FRINGE REVIEW: The Artists' Women

All great artists are tortured, this overlong production argues. But here it's the audience that suffers most.

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FRINGE REVIEW: The Artists' Women

POSTED: Saturday, September 15, 2012, 2:55 PM

Filed Under: Arts | On the Fringe Theater

Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!

SHOW: The Artists’ Women

GROUP: YeuxVeuxBelle Collective

GENRE: Theater

ATTENDED: Fri., Sept 14, 8 p.m.

CLOSES: Sun., Sept. 16

BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Follow Camille Claudel on her journey into madness guided by the women of different artists throughout history. These women congregate in timeless Paris, France and share stories of love, betrayal, fear, and envy as they live with their artists and battle the muse, who will always come first.

WE THINK: With all due respect to Jonathan Richman, Pablo Picasso must’ve been called an asshole at some point. Monet, Duchamp and Rodin, too. All of the artists in The Artists’ Women are assholes, and their women — muses and artists in their own right — don’t come off too well, either. They’re prone to tantrums that undermine their talent, are called “bitch” and “cunt,” and, in Camille Claudel’s case, are locked away in an asylum. All great artists are tortured, this overlong production argues. But here it’s the audience that suffers most, subjected to a nearly three-hour parade of rageaholics, martyrs and drama queens who couldn’t come to a consensus on whether to play it straight or camp it up.

—M.J. Fine

Posted by M.J. Fine @ 2:55 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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