‘Five Women’ Moves Beyond Rite and Wrong

With its plot--about a quintet of jumpy bridesmaids getting together just before the wedding--”Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” may sound like a giggly little number with the depth of a bachelorette party.

But listen to Don Finn, who is directing Alan Ball’s comedy at Cal State Fullerton (where it opens Friday), and you might get the idea that “Five Women” is more than a jokey “Steel Magnolias” in formal wear.

The laughs are there, Finn says, but so are child abuse, date rape, drugs, Christian fundamentalism. . . . All these things figure into the women’s lives, and we get to hear the details.

“They discuss a lot, from abortion to abuse to religion,” Finn says. “This is not just a frothy, silly comedy. It’s terribly funny, but it’s not at all like Neil Simon on a bad day. Things get pretty serious. . . . There’s a real dark side. The more I worked on this play, the more I was able to see the layers.”

The story line gets moving when the bridesmaids start to crack wise over their identical dresses, which are ugly as can be. It doesn’t take long for them to start grousing over the bride, Tracey, and her notorious former boyfriend, Tommy Valentine, a cad they all have in common.

But, as Finn points out, the women put themselves on display even as they’re slicing up everybody else. “The need for human contact is the overriding umbrella of the play,” he explains. “It’s not only exposing oneself, but doing so to get some recognition.

“The big issue here is really loneliness. It says something about how tough it is to be a human being these days, to react and connect effectively with other people.”

Finn notes that the characters are what give “Five Women” its richness. They make up something of a rainbow coalition of personalities, attitudes and experiences.

There’s Mindy, the groom’s lesbian sister, and Frances, the bride’s born-again cousin. Tracey’s younger sister, Meredith, was sexually abused as a child. Trisha has visited the beds of men all over town, and Georgeanne, unhappily married, guzzles champagne.

Reviews of productions elsewhere have been mixed. But Newsday says “Five Women” is “risky and risque” and able to “capture the conflicting social pressures . . . of feminism with explicit realism.”

* What: “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress,” a comedy by Alan Ball.

* When: Opens Friday at 8 p.m. Continues Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 5 p.m. and Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 and Sundays at 5 through Oct. 27. Matinees Oct. 19 and 26 at 2:30.

* Where: Cal State Fullerton’s Arena Theatre, 800 N. State College Blvd.

* Whereabouts: Take the Riverside (91) Freeway to State College Boulevard and head north.

* Wherewithal: $6 and $8.

* Where to call: (714) 773-3371.