Here's my review of Lynn Nottage's play Intimate Apparel that was performed October 20-22 at Vaughn-Eames Zella Fry Theatre. Don't worry, I took careful notes during the play so I'm looking from them for help. First of all, I didn't know the Vaughn-Eames building had a theatre, much less an art gallery. Vaughn-Eames has both. The gallery is on the first floor and so is the Zella Fry Theatre, an L-shaped studio off to the side of the building near the rear entrance. It was a cold fall night and the theater was cold as well. It's a small theatre like the University Center's Little Theatre, but doesn't seat nearly as much people. My guess that there were 100 seats available for the sold-out show. The stage was so close to the audience that at times it appeared the players were conversing with the people seated nearest them.
Anyway, on to the play, the most important part. Until this point, I had never heard of Lynn Nottage before--I don't follow the playwright circuit religiously, so I didn't know what to expect. I was already pissed at my professor from another English class that she made us attend this play. The student discount of $10 was better used elsewhere, not seeing a play in a cold theatre on a windy autumn night. The play was divided into two acts. There was an intermission after the first act where people went to the vending machines across the hall to buy snacks and drinks.
The play is set in 1905 New York City where the main character Esther Mills, played sympathetically by Rachelle Dorce. She portrayed the thirty-something unmarried African American seamstress with such sensitivity and vulnerability, there were so many instances where I wanted to go up and give her a hug. This is a woman who has lucked out in the love department and finds a thinly veiled appearance of George Armstrong, a West Indian worker who turns out to be a good-for-nothing con man and an illerate. She's friends with Mayme, an African American piano-playing prostitute who drowns her sorrows in booze and ragtime music. Mayme, played brilliantly by Brigette Stiegman, gave Dorce a run for her money. She stole every scene she was in and garnered many laughs from the audience. She provided comic relief when necessary, but definitely explored her dark side adequately--included her backstory of the father beating her as a child for studying piano and her displeasure at the brutality of the clients who come to her apartment.
Rounding out the cast is Walmbegan N'Dure as George Armstrong, Anne Ackhart as Mrs. Van Buren and Daniel Pellicano as Mr. Marks. N'Dure, who is originally African, put on a very effective West Indian accent during his "letters" to Esther that he dictated to the audience and his wedding night with Esther illicited a strong female response from the audience--especially during their awkward kissing and him stripping down to just his underpants. Ackhart as the wealthy white socialite stuck in an unhappy marriage gave the play continuity, even though she didn't strike a chord with me as some of the other players did. I should give special mention to Pellicano portraying Mr. Marks, the Jewish immigrant cloth merchant who secretly loves Esther, but doesn't know how to tell Esther how he feels about her. I feel Nottage did this deliberately. Esther, I presume, feel sthe same way about him, but due to the fact that they come from two different worlds and the social mores at the time will not permit them to be together. That doesn't stop Dorce and Pellicano from openly flirting with each other throughout the play and the gentle modesty of Mr. Marks.
There's a beautiful and revelatory scene near the end of the play that displays where Esther's feelings truly lie--and they're not with George. I don't want to spoil it for any newcomers to the play. This play has won several awards in drama and rightly so. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing other productions of this wonderful play by Lynn Nottage and she's definitely a playwright worth seeking out. She won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Ruined, which is next on my list of must-see plays.
No comments:
Post a Comment