Playwright: Reina Hardy. At: Babes With Blades Theatre Company at Lincoln Square in the Berry Methodist Church, 4754 N. Leavitt St. Tickets: 773-904-0391; www.babeswithblades.org; $15-$20. Runs through: Sept. 22
The Society of Lady Detectives (S.O.L.D.) is a special branch of Her Majesty's Secret Service, usually assigned to matters of national security, but lately one of its agents, against the advice of her commanding officer, has taken it upon herself to prowl the streets of Whitechapel in a solo undercover operation to capture a Ripper-styled murderer. In the course of her patrols, super-sleuth Susan Swayne encounters a distraught young matron who reports her husband missing. Further investigation points to the errant spouse beingwell, not the man that his bewildered bride thinks he is.
That was where Reina Hardy's one-act play, submitted to the first Joining Sword And Pen competition in 2006, left usi.e., wanting more. Six years later, what began as a simple cross-dressing farce provides the premise for a full-length exploration of gender issues as the women of S.O.L.D. confront the ambiguities of the status quo in Victorian England. By the time intolerance and rigid sexual roles have been identified as the source of social disordersome things don't changethe question of what constitutes the female "natural" sphere emerges as more complex than even its defenders imagine.
These weighty issues are buoyed up by the extravagant spectacle we have come to anticipate in productions generated by the Babes With Blades Theatre Company. In addition to the standard swordplay, fight designer Libby Beyreis serves up an exemplary demonstration of Bartitsu wrestling (aka, Sherlock Holmes' secret weapon), umbrella and sword-cane fighting, a flying-petticoat fracas utilizing an array of household objects, knifework with a grisly hashshashin dagger and a splendiferous surprise-finish to the final girl-power showdown. Oh, and did I mention that the women of S.O.L.D. execute these athletics dressed in corsets, bell skirts and frequently only theirahem!unmentionables, in locales ranging from millinery shops to opium dens?
The fundamental test of action-oriented drama, however, is whether you'd still have a story if the stunts were diminished, or even eliminated altogether. Not to worryHardy's script displays an articulate mastery of romantic-fiction conventions for this period, while director Dan Foss and a cast led by Lisa Herceg as the indomitable Swayne strike just the right note of proto-feminist audacity. It's easy to envision Swayne and her feisty colleagues starring in a series of Steampunk-marketed graphic novels.