Reviewed by Judy Richter
It's said that clothes make the
man, but in many ways, clothes are even more important to a woman.
This
becomes abundantly clear in the hilarious "Love, Loss, and What I Wore," directed by Karen
Carpenter and
presented by San Jose Repertory Theatre by special arrangement with Daryl Roth.
Two
sisters, Delia Ephron and the late Nora Ephron, based the show on the book by Ilene Beckerman and then added some flourishes
of their own.
The
format is simple: Five actresses, each in black, sit on bar chairs lined up
downstage and read from scripts placed on music stands in front of them. During
the course of about 100 minutes without intermission, they become various
characters who have 28 stories to tell about how clothing played a role in
important parts of their lives.
In
this production, Dawn Wells plays Ginger, or Gingy, who serves as narrator and who
describes her outfits starting with a Brownie uniform and continuing until her
4-year-old granddaughter has fun trying on Grandma's dresses and shoes. During
that span of time, Gingy loses her mother at an early age, gets married and
divorced several times and suffers the loss of a child.
Wells
is joined onstage by Dee Hoty, Sandra Tsing Loh, Ashley Austin Morris and Zuzanna Szadkowski, who represent different ages and
body types.
Szadkowski,
a gifted comedienne, provides one of the evening's highlights with her
monologue about purses. Starting with "I hate my purse," she
describes how it has become the repository for necessities as well as flotsam
and jetsam like lipstick tubes without tops, spilled Tic Tacs, old receipts and
more. Of course, her purse is so stuffed with stuff that she can never find
what she's looking for. But shopping for a new purse is a traumatic ordeal. By
the time she had finished her monologue, every woman in the audience was
roaring with laughter of recognition.
Other
segments involve the women going to their closets to discover they have nothing
to wear. Trying on new clothes in a dressing room is another ordeal. Morris,
another gifted comedienne, talks about shoes. High heels look great, but they
hurt her feet so much that she can't think. Choosing between looking good and
thinking isn't easy, as she learns.
All
five women chime in on their experiences with bras, especially their first bras,
a right of passage every woman must endure. Then there's the ritual of choosing
a prom dress.
Hoty
has a moving story about a woman who is diagnosed with breast cancer, undergoes
reconstructive surgery and gets a strategically placed tattoo to celebrate her
recovery.
Loh
and Morris team up to talk about two California women choosing wedding attire,
a touching segment that ends with them marrying each other.
This
2009 play has been presented throughout the country with the same format. In
many cases, one team of star actresses will appear for a short run, followed by
another team and so on.
The
reason for its success is obvious. Through comedy and poignancy, clothing
becomes a metaphor for women's lives. Women recognize themselves and can laugh
at themselves. Men in the audience can enjoy the show, too, because they've
seen women through some of these experiences.
It's
a great way to laugh long and loud.