A stunning example of Readers Theater, Love, Loss, and What I Woreseats five vibrant interpreters behind traditional stands holding texts. They reveal stages of women’s lives recalled in connection with the clothes, shoes, accessories that figure in their memories.
To one side, on a clothes pole hang drawings of gals wearing outfits brought to the front line when discussed. They’re repeated in back projections on the vibrantly colored other side of the stage. The readers’ stands and the varied pretty outfits they wear are black, the favorite storied dress color one and all notably prefer.
Gingy, played by a glorious Loretta Swit, not only draws one of the hanging portraits but also interprets a character with a continuing narrative. Though she may have had the most loves and loss issues, most cue or punctuate stories by the others. What mothers said (“no red coats” or “why you must wear clean underwear” or “you’d be so pretty if...”) feature prominently in these.
The women really relate to other women in accounts of enduring prom dresses, going through a closet in search of the right thing to wear, and trying to imitate the far-out fashions of a celebrity -- in their case, Madonna.
Cute Roni Geva distinguishes herself by telling of an acutely difficult paper dress incident, while a Gang Sweater disappoints glamorous Rosalyn Coleman the way boots never do. Donna McKechnie’s outstanding poignant story deals with mastectomy. Hilarious Mary Testa brings down the house with her account of the dressing room experience. It’s a great follow-up to her fat contribution to moaning about weight opposite thin complainer Roni. But Testa makes so much of her every line in whatever she reads that it’s hard not to mention all her stories, starting with dealing with her mother’s death and its connection to a Bathrobe. Men might not get the same emotional charge out of Love, Loss, and What I Wore that women do. They should, however, be able to gain insight about women they love . . and have some hearty laughs in the process.
