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This week Waterworks Players brings to its stage Alan Ball’s 1993 play “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress”. In the summer of 1993 in Knoxville, Tennessee, five bridesmaids flee wedding reception revelry for the upstairs sanctuary of a guest bedroom. What happens in their time together is provocative and hilarious, somber and joyous as their witty and biting conversations, gossip, and speculations reveal the darker truths beneath the facade of the ritzy wedding. Their often salty banter and gossip cover a range of topics from dating and sex to drugs and dieting, from AIDS and psycho serial killers to nail-polish colors and past trauma. In the end, these five women come together to support one another unconditionally.

Alan Ball is best known for his work as a writer, director, and producer. His accolades include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Writers Guild of America award for his screenplay of the 1999 film  American Beauty. Ball took home a Directors Guild of American Award in 2002 for the TV series Six Feet Under (2001-05) and a Producers Guild of American Award for that dramatic series in 2004. He has also written for True Blood (2008-2014) and Here and Now (2018), as well as the women-centric comedies Cybill (1995-98) and Grace Under Fire (1994-95). Ball’s other screenplays include the films Towelhead (2007) and Uncle Frank (2020). He was also the executive producer of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017).

More about ‘Five Women’

In Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, Leigh Lunsford steps from the stage for the first time as director and gets superb performances from each of her actors. Lunsford, who has performed in almost 50 plays on the Waterworks Players stage and elsewhere, draws upon the Deep South background she shares with Georgia-born screenwriter Ball. In 1993, Lunsford was around the same age as the older Southern bridesmaid characters. This experience uniquely adds to her keen and intimate understanding of the inner and outer world of the play.

Marlow Walters sweetly embodies Frances, the 21-year-old cousin of the bride. Her subtle body language wonderfully reveals her character’s sheltered upbringing as it blossoms into a potentially fuller and richer life under the tutelage of the other bridesmaids.

Kolby Logue is a tour de force as Meredith Marlowe, the bride’s younger rebellious pot-head sister whose sarcasm and cynicism hide her insecurity and inner pain. Kolby can play any role brilliantly, from comedic to tragic–and she showcases that amazing range here.

As Trisha, the 32-year-old “reigning queen of the bad rep,” Raine Bence is brilliant and engaging, her acting skills deceptively effortless. Bence rises to the rank of the best of Waterworks actors. 

Melissa Meinhard is commanding as Georgeanne Darby, the bride’s plain and insecure former high school and college friend. Melissa fully embraces the roiling hot mess of anger and sadness and humor that define Georgeanne as she struggles with a failed marriage.

Sarah Varela marvelously portrays Mindy McClure, the groom’s out lesbian sister (a bold stance in a conservative town of that era) whose brashness is undercut by physical clumsiness that hints at her being out of step and place among relatives and the Southern homophobic society that only see her as an embarrassment.

In the role of Tripp, a.k.a. “Griffin Lyle Davenport the Third,” Erik Varela is the only man to appear onstage. Tripp is the wedding usher and the groom’s suave and rakish cousin. Varela masterfully reveals the underlying sensitivity beneath Tripp’s suave and rakish exterior.

The Waterworks Players creative team 

That these actors shine on stage is a given, but we must acknowledge the creative team behind the scenes for this play whose dedication enables the show to succeed. Kudos are deservedly bestowed upon Technical Director Billy Tucker and Production Manager Sean Dowse; Stage Manager Elijah Logue and Assistant Stage Manager Troy Halliday; the lighting crew of Renée Seagroves and Geraldine Mongold; the sound team of Paul Maserjian, Greg Tsigaridas, Howard Fischer, and Brad Cone; and the props and set-dressing crew consisting of Barbara Cone, Enoch Gather, Geraldine Mongold and Carl Riden. Special shout outs go to Caryn Kayton, owner of Caryn’s Bridals, Formals & Tuxedos, for donating the wedding party dresses and formal wear, to stylist Heather Redd, and to interns Faith Dutter and Liberty Litogot from The Outer You for hair and makeup.

Times for the Waterworks Players show

Five Women Wearing the Same Dress runs in a special matinee performance at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 4. It’ll also run this coming Friday and Saturday, Aug. 9 and 10, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at www.waterworksplayers.org or at the box office before each performance. The 116-seat Waterworks Theater is housed in the large ocean-blue building off of W 3rd St. just past Yak Attack on County Road 676.

Please note: This is an adult play in language, content, and sexual references, and it contains potentially triggering themes.

Jes Simmons wrote this review for the Farmville Herald.