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Hot Kitchen/SECOND SHIFT

Filament Incubator is presenting 8 plays in 8 months, creating opportunities for young playwrights to get their work on its feet and in front of an audience. The ambition of that is remarkable and, no matter the merit of any particular production in said slate, it’s an overall extremely impressive feat. It therefore pains me to say that their collaboration with Raw Matter on an original piece about domestication and the plight of women in the household just didn’t work for me.

The shockingly pink set with designated areas for specific household chores is a winner (the program doesn’t credit a set designer so I guess this was the purview of director/production manager Rebecca Hooton) and Daniela Pagliarello gives a dynamic performance, though who she is or what she’s trying to say is not nearly as clear as it needs to be. I’m beyond psyched to see the male-driven Incubator wholehearted make room for no-apologies female theatre but messy execution and a cluttered message served as an important reminder that not all good ideas work every time.