No Reservation

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Many plays claim to be feminist statements but very rarely are convincing as such. Elizabeth Hess’ intriguing No Reservation using a cast of four actresses of different nationalities representing global goddesses who crash a dinner party to which they were not invited borders on creating a mythic feminist poetry. Inspired by such works as “The Dinner Party” by Judy Chicago, “Some Living American Women Artists/Last Supper” by Mary Beth Edelson and the dinner scene in Top Girls by Caryl Churchill, No Reservation is both a tribute to those works and a theatrical extension of them.

Jane Catherine Shaw’s set offers a table with three place settings and unseen name cards. As the four women goddesses appear from the underground, one by one, they discover that they have not been invited to what is most likely a celebration of the patriarchy. The goddesses represent the four elements, Water, Fire, Earth and Wind, whose powers have been denied in recent years and they want to restore their vitality.

Wittily dressed by costume consultant Shaw, each wears something connected to their power and equally representative of what is considered women’s work: Maya Mays as Mother of Waters has black and white hoses wrapped around her; Akiko Aizawa as Night Fire wears a helmet made up of kitchen tongs, a necklace made up of Brillo pads and wields a cookie sheet like a shield; Ninoshka De Leon Gill as Earth Goddess wears a colander strapped to her stomach like a womb and has metal sieves over her breasts; and Hess as Wind Spirit is covered in billowing white garbage bags strapped to her waist as though she were a homeless woman being buffeted by the wind. Lighting designer Grayson Sepulveda subtly changes the mood when the lights shift from blue to red and back again.

Each initially appears performing mainly in one style (Mays uses dance and movement, while Hess uses declaiming, etc.) Eventually they all dance and chant both individually and chorally. At some point in the second half of the play, each speaks in her native tongue (Japanese, Creole, German and Mayan) which gives them collectively a global feel. The work is also informed by “Butoh dance, Haida Mask work, Egungun Masquerade, Persian Veil work and Heightened Language.” Without referencing any one national mythology, the goddesses appear to represent all of them.

In the first half of the play, the goddesses appear and recount their powers which have been diminished over the years since the rise of the power of the patriarchy. In the second half as they each strip off their costume down to the same black leotards making them all sisters under the skin, they each tell a tragic story of a female of a different age who has suffered greatly: a single mother who is shot by a teenager, a five-year-old girl who has been in exile from her country, an old woman who wanders the streets like a bag lady, and a biracial teenager who is raped and left for dead. While this sounds like it is depressing, the vivid performances raise the stories to both rituals and tributes.

Conceived, written and directed by Elizabeth Hess, No Reservation is a celebration of “the lost feminine to give voice to all who have been discarded, silenced and overlooked.” The performances by members of The Hess Collective are very intense and the language rises to the level of poetry. At a brief 60 minutes, the play does not overstay its welcome or become agitprop. While No Reservation has no solution or answer to the question of the female power overtaken by the patriarchy, it remains a tribute to women over the centuries.

No Reservation (through February 23, 2025)

The Downstairs at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, 64 East 4^th Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 646-430-5374 or visit http://www.lamama.org/no-reservation/

Running time: 65 minutes without an intermission