Review: Five Women Wearing the Same Dress is a Character Driven Success

By Jaehun Lee

Arts Reporter

During the first weekend of June, South Stage put on its final production of the year, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, written by Alan Ball and directed by senior Kate Pozner. With the cast demonstrating their ability to navigate many different emotions with ease, the show was a great ending to another successful season of South Stage theater.

The play takes place at a wedding in Knoxville, Tennessee, which meant that all of the actors spoke with Southern accents for the entirety of the production. One of my little quibbles with the show was the inconsistency of these accents, as I often heard the accents slip in and out throughout the performance.

However, several members of the cast displayed accents that matched their characters very well. For instance, Frances (senior Annika McGraw in her last South Stage performance), a devout Christian who refuses to disrespect her body, had an over-the-top Southern accent, which matched her personality.

Likewise, Meredith (sophomore Sara Khorshidi), a rebellious girl, used her accent to punctuate her dialogue, which made for a very authentic Southern character. In addition to her accent, Khorshidi displayed excellent comedic timing, especially in the beginning when she mocked Frances for liking their outrageous-looking bridesmaid dresses.

Mindy (sophomore Izzy Autor), also displayed incredible comedic timing and improvisational skills. While getting up from the wooden bench on the set, Autor fell, but she did not let that stop the flow of the story. She struggled back to her feet and said, “See what I mean? I’m so clumsy,” causing the audience to erupt in laughter. Not only that, she was able to switch from being a funny, happy-go-lucky character to being a serious one naturally.

Freshman Emma Martignoni played Trisha, a motherly character, very naturally as well. Being the oldest of the bridesmaids who appeared in the show, Trisha assumed many motherly activities, such as doing Frances’s makeup and giving Meredith advice on how to deal with having sexual interactions.

Freshman Tess Gordon made an impressive debut, portraying Georgeanne, an emotionally unstable bridesmaid obsessed with Tommy Valentine. Gordon played the constantly drunk Georgeanne very naturally through practiced physicality. From the swigs from the champagne bottle to hardly being able to stand on her own to dramatically plopping herself next to other characters, had someone seen her offstage, they would have been convinced that Gordon had one too many drinks.

My main criticism of the show was the script. During the production, the bridesmaids talked about men (and women) who they were interested in, had had sexual relationships with, etc. However, none of these men made appearances, which made it hard for me to keep track of who was who.

On top of that, the only man who made an appearance was Tripp Davenport (junior Merrick Carroll), a character who was only mentioned once or twice throughout the whole play. In my opinion, it would have made more sense to have Tommy Valentine make an appearance, as all of the bridesmaids had some interaction with him in the past.

Lastly, I felt that the plot curve could have been more defined. There were several places in the script that could have been the climax of the show, but none of these potential climaxes were followed through on.

For example, a potential climax could have been when Meredith confessed that she had sexual relations with Tommy Valentine (thus showing her vulnerable side for the first time during the show), or when Tripp and Trisha shared a kiss and the bridesmaids rushed into the room. However, none of these big moments were followed upon, leaving us with a cliffhanger. This contributed to the feeling that the ending of the show was very rushed. With so many loose ends and not much sense of closure in the script, I was left with many questions after the show was over.

Despite this, the cast did a phenomenal job of making the audience go through an emotional roller coaster: from laughing hysterically to listening in shock and horror. In the end, despite the limits, the cast delivered a great finale to an incredible year of high school theater.