RECOMMENDED

The housewives at the heart of Seanachaí Theatre Company’s “Bold Girls” have a right to feel desperate: life in war-torn Belfast has left them widowed and despondent. Although the self-deception that women impose on themselves and each other in order to seize happiness in an oppressively patriarchic society is familiar thematic territory, what lifts “Bold Girls” above mere melodrama is playwright Rona Munro’s bold format: interior monologues effortlessly weave into the action of the play; character details and narrative clues steadily yet subtly unfurl throughout; pockets of poetic dialogue and mysterious characters exist to provoke the imagination. Director Kimberly Senior capitalizes on these moments to infuse the production with arresting images and auditory elements that raise the stakes and heighten the play’s overall theatricality. Seanachaí is a Gaelic word meaning “storyteller” and this production could not have asked for four better theatrical raconteurs than the strong ensemble of women at the heart of this psychological tragic-comedy. (F.O. Almeida) 

Seanachaí Theatre Company’s “Bold Girls” plays at Victory Gardens Theatre, 2257 North Lincoln, (773)871-3000, through May 15.