Catfights galore in The Women

ARE women really their own worst enemies? The classic 1936 play The Women by Clare Boothe Luce certainly portrays them so.

Staged countless times on Broadway and adapted onto film three times (the most recent 2008 production starring Meg Ryan), the play centres on catfights and backstabbing among women over - what else? - men. But it also reaffirms certain bonds between women that are good, kind and unbreakable. And it remains one of the few plays in modern theatre's canon that features a large all-female cast of characters.

Now The Women is set to be staged at the Esplanade Studio in a Malay translation directed by the talented Alin Mosbit. And she's assembled a cast of mostly popular TV actresses who, unknown to many, actually started out in theatre before venturing into TV. They include Siti Hajar Gani and Nadia Din - as well as the priceless stage actress Nora Samosir.