Intimate Apparel, now playing on the main stage at Very Little Theatre, is a moving early work by Lynn Nottage, the only female playwright to have received two Pulitzer Prizes for her plays, including Ruined in 2009 and Sweat in 2019. 

Along with Intimate Apparel, all three plays were performed in different seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, as well as award-winning productions in New York and other major cities. Intimate Apparel was even adapted to a highly acclaimed chamber opera version at the Lincoln Center in 2022.

The VLT production of Intimate Apparel, tenderly directed by Stanley Coleman, is both hopeful and heartbreaking. The play, which takes place in New York City in 1905 and 1906, is loosely inspired by Nottage’s great-grandparents, a seamstress and a Panama Canal laborer, who moved north during one of the Great Migrations after the Civil War, when Black Americans sought safer lives.

The action centers around the seamstress, Esther, who works long hours at her sewing machine in her room at a boarding house for single Black women. Convincingly portrayed by University of Oregon student Hailey Ray Cyphers, Esther sees younger tenants get married and move away, while she, approaching middle age, is rather plain and sad about her lack of prospects.

Theronne Davis is delightful as Mrs. Dickson, the strong, sensible owner of the boarding house. She sincerely urges Esther to accept a much older man, the way she did, which enabled her to prosper.

Although Esther yearns for a young man, she does have a variety of clients and friends. Surprisingly, both society women and sex workers appreciate her fancy, hand embellished corsets. She even has a male friend, a Jewish cloth vendor named Mr. Marks, who kindly provides her with fine fabrics at bargain prices. They would make an excellent couple, but his religion doesn’t even allow them to touch each other, let alone celebrate nuptials.

However, for some time, Esther has been receiving letters from a man named George Armstrong, a dissatisfied worker wearing himself out while digging the Panama Canal. Unfortunately, she can’t read, but friends read the letters to her. George reports that he heard about her from a co-worker who used to attend her church and knew her as an upright Christian. 

Could George fulfill her dreams? I’m not telling. Nevertheless, George is handsome and sexy as played by Preston Patterson, a principal dancer with Eugene-based Ballet Fantastique. 

Esther’s volatile society customer is well played by Melinda Meyer-Monteclair, and her sex worker friend is portrayed by exuberant Kori Nyamute. Mark Cunha-Rigby is exceptionally appealing as Mr. Marks.

The six talented actors manage to fill the stage with emotion and action while also benefiting from the help of an equally talented team of crew members who design and work behind the scenes. Carol Dennis is assistant director. Scenic design is by Rich Scheeland and Michael Rucker. Lighting design is by Amanda Ferguson. Costumes are by Gail Rapp, and Cynthia Sells scouted and selected the properties. Sound design by Gregory Black includes popular Scott Joplin ragtime music of the period.Intimate Apparel is playing at Very Little Theatre through June 21, including Sunday matinees on June 14 and 21; times and tickets through the VLT ticket office at 541-344-7751, or BoxOffice@thevlt.com.

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