INTIMATE APPAREL
At the Laura Pels Theatre, 111 W. 46th St. Through June 6. Roundabout Ticket Services, (212) 719-1300.
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VIOLA Davis reminds us why theater exists – as does “Intimate Apparel,” the wonderful new play by Lynn Nottage at the Laura Pels Theatre.
Davis is Esther, a 35-year-old African-American who’s carved out a place for herself in turn-of-the-century New York City. Living in a respectable rooming house for women, she sews – creates, really – elaborate and beautiful corsets for a varied clientele.
Esther’s yearning for romance intrudes into her working life. Soon she’s receiving flowery letters from George, a worker on the Panama Canal.
Esther, unable herself to read or write, is helped to respond by her suspicious but kind landlady.
Esther is also befriended by two rather dangerous clients, a drunken and lonely rich white lady and a sexy black whore. She also finds a friend in Mr. Marks, her Orchard Street supplier of bolts of exotic cloth.
Marks, a young Orthodox Jew with a fiancée in Romania, grows close emotionally close to Esther, and makes her a precious gift before George arrives to claim her.
The acting is excellent. Davis brings the shy, intelligent Esther to gripping life, in all its reticence, humor and desperation. Russell Hornsby plays George with charm and edge, reading his letters aloud with a sexy charge; Lynda Gravatt makes a fine landlady, and Arija Bereikis and Lauren Velez perform two standard types – the lonely rich woman and the knowing whore – with nary a cliché. Corey Stoll makes a touching Mr. Marks.
Director Daniel Sullivan brings them all together with brisk vigor against the poetic terrain of Derek McLane’s spare sets. McLane presents the key thing about a personality – a sewing machine, a vanity table, a piano or rolled cloths – and lets it dominate the otherwise bare space.
This haunting and hilarious play is the most fulfilling event of the season.