Edythe Brownstein (Editor)
Ann Blumenthal (Producer)
Jac Venza (Producer)
Phylis Geller (Producer)
Wendy Wasserstein (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Kultur
Manufacturer: Kultur
EAN: 9780769796253
Binding: DVD
ISBN: 0769796257
Number of items: 1
Format: Colour, DVD-Video, NTSC,
Release date: 2002-05-14
Universal product code (UPC): 320312625914
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 90 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1979-06-20
Language: English (Original Language)

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