Five actresses speak of life’s highs and lows at Lyceum

By Eva Trieger

Eva Trieger
Eva Trieger

SAN DIEGO–When the Ephron sisters penned Love, Loss and What I Wore, they kept true to form.  Though many of the lines produce audience laughter, there is an underlying thread of the many disappointments suffered through the fabric of the ages and stages of a woman’s life.

Melinda Gilb has appeared on many stages in San Diego, New York, on and off Broadway and has also worked on television.  Rachael Vanwormer is another local favorite with a great deal of ability packed into her diminutive person.  Jacole Kitchen comes to the stage with a host of experience in teaching acting as well as previous work with the under-served student population.  Deanna Driscoll has performed all around San Diego and in New York, and has scooped up a few awards along the way.  Elsa Martinez co-founded the award winning Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble.

These five women, supremely talented actors all, alternated sharing momentous and minor life events while a changing projection of a dress design hung above them.  The sketches of the various articles evoke a remembered romance, a personal setback, or the tragic death of a parent or end of a marriage.

Using each item of clothing, or an accessory, the women reveal an honest account of mother-daughter relationships, father-daughter interactions, marriage and divorce.  Sometimes the one liners are pointed, other times they are like trying to see through an opaque veil.

One woman shares the awkward memory of buying a first bra; 28AA for her “tiny poofs.”  Another recalls the age at when she “couldn’t sit on your daddy’s lap.” The many cautionary edicts from the mother’s, “Nice Jewish girls don’t wear…” or “Never wear velvet before Rosh Hashanah,” were woven into the monologues.

Another actress told of her passion for boots.  All she wanted were a pair of olive green, above the knee boots because they were “mysterious, Bohemian,” and the memory of this prize is that it was the night she was raped.   In keeping with footwear another told of the battle between Doc Martens and Birkenstocks, stating that the latter made her feel like a “troll from Middle Earth.”

Each of the women’s stories resonated with the audience and John Anderson’s direction allowed viewers to share the pain and elation through staging and delivery.  The absence of any real set or props, save chairs and the overhead screen, demanded focus and attention on the words and emotions.

Love, Loss and What I Wore will run until March 22 and tickets are available by phone at 619.544.1000 or from the Lyceum box office in Horton Plaza.

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Trieger is a freelance writer who specializes in the cultural arts.  Your signed comment (first and last name) may be posted in the space below or sent to eva.trieger@sdjewishworld.com