Martina's Playhouse

“In Martina’s Playhouse everything is up for grabs. The little girl of the title oscillates from narrator to reader to performer and from the role of baby to that of mother. While the roles she adopts may be learned, they are not set, and she moves easily between them. Similarly, in filmmaker Peggy Ahwesh’s playhouse of encounters with friends, objects aren’t merely objects but shift between layers of meaning. Men are conspicuously absent, a ‘lack’ reversing the Lacanian/Freudian constructions of women as Ahwesh plays with other possibilities."

--Kathy Geritz, program notes (Berkeley: Pacific Film Archive, 1990)

"…If the unprecedented success of Pee-Wee Herman suggests (let's hope) a potential crisis in masculinity, then Martina's Playhouse signals that the equally artificial construct of femininity is ready to explode."

--Manohla Dargis, Village Voice

With Martina Torr, Jennifer Montgomery

This title is only available on Pistolary! Films and Videos of Peggy Ahwesh.