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The bridesmaid's dress: No piece of formalwear inspires greater dread than one of these fabled taffeta monstrosities, billowing with ruffles and bows in all the very worst places, and chosen, its wearers often suspect, precisely because it flatters no one.
But this fearsome frock sometimes comes with a silver lining: fast friendships can spring from the common humiliation of being swathed in pastel satin of the unkindest cut. Writer Alan Ball channels such bridal attendant angst for his comedy Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, which opens at City Lights Theater Company on March 13.
The play concerns a quintet of bridesmaids who all, for various reasons, are not keen on attending the reception. Despite great differences in personality and ideology, the women skip out on the big party and make their own fun, commiserating about, life, love, and, of course, their matching outfits.
Most recently Ball has become known for finding levity in more sober occasions as the creator of the critically acclaimed HBO series Six Feet Under, a dramedy about a family that runs a funeral home. Ball won an Emmy for directing that show's pilot episode. He also won an Oscar in 2000 for writing the darkly comic suburban tale American Beauty.
City Lights Theater Company Managing Director Lisa Mallette directs this production, and Shannon Warrick, ej Ndeto, Nancy Sauder, Shannon Stowe and Rhiann Woodyard are the five women wearing the same dress.
Five Women Wearing the Same Dress plays March 13-April 12 at City Lights Theater Company. Tickets are $15$25. For more information, call 408.295.4200 or visit www.cltc.org.
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