It’s Bible-thumper vs. the Pie Harlots in this fun showdown.
It’s 1909, and a new brothel has come to Minneapolis. But they moved across the street from one righteous mama — Bible-thumping righteous, not surfer-dude righteous. It all begins one blessed evening when daughter Virginia is exalting the Lord through song: “Thou art great and I am shameful.” In the black of night, she is interrupted by sinful (or compelling?) sounds of “animal lust.”
The next day, the family of three goes to the brothel. They bring pie and are offered whiskey. The mother declines the libation and requests that the women leave the neighborhood and repent for their sins. “They’re lowering property value,” she says. As the mother squabbles with a working girl, brother Bart is stupefied by the women’s breasts and continually lowers his head under the command of his mother. Distracted by the bickering, the mother doesn’t notice that Virginia has snuck off with the redhead seductress.
Once the mother finds out her daughter has run off with one of the women she is simply exasperated and says they are to meet at the Temperance River in fifteen minutes. The two parties convene on a dirt path. The harlots bare corsets on one side of the shoot-out while Mama Righteous slings her bible. Virginia walks out to the middle of the showdown. She stands at the crossroads of sexual liberation and her mother’s approval.
From Mama Righteous’ stern scowl, to the ladies’ loose, seductive movements, the actors have nailed their comedic roles. James Daniels has recreated the classic brothel story in the Old West and added in an affirming voice of sexuality that rings joyfully through the homes of puritans and patrons alike.
Does Virginia chose the path of “righteousness” or of forbidden love? Find out in Daniels’ short, Pie Noon.
