ARTS & CULTURE
Trodding the Boards Brian Sands bsnola2@hotmail.com
5 Women Wearing the Same Dress at Playmakers Theater through Sept. 8
To the lesbians, gay men and straight folks who want to avoid the magnificent takeover of the French Quarter and environs known as Southern Decadence, I have something for you to do Labor Day weekend and the following one as well. To those local gay men who, after Decadence’s inundation of maleness, want to reacquaint themselves with the world of those with no Y chromosomes, I can suggest a field trip for September 6, 7, or 8. No matter which group you fall into, head north, across Lake Pontchartrain, towards Covington and its Playmakers Theater which is kicking off its 65th season with the thoroughly enjoyable 5 Women Wearing the Same Dress. Written by Alan Ball before his Emmy Award for Six Feet Under and Oscar for American Beauty, this dramedy concerns five bridesmaids during a lavish society wedding in Knoxville, Tennessee. Ball populates his quintet with two friends of the bride who represent two separate subspecies of woman-withman-trouble; a young devoutly religious type; the lipstick lesbian sister of the groom; and the tough as nails younger sister of the bride in whose bedroom the show takes place. The first act occurs after the wedding ceremony but before the reception; the second during the reception as flirtations with various bartenders, musicians and guests percolate. Although 5 Women debuted off-Broadway in 1993 (with a cast that included Allison Janney as the lesbian) and some of its references seem a bit
dated, it’s amazing how prescient Ball was by including some weighty themes that make the script seem, at times, as though it was written yesterday. If 5 Women sometimes appears as though it’s a gay man’s view of how women act and interact, that doesn’t necessarily make it inaccurate and, if occasionally slicked up with manufactured conflicts, it certainly feels all of a piece. Ball includes some great one-liners but as they emerge from the characters themselves, it doesn’t do them justice to quote them out of context. One exception: “If I get to Heaven and there’s not an open bar, God will have some serious explaining to do.” While generally well-written with many great stretches of involving material, at times Ball seems to be merely treading water; the second act, in particular, feels padded, but also contains some of the best writing and most moving passages. None of these criticisms matter, however, to Director Anysia Genre and her cast of 6 (the 5 women and 1 man who comes on late, but significantly, in the proceedings). Genre first attracted my attention in 2007 as the lead in the Actor’s Theatre of New Orleans’ production of Boy Gets Girl for which she would go on to win the Ambie Award that year for Best Actress in a Play. Genre has now risen to become President of Playmakers’ Board of Directors and emerged as an astute director (her Loot, in 2015, dazzled). For 5 Women, Genre has staged it fluidly and paced it well, creating a natural ebb and flow among these put upon bridesmaids. With one of the best ensembles Playmakers has ever fielded, 5 Women more than justifies the long drive across the Causeway (of
H N S A R C A E RA T X E
(on floor) Jaci Rai Guidry, Amy Schneida, (on bed) Erin Kate Young, Kathryn Merris Scott and Janie McNulty in 5 Women Wearing the Same Dress
course, if you live on the North Shore, you have no excuse to miss this). Clad in their pistachio green(!) dresses, these five actresses cohere into an utterly believable group of friends and relatives. Erin Kate Young follows up her exuberant performance as Richard Henry Lee in Playmakers’ recent 1776 with a more complex portrayal of a woman who’s grown wary of men...and with good reason. Entering with a bottle of champagne that she treats as a baby does a bottle of milk, Janie McNulty avoids the potential bathos of a woman in a loveless marriage. Finding every comic nugget in Ball’s script, McNulty knows just how to toss off a line as she shapes her character to create a fully-realized multi-dimensional portrait of a woman on the verge. As the pious virgin, though Jaci Rai Guidry has only a few roles to her credit, through some alchemical stage magic, she takes her “sappy lines” (as the NYTimes described them), many of which consist of “I’m a Christian”, and transforms them into a wry, yet subtle, commentary on her character,
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layering her with the slyest of humor yet never descending into parody. I’d like to see what Guidry could do with one of Chekhov’s dewy women. Initially, and not inappropriately, describing herself as “a linebacker in a dress”, Amy Schneida makes a smashing stage debut as the bride’s baby sister. Schneida wields her forceful personality like a cudgel, at war with the world; yet when she, almost unwillingly, discards her bitter carapace to reveal a tender side, you want to wrap her in your arms. A sophomore biology major, I hope that Schneida will henceforth spend as much time on stage as in the lab. As the groom’s sister (and hence newcomer to the group), Kathryn Merris Scott’s lesbian can at times seem like merely auxiliary to the bunch. Scott, however, displays impeccable comic timing and, when unfairly wounded by another, her hurt is palpable. As the lone guy, Aaron Genre comes on towards the end for an absolutely lovely scene with one of the women. No spoilers as to who it is, but she does her finest work of the evening in it. If the accents seemed to be all over the place and there was a sense that this could’ve been set anywhere, heck, I wouldn’t know a Knoxville accent or its style anyway; this production merely points out the universality of Ball’s script. And while, at times, especially in the first act, I might’ve wished that Genre had guided her cast to give just slightly more nuanced performances, having attended opening night, that might come as the run continues (though given the script, which, while certainly good, is hardly Shakespeare, may not even be possible). 5 Women Wearing the Same Dress merely hints at what Ball would go on to. With Playmakers so exqui-
18 · The Official Gay Magazine of the Gulf South™: www.AmbushMag.com · August 27 - September 9, 2019 · Official Southern Decadence Guide™ · www.SouthernDecadence.com