Review: INTIMATE APPAREL is Delightfully Shocking at Actor's Express

Dark black curtains close in around a tight stage - the audience sits together in one section facing three separate beds neatly spaced out and decorated thoughtfully to indicate three separate playing spaces. The lighting is low and hugs you and your fellow audience members even closer to the playing space. The ambiance is delightfully intimate.

Postponed by Covid but now back on its feet, Actor's Express has opened INTIMATE APPAREL by Lynn Nottage. The show is a story about those on the fringes of history, the underdogs, and the destitute who make do with their given circumstances. I feel like calling it intimate again would be redundant but there is no better word to describe the closeness of the material.

One of my favorite things about attending shows at Actor's Express is how interactive the audiences are with each show. Audience members laugh freely, gasp freely, and even occasionally speak their minds aloud freely. It creates a unifying experience for all theatre-goers that evening.

This show follows our heroine Esther as she navigates her life as a black woman and a seamstress in the early 1900s. Her craft is of the highest caliber and her clientele include all walks of life - from millionaires' wives to women of the night - across New York City. What does she create? Intimates - corsets, dressing robes, undergarments and the like.

Under Ibi Owolabi's thoughtful direction, this story illustrates our collective, deep desire for intimacy in such a human way on stage that it touched a deep part of my soul. To see Esther's dogged desire to find a high quality connection despite her circumstances made me feel less alone. At the end of the day, many of us have a strong desire to share our lives with someone special and it was heart-wrenching to see just how far Esther was willing to go.

Vallea E. Woodbury as Esther reminded me very much of Madame C. J. Walker. (If you haven't watched Walker's biopic on Netflix you should.) Woodbury crafts an Esther who is equal parts masterful tactician, wizard of her craft, and vulnerably lonely. Woodbury's emotional tenacity and strength make her the perfect heroine.

Mayme may be going to hell in a handbasket, but at least Valeka Jessica will look damn fine on her way down. Flirtatious to a T, Jessica scintillates as a luxurious woman of the night who finds herself in more than a few unwanted scrapes. Terry Henry plays the stalwart and grounded Mrs. Dickson. Full of wisdom, Mrs. Dickson delights in the drama of the girls she houses in her boarding home as Henry's strong presence and powerful voice bring her to life.

Marcus Hopkins-Turner deftly delivers as the mysteriously wonderful George. His ability to bring a rich sense of full life to his character illustrates how strong of a performer Hopkins-Turner is on stage. Candi Vandizandi plays Mrs. Van Buren and is so coquettishly sweet in such an endearing way that you can't help but love her. Vandizandi's girlish charms are highlighted by the bouquets of lace Mrs. Van Buren is often wearing.

Ross Benjamin as Mr. Marks has such a soft and genuine presence it occasionally took me aback. You can see the lights of Benjamin's eyes shine and change as Mr. Marks navigates his story of quiet hope, singular despair, and a shared passion for textiles. Benjamin's thoughtfulness is clear as he crafts almost imperceptibly delicate moments on stage.

The set is phenomenal. I often felt as if I were watching a painting come to life. Rich drapes hang from corner after corner after corner and cover a litany of different walls. Apartment stores pop out from nowhere and a small sewing machine dances across the stage before landing in the spotlight.

For a show about clothing, the costume department must have had excellently good fun. You can tell by the quality of attention to each piece on stage. Beads, ruffles, lace, silk, chiffon, organza, muslin, the list of quality materials onset is endless and the way they come together on the bodies of each actor is flawless.

The lighting creates wonderful liminal spaces where letters come to life and shops blossom into space. Gentle highlights push and pull focus at just the right moments as more dramatic moments have their time to shine as well.

The soundscape elevates it all - the air filled with the sounds of the sea and of the forest before trading places with an old piano. Although at times I found the harsh start/stop of a period piano was a bit distracting from the main action on stage at the time.

If you're in the mood to be shocked, awed, and wowed by a fantastic story, you are in the mood for INTIMATE APPAREL at Actor's Express.

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INTIMATE APPAREL runs through April 17, 2022 at Actor's Express. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.

Photo credit: Casey Gardner Ford

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