"Intimate Apparel" at North Coast Repertory Theatre

Nedra Snipes (left) and Arizsia Staton in "Intimate Apparel."                                 Photo by Aaron Rumley

            There’s a very good reason that Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel” more than 20 years on is so frequently produced today: It’s a graceful, meticulously written play with rich characters and the craftsmanship to touch the heart without sinking into sentimentality. In North Coast Repertory Theatre’s fine production of “Intimate Apparel” too, its protagonist Esther Mills, owing to direction by Jasmine Bracey and a sensitive performance by Nedra Snipes, defies victimhood even as betrayal and broken dreams threaten her resolve.
            “Intimate apparel” is what 35-year-old Esther, a Black woman residing in a lower Manhattan boarding house in 1905, creates on a humble sewing machine for clients like the wealthy and White Mrs. Van Buren (Madeleine Barker). It’s a steady business and Esther takes great pride in her handiwork, but she is lonely and dares to dream of love. When long-distance correspondence with a worker named George Armstrong in Panama begins via letters, hope springs for Esther.
            Uneducated, Esther can neither read nor write, so assistance reading and writing her letters back to George comes from Mrs. Van Buren, whose own loneliness begins to show early on and who craves the vicarious romancing, and from Esther’s friend Mayme (Arizsia Staton), a flamboyant prostitute masking her own disillusionment with vivacity.
            Also in Esther’s small sphere are Mrs. Dickson (Teri Brown), who operates the boarding house and thinks – is certain that! – she knows better than Esther, when it comes to just about everything. And Mr. Marks (Jonathan Fisher Jr.), the sweet Romanian Jewish man in the neighborhood who sells wonderful and affordable fabrics to Esther. Their scenes together, throughout, are tender and lovely.
            As is somewhat predictable, when George Armstrong (Donald Paul) comes to America, meets and quickly marries Esther, he turns out to be not what she was led to dream he’d be in his letters. He is, and there’s no other word to say it better, a cad.
            Rife with opportunities to overplay their hands one and all, the North Coast Rep cast never does. Even Staton, in a role that could easily morph into caricature, brings out Mayme’s humanity and the depth of her friendship for Esther in a well turned performance. Her intentionally off-key vocals at the piano speak to Mayme’s sense of fun even in a sadly dissolute life.
            In the same way, Fisher’s fabrics seller is understated in its sincerity and goodness. He represents for Esther, as Nottage no doubt intended, a stark and aching contrast to the morally bereft George.
            Snipes strikes all the right chords as Esther – vulnerable but not weak; diffident but not naïve; certainly not worldly, but intuitive. In an interview I did with her for the San Diego Union-Tribune, director Bracey told me that Snipes had “a remarkable sense of who Esther is.”
            Agreed.
            A set for “Intimate Apparel” probably requires no more than a sewing machine, a bed and a scrim, and the North Coast Rep’s is just about that save a proscenium-wide drapery rather than a scrim. In truth, this play could be staged with no set at all – ok, maybe the bed – and sacrifice none of its dramatic effect. Really, all that’s needed are Nottage’s words and a skilled cast to speak them.
            Done.
            “Intimate Apparel” runs through Feb. 4 at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach.