(Jason Zinoman’s article ran in The New York Times, 2/16; the above video clip is not from the current show.)
Who says girls can’t play football? Or that you don’t go to Bushwick in Brooklyn to see a play? And if you think deconstructionist, experimental theater must be dry and dreary, the Half Straddle, an emerging troupe, has another surprise for you.
“In the Pony Palace/Football” is a giddily exuberant confection that manages to conjure a distinctively eccentric theatrical world by tweaking one of the most familiar American subcultures: high school football. Tina Satter, the troupe’s artistic director, who wrote and stages this show, uses a large cast of archetypes, including cheerleaders, coaches, band members, a mascot and a quartet of strutting, trash-talking players. What makes this portrait stand out initially is that all the boys on the team are played by girls, but the point of this casting is not to mock so much as to make you see this world anew.