The Inferior Sex Proves Superior at Trinity Rep

The cast of The Inferior Sex. Photo by Mark Turek/ courtesy of Trinity Rep.

*I’d love to learn more about the decision to intercut the play with more fantastical scenes such as the one in which the women all dress up and dance around in fifties attire.

So, this is a play that blends realism and magicalism. Without those interstitial scenes, the play would totally still work, right? It’s a comedy, it’s a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to work at a magazine. But what the interstitial scenes are doing is letting us understand the emotional experience of what the women are going through at the time. This is what the women of the 1970s were navigating: this idea of what they’re being told a woman is, what a woman should do. The expectations we should have were very low in terms of ambition — we shouldn’t expect to have a career and lead things. We’re meant to just be in the kitchen, raise our babies and make things beautiful. And the women are really pushing up against that. The women don’t all have an example of what it is they want to be yet because they’re the ones defining it for themselves. So that’s why these moments exist.

And that’s also what Shirley Chisholm is talking about as part of her campaign —  the role of women, the role of Black women and what limitations are being placed on women and Black people in this country. Why aren’t we pushing past this? Why aren’t more people getting louder about it? Why haven’t changes been made? And the answer to that is these are the social expectations and limitations that are placed on women at the time. So, those interstitial scenes are planting that idea. And in the final scene with Shirley Chisholm [played by Jackie Davis], that’s when we see her cut through the noise, shut it all off and talk directly to everyone and say no, now this is where we are, this is what to do and this is how we’re meant to move forward.

*One thing I absolutely loved about this play was how fully realized these characters are — I felt like I recognized or at least caught glimpses of women in my own life in each one and every one of them. Did you have favorites and/or did you find some more challenging to write for than others?

I love this question so much. One of the hardest things about writing a nine-character play is making sure that each character has a full life and that you recognize aspects of these individuals. My sweet spot as a playwright is usually three to five characters. I also wanted to write a comedy because I hadn’t written one before, so that was another challenge.

But in terms of the characters… Okay, so I love Vera [played by Anne Scurria]. I love her because she’s right. As much as we don’t want to hear it, when she says that magazines lose money when Black women are on the cover… I hate that reality, but it is a reality, right? I needed a character who was going to have the experience to be able to say the things that needed to be said, as much as you don’t want it to be true. But she’s making a valid point and we have the data to back that up. Vera is also so confident and arrogant and bold and unapologetic, and that’s just fun to write.

And then Madeleine [Madeleine Russell], I love her so much because she is someone who has a dream for something she wants to do and no talent whatsoever to be able to do it. But she also has access to be able to learn. I love that she doesn’t give up. She’s like, ‘Danny, send me to Paris!’ And it takes a certain class to be able to say, ‘Alright, I can’t do this thing, I want to learn and I’m going to make it happen.’ And even if you don’t have the money, it takes ambition and drive and determination.

Anne Scurria as Vera and Madeleine Russell as Madeleine. Photo by Mark Turek/ courtesy of Trinity Rep.

Penny [Madeleine Barker], on the other hand, was someone I had to really get to know because I’m not a mom. The other thing about this time period is if women were pregnant, they weren’t in the workplace. And Penny has to work because her husband is struggling after being in Vietnam. It makes the conversation around getting paid on time more complicated because you’re talking about someone who does not have a trust fund. Someone who is living pay check to pay check and has a child to feed with another on the way. That’s a deeper, richer conversation even in the midst of a comedic play. And it’s also part of the intersectionality conversation. Having Penny in the play just shifts all of the conversations they’re having about the role of women in the workplace and the role of women at home and the respect we should have for both of these women who are doing work to support their families. I enjoyed getting to know her and deepen that understanding of her concerns. I don’t think any characters were hard to write, some just took time to get to know and Penny is definitely one of them.

Madeleine Barker as Penny. Photo by Mark Turek/ courtesy of Trinity Rep.

And then Connie [Angelique M. C-Dina] and Gwen [Geri-Nikole Love], of course, they’re my heart — getting to write those characters and trying to show what it means and what it feels like to work at a PWI (predominantly white institution) as each of these women have such ambition.

Oh, and I love me some Sandra [Rachel Dulude]. Some questions that actors have had is, ‘What does Sandra think about marriage?’ Because she’s postponed her wedding so she can have a job. What is interesting about the 1970s is it wasn’t the 40s and 50s when there’s just this expectation of marriage. Back then, most women didn’t go to college, and those who did went to college to meet the man they were going to marry. The 1960s changed a lot of those ideals. And then the war changed things again when the men left. And so, what I love about Sandra is she doesn’t quite know what she wants. She’s also seen examples of marriage where she’s like, ‘I don’t really want to get tied down into that.’ But she knows she loves this guy and she knows she loves her job, and she’s trying to figure out how to do both. So that part’s been fun to talk actors through. There’s no one answer: it’s complicated.

*Which leads me to another aspect I loved: none of the women were ever vilified for having different perspectives. Even if you didn’t agree with something they said or how a situation was handled, i.e. Sandra’s initial reaction to Connie’s revelation, you understand where they’re coming from. Nothing is painted as purely black or white.

Good, I’m glad! I wanted it to seem more complicated than that. In life we’ll hopefully have long relationships that allow us to see as people grow and change from who they were when you first met… And you will change along the way, as well. You get to wrestle with values and with ideas that are completely different from yours. The beautiful thing about theatre is it allows us to live in a world with multiple truths. Not irrefutable facts, but lived experiences that are true for one individual and yet may not be true for someone else. These women are all wrestling with their truths, and the values that they’re wanting to put forth and how they want to move and operate in the world.

Rachel Dulude (foreground) as Sandra and Angelique M. C-Dina (background) as Connie. Photo by Mark Turek/ courtesy of Trinity Rep.

And the situation with Sandra… I think in any situation with anyone whose loved one harms someone else… You know this loved one in one certain way and you love them immensely for it, but when you learn that they committed harm, it’s a shock to the system. How do you marry those two? And then if you believe the person who was harmed, then what does that mean about you that you love this person who is able to commit harm? All those things happen and Sandra has to make a powerful, important and difficult decision. And she doesn’t have a lot of time to do it! That’s the beauty of a drama, right? You make it where it’s a pressure cooker. I’m really glad that that was something that satisfied you as an audience member.

*The ending was satisfying too in that all the characters had a happy ending, at least in the sense that the magazine didn’t go under, and they all ended up where they wanted to be, for the most part.

Yes, everyone has a happy ending. Madeleine learns to cook, and no one will be poisoned anymore, which is great!

It’s a complicated ending, too. The magazine transformed because of Gwen and Connie, right? But by the end of the play, there are no Black women working at that magazine. They’re back to where they started, minus Connie. And that’s the conversation around intersectionality that we’re having. What is not going on here? What are we missing in these opportunities to engage that allow difference to really be the thing that builds us, strengthens us, challenges us and allows us to grow? In  ‘72 it didn’t quite happen, and that’s why we all are here now and why a play like this exists. But it is a happy ending… It’s just also a, ‘wait a second, what’s going on with this picture?’

Rachel Dulude as Sandra, Rachael Warren as Joan, Madeleine Russell as Madeleine, and Madeleine Barker as Penny. Photo by Mark Turek/ courtesy of Trinity Rep.