CAPECODTIMES.com – Not one word rings untrue in “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” written by sisters Nora and Delia Ephron to describe common experiences of girls growing into women.
But there are a lot of words ― and not much physical action ― in the 90-minute, one-act play.
The five actresses in the Sandwich Arts Alliance production do a fine job, especially in capturing the rhythm of women friends almost-but-not-quite stepping on each other’s conversations as they excitedly build on each other’s stories.
It mirrors how many women communicate, an unpacking of experiences: If you know, you know.
“Love, Loss and What I Wore” is written as a series of vignettes hung on a clothesline grouped into everything from favorite outfits of childhood to wedding dresses.
The women, all dressed in black, sit on folding chairs with their mostly memorized scripts balanced on the black music stands in front of them – like a Greek chorus expounding and explaining to supplement the storytelling.
The show: Written by Nora and Delia, two of four Ephron sisters, based on Ilene Beckerman’s 1995 book of the same name; first produced in 2008. In Sandwich, directed by Melinda Gallant.
What it’s about: Most of the stories are funny ― some laugh out loud funny ― but there are also tragic moments such as the story about one of the characters donating all her miniskirts after someone broke into her apartment and raped her. It is a concise exploration of how even she believed that tired old myth about acts of sexual violence being sparked by how a woman dressed; she never felt free again to dress for herself.
Highlights of the production: The play’s conceit is that the narrator, Gingy, has drawn all of her remembered outfits on long sheets of paper. The designs were actually sketched by 14 “Dress Artists,” although Janet Geist Moore as narrator Gingy, gives a quick and fun lesson ― right out of a magazine art school ad ― on how to draw your dresses.
Although the quintet of actresses ― Moore, Cathy Ode, Liz Liuzzi, Kim LaJoie and Karen Henderson ― are all more than up to the job, Moore seems to especially embody Nora Ephron, born in NYC to a Jewish family. Moore’s accent and demeanor are perfect.
One point to consider: Even well-acted as this production is, “Love, Loss and What I Wore” puts some heavy demands on one’s attention span because story after story is told with minimal interaction between the actors. It didn’t help that the beautiful auditorium on the second floor of the historic Sandwich Town Hall was a little warm and stuffy on opening night.
See it or not? I enjoyed it as a travelogue of fashion and feelings growing up in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.
If you go: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, May 17-May 26; $25 general admission, Sandwich Historic Town Hall, 130 Main Sr., www.sandwichartsalliance.org
