Five Women Wearing The Same Dress

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Five women, five bridesmaids, each claiming a different but special relationship with the bride, Tracy, each wearing the same flowered colored bridesmaid dress. During the wedding, the bridesmaids would have looked picture perfect. Now at the reception on an expansive estate grounds in Knoxville, Tennessee, owned by Tracy’s parents, they would be expected to mingle with the guests maintaining their picture perfect lady-like demeanor.

The cast of Five Women Wearing The Same Dress

They don’t.

Written in 1993 by Alan Ball, Five Women Wearing The Same Dress carries a sympathetic understanding of the female mind: Intelligent, petty, insecure, determined, warding off and calculating personal attacks, flaunting confidence, determination and the wanting of revenge, finding common ground in their “womanality.”

Centering on familiar ground with weddings and wedding trappings, Five Women strikes a common chord with several theatre groups often producing it. Because of the brilliant writing and common ground, great lines, and distinctive characters it would be, and has been, all too easy for a cast to take a deep breath, and relax into the lines allowing the lines to speak for the characters.

The current production at the Playwright Theatre co-produced by Muse of Fire Theatre Company, directed by Robert Kramer doesn’t allow that to happen for one minute. It doesn’t matter if you’ve seen it several times, this production should not be missed. The cast of six wrap themselves snugly into their characters coming out swinging, stomping, laughing, mesmerizing, and yes, falling in love.

The ensemble cast carries cohesiveness, a belief in their characters in relationship to themselves and to each other, folded together with a source of energetic chemistry taking the breath away.

Muse of Fire began as a production company giving opportunity to young people ages 17-21 to try their wings in the theatre. With Five Women, the company expands its horizons to include professional productions.

The five women find solace and escape in Tracy’s younger sister’s upstairs bedroom. In the course of time, discover they have more in common with each other than they do with Tracy. On the road to that realization, they stumble over a rocky road lined with boulders, pebbles, hair pin curves, deep holes, and intense hilly country covered in overgrown vines Staying on the road is difficult, to say the least. They do, all five with their intense differing personalities.

On their journey they experience touching seriousness, serious funny, and “funnily” serious moments.

It’s June 1989. Tracy and Scott have just gotten married. The wedding reception happily rumbles around the estate. Champagne flows for the gorgeous happy couple. No one feels much pain. No one except…

Frances, a dyed in the wool Bible quoting Christian, innocent, naive, child-like, with a heart as big as her Christian boundaries allow comes to life through Tara Szabo. Szabo gives her a delicate sweetness floating on top of horrendous defensiveness. Her favorite line: “I’m a Christian. I don’t drink, smoke, etc.,” although she has no problem snooping around the bedroom every chance she gets.

Julie Rada plays Meredith, Tracy’s younger sister, with intense fire burning in her soul. Anger and frustration spiel from every pore of her being denying the femininity of her bridesmaid dress. She stomps, throws her weight around with loud sharp words, disgusted with the wedding, despising her parents whom she calls Fascists, yells and swears at her mother who calls upstairs frequently, refuses to join the reception, nearly comes unglued when she can’t find a joint to feed her pot smoking habit, until. Until in the heat of the afternoon, reveals a trembling horrid secret she has carried around since she was a small child. Rada entices tears of laughter, tears of heartbreak, and smiles of hope.

Andrea Rabold takes on the role of Trisha, a once-upon-a-time friend of Tracy’s, a basically nice person who’s been with a good many guys, but has never found one who measures up to her standards. Not the standards she settled for herself, but the standards she demands from a guy she never gets. Her frustration bubbles freely. Rabold molds Trisha with a concise degree of calculated risk. At one point she eggs Frances into near hysteria over her Christian conviction, enjoying it for the moment until she realizes she crossed an unmarked line.

Boni McIntyre not only wears the bridesmaid dress, but also wears the persona of Georgeanne, Tracy’s middle school best buddy, resenting the fact she is married to the “biggest piece of wet toast I have ever met.” McIntyre grabs all the attention she can get for Georgeanne, with bottle in hand, playing her like a raunchy tune on a fine violin. Dramatic and self indulgent, Georgeanne becomes livid over Tommy Valentine who has given her the impression he likes her, now spends most of his time cooing over a woman in a backless dress. For one who appears to be hip and smart, Georgiana wears her naivety on her shoulder. Tommy a one-time finance of Tracy’s has not only been with most of the bridesmaids, but several others as well. His reckless womanizing seems to have escaped Georgeanne who wants to believe what he told her was true. Her smarts slide off her shoulder like a broken bra strap. Rabold gives us an entertaining, humorous, sad, frightened, and lonely woman all at the same time.

Straight out, straight forward, wrapped in femininity, Sally Nell Mundell bubbles as Scott’s sister, Mindy, flaunting her lesbianism with selfish and selfless pride, compassionate when she chooses to be, smug when the mood strikes her, perceptive when her curdled mind settles down. She knows things and she knows people taking great pride in inserting strategic bits of information to the others, biting when it deems her, comforting when called upon. Mundell has Mindy nailed to the wall in characteristics, mood swings, humor, and pathos.

Being the one man in a cast of five women, Christian Mast plays Tripp Davenport, an usher, who oozes with masculine confidence as he falls for Trisha. Protecting her hurt confused feelings, she meets his words with heavy sarcasm creating several humorous moments. Rather than being rebuffed by her spliced tongue, Tripp perseveres. He means what he says, and he says what he means until he wears her down. Where it will go, how far it will go doesn’t matter within the context of the play. What’s important is Trisha begins to show an acceptance with Tripp’s insistence.

Herein lies one of the beauties of the play. None of the issues are solved. None of the issues brought out into the open can be solved. It’s a wedding reception, a party. It is, however, a slice of life skillions can identify with plied with natural believable conversation.

On a set designed by Sarah Roshan, the lush spacious bedroom reflects the expansive estate spreading out just beyond the walls.

The issues of the five women bounce from the ridiculous to the sublime expressing disappointments, smashed dreams, and crumbled expectations, revealing a desperate wanting to know who they are and why they are. Each one cries for a sense of realness in their lives. No one knows how to get it. Playing off each other tempers rise, humor kicks in as they all vie for attention playing the games of one-upsmanship with each other.

They all come together in compassionate shock when Meredith hints at a frightening incident when she was a child. These five women discover they have more in common with each other than once thought, demonstrating pettiness can be dropped when a life-changing episode raises its ugly head.

Karalyn Star Pytel designed the lighting with her innate magical quality of knowing precisely what scene demands what level of brightness. Mast matches the sound requirements with like attention.

It is little wonder this production has been extended into June with its high energy, thought-provoking entertainment.