Review: LET.HER.RIP. at Stages Houston

To take the Matchgirls’ Strike of 1888 and blend it with Jack the Ripper makes a lot of sense; they are sisters in soul. Both episodes of history speak to the exploitation and vulnerability of women at the time, and playwright Maggie Lou Rader is using these two important events to speak to today in LET.HER.RIP. Stages Houston is launching the show’s world premiere this month, and it marks the first production helmed by Derek Charles Livingston, their latest artistic director. It also marks a first in that one of Stages Houston’s most celebrated board members is helping to produce, George C. Lancaster. It’s all hands on deck as the theatre takes on matchsticks mixed with murder in this brilliantly reimagined discourse on women of the Victorian era. This is the Stages show to see this year, because it singularly represents everything that the company is all about - intimate and intelligent shows that entertain as well as illuminate. 

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I walked into the opening night of LET. HER. RIP., with an embarrassing realization that I knew even minuscule trivia about Jack the Ripper, but did not know the significance of the Matchgirls’ Strike of 1888. But I think that is exactly where Maggie Lou Rader wants her audience, as the play begins with three women excitedly ecstatic over their victory in a labor dispute. But as usual with dramas, the joy is short-lived once the real dangers begin to surface. Someone is murdering women, and they started on the day of the landmark decision in favor of the matchgirls. But honestly, the play examines their lives far more than any deaths, and the show is much more a bawdy celebration of brassy real women and friendship in 1888. These common folk trailblazers live right in front of us, and we become connected to them and end up loving them. There’s an infectious joy in their protests and their loyalty to each other. And that is what makes LET. HER. RIP. work the most! 

The play has personal connections for Derek Charles Livingston, as he worked on script development with author Maggie Lou Rader when he was at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. So these two have intimate knowledge of the show, and it lends itself to a production that just seems so perfectly observed and right for this era. Often we look to the past for comment on the present, and LET.HER.RIP. has plenty to say, having been inspired by when Breonna Taylor was killed in 2020. The play feels like it is giving a fierce identity to women at a time when they were just starting to fight for their own power. But ingeniously, there is comedy, there is friendship, and plenty of great moments of joy here that make us ache when the world turns. These are the artists who can best serve this material. 

Director Derek Charles Livingston’s vision of this work hits the ground running from the very first scene. The energy of his production is displayed by his trio of actors, who come out strong and lively from the jump. They never let that energy lag throughout the entire two hours of the run time. Skyler Sinclair, Melissa Pritchett, and Rachel Omotoso completely transform into the three women. I didn’t even recognize Melissa for about half of act one, her characterization is so extremely well done. The same can be said for Skyler, who has never played a role this brazenly tough and vulnerable all at once. Rachel was new to me, but she held her own with two of Houston’s most accomplished thespians onstage with her. This company is on their “A game,” and it is an acting tour de force. The women hit every timing perfectly, and they execute comedy and drama with precision. This is a master class in how to create characters. 

Technically, this continues a Stages tradition of creating wonderfully executed staging in their unique space. Adi Cabral is credited as a dialect coach, and he has done wonders here. LET.HER.RIP. has some of the most natural-sounding accents that I have heard in a Houston production in a long time. Normally, we struggle a great deal with Irish or English dialects thanks to our Southern-trained ears, but these are wonderful. Liz Freese’s scenic design is well executed, with a burnt phosphorus edge surrounding a quite realistic-looking apartment from the time. Robert Leslie Meek’s sound design is impeccable as well, and see if you can spot famous Houston actors who provide voices for pre-recorded lines in the show. Stages even has several recordings of women singing protest songs (credited to Alli Villines)  that are just charming and well done. I need this soundtrack! Leah Smith’s costumes are period-perfect and even have intricate details like mud on the hems in the right spots. Christina R. Gianelli’s light design stays true to the timbre and mood throughout the evening.  

This is a first for Derek Charles Livingston as a director and the man who is running the artistic vision of Stages, and judging from LET.HER.RIP., the company is in wonderfully adept hands. This work speaks to the present, talks to us as a community, and explores the soul of the country, but all the while still entertains. It’s rare for the theater to juggle both quite this well. Maggie Lou Rader’s script is a wonderful mingling of history and character voices. You can tell she was also an actress, because her script lends itself handily to the actors. And this show has an immaculate cast and crew. LET.HER.RIP. is the show to see this summer! It will be one we will refer back to again and again. Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly, and the Matchstick Women would be proud. 

LET.HER.RIP. runs through June 22nd at Stages. There is parking in the garage attached to the Gordy, or you can seek out street parking around the area. Stages has a full bar, and you can bring drinks into the auditorium. The play runs two hours and has a fifteen-minute intermission. It has a lot of coarse language, and is probably not suitable for audience members below fifteen. 

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