Stitching Together a Fate: 'Intimate Apparel'

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN COMPLETE STRANGERS can result in either well-matched couples or crushing disappointment, as many Match.com users can attest.

Seamstress Esther Mills (Deidra LaWan Starnes) learns the difference the hard way in Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel," currently staged by African Continuum Theatre Company. Set in 1905 Manhattan, the play examines the realities of love through a filter of race and gender.

Esther pins her hopes on letters from George (Zuanna Sherman), a lonely man who writes her while working on the Panama Canal. A designer of the titular and titillating category of garment, the African-American Esther befriends clients ranging from an unhappily married white socialite (Susan Lynskey) to a gin-swilling black prostitute (Annette Grevious).

Both women help the illiterate Esther pen her letters as a way of escaping their own disappointments. Only Esther's landlady (Jewell Robinson) discourages the correspondence, warning Esther against the smooth-talking George.

Meanwhile, Esther also grapples with her feelings for Mr. Marks (Daniel Eichner), a kindly Orthodox Jewish fabric salesman, and her dreams of opening her own beauty parlor.

The correspondence with George grows more mutually fervent until the pair decides to marry. When George arrives in New York and the deed is done, the newlyweds face disillusionment and its shattering consequences.

» Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE; through May 18, $29-$35; 202-399-7993.

Written by Express contributor Erin Trompeter
Photo courtesy Cliff Russell/Russell Visuals