Written by Dana Hall, No More Flowers is a short digital play streaming in the 8th annual National Women’s Theatre Festival from Ralegh, NC.
Hall herself plays Georgia O’Keefe, an American modernist artist (1887-1986), while Richard Sicular is Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist (1856-1939). Painter and psychoanalyst come together to talk creativity, suppression, and sex.
At just under 14 minutes, this is a sketch, an amuse bouche if you like, showing how two creative minds may misinterpret their own obsessions. Here, O’Keefe paints a flower and Freud sees the feminine genitalia.
Filmed on Zoom (or in a similar style), this manages to get a strong atmosphere and camaraderie betwen the actors, but of course its length means you may need to read around both real-life characters.
Whoever this might be about, though , is basically mansplaining to a professional woman who knows very well if there is any subtext around her work.
Freud (whose theories are now viewed with a wry gaze by many) comes across as a man obsessed with erections and the Electra complex, both of which give him barely disguised glee.
This would be an interesting piece for further development. I’m not going to star rate due to its brevity, but it is an enjoyable watch, well-written, and performed.
The National Women’s Theatre Festival continues with live and streamed shows into July.