a delightfully tense, absurdist investigation of the facade of the ‘perfect’ housewife and American mid-50s suburbia
New York City-based Theatrical duo Xhloe and Natasha have arrived at Soho Theatre with a double bill of shows: What If They Ate The Baby and A Letter To Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First, performing on alternating nights. What If They Ate The Baby is an experimental thrill that considers the falsehood of the perfect image of the doting housewife of 1950s-esque suburbia.
Xhloe and Natasha take on the roles of two women: Dotty and Shirley. Over the course of an hour, the piece cycles with repeated dialogue that evolves over time, punctuated by dance breaks that hint at an intriguing interior life. Dotty and Shirley’s lives are not, by any measure, what they seem. Between spaghetti casseroles and obsessive cleaning, questions about sex and dead bodies under the floorboards emerge, throwing the audience into exciting and gritty territory.
A set reminiscent of a 1950s cookie-cutter kitchen, with black and white linoleum tile floors, the table and window an eerie combination of colours that feel, in an undefinable way, slightly ‘off.’ The atmosphere is off-kilter and intentionally obscure, setting the audience up for brewing questions from the get-go.
Xhloe and Natasha give excellent performances, embodying their characters repressed desires and fear of being watched with carefully orchestrated revelations. Dotty, dressed entirely in pink, and Shirley, dressed entirely in yellow, move with choreographed specificity, their body language a means of communication in and of itself. Their makeup, exaggerated rosy cheeks and lips, seems to melt away as the piece progresses in time with the devolution of their story and image. Never missing a beat, Xhloe and Natasha genuinely amaze with their synchronicity and punchy performances, the architecture of the complex web of desires and fears that drive the piece slowly coming to the fore.
Xhloe and Natasha have achieved a great feat as writers of this piece. Using a topic that has seen many iterations in entertainment, they manage to cultivate a unique experience of the lives of these women. The continued relevance of the suppression of women’s voices and experience has regenerated interest in the setting of What If They Ate The Baby. Any Theatre-goer interested in a unique perspective and distinct execution of the hidden lives of suburbia would be hard pressed to find a more interesting production to attend.