Epic Theatre kicks off their page to stage season with a delightfully catty update to Clare Boothe Luce classic The Women retitled THESE RUTHLESS BITCHES. All of the original themes are still present: loyalty to men, the notion of the Ideal Woman, but everything is slightly sideways in that this re-telling takes place in a Women's Prison. Comparisons to Orange is the New Black are obvious and easy to make, but telling the story of upper class women in a prison rather than a parlor works surprisingly well. Instead of being captive by the rules of society, which may not ring as true for the audience today, these women are literally captive by the legal system and have merely transferred their social hierarchies and rules to a more drab environment.
