Five Fitting ‘Women,’ One Well-Dressed Set

Male playwrights usually don’t have a problem writing hard-edged dialogue for men but sometimes get lost trying to delve into the female psyche. An arguable exception is Southern playwrights, many of whom seem to have found the key.

In the tradition of Tennessee Williams, Robert Harling and Truman Capote is Alan Ball, whose “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” is being revived at Cal State Fullerton’s Arena Theatre. It’s a perfect space for the play--intimate and friendly, just like the play’s bedroom set, intricately and beautifully designed by Barbara Braden Meyer. As the lights go up, the glowing shades of David Miller’s lighting design and the affluent patina of the room make it look like the inside of a jewel box. And the play that unfolds there is a gem.

The room belongs to Meredith, a bridesmaid at her older sister’s wedding. It is a haven for her and her fellow bridesmaids looking to escape the ostentatious reception unfolding on the lawn below. While the five bridesmaids watch the proceedings from Meredith’s window, they chew up the reputations of the other members of the wedding party and take some big bites out of each others’ pretensions and flawed self-satisfaction.

The setting is Knoxville, Tenn., and these girls are Southern through and through. Ordinarily they would probably not be friends; their dreams and their hungers veer off in incompatible directions. But at this moment they easily bond and find common threads tying their lives together.

One thread leads to the aptly named Tommy Valentine, the bride’s ex-boyfriend and, it is eventually revealed, an ex-something to each of the other women.

Ball’s insights into the rolling and frequently rocking dialogue among these young women lays them bare emotionally, but he does it with humor, charm and understanding. The same words describe the direction of Don Finn, which illuminates the intent of Ball’s writing with honesty and vibrant energy.

All the actresses are excellent.

Lucina M. Guerrero’s bitter, unhappy, rebellious Meredith is forceful and affecting, and Keri Hostetler’s naive fundamentalist Frances is touching, particularly as she tries, not too successfully, to blend in with the volatile vulgarity of the others.

Jennifer Adams is a delight as lesbian Mindy, sister of the groom, who happily and buoyantly eats her way through the hors d’oeuvres, and the action, without once taking a bite out of the scenery in a role that could easily be overdone.

Shannon Mahoney is Trisha, who is cynical and brutally honest about her distrust of men but unable to keep away from them; Mahoney accomplishes a neat trick in playing her for real and still making her touchingly likable.

Perhaps the strongest performance is that of Riley Haynes as Georgeanne, distraught and frantic over a tragically unhappy marriage, finding only a little solace in a chance encounter with Valentine.

The weakest performance is that of Ty T. Turner as Tripp, the only man in the cast, who becomes Trisha’s target for the day and hints at the possibility of something more lasting between them. He properly plays Tripp as a well-to-do Bubba, slightly dim and uneasy in his patent leather shoes, and with a flashing smile. But Turner doesn’t give Tripp the genuine charisma that would have carried across the lawn and up to his second-floor rendezvous with Trisha.

* “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress,” Arena Theatre, Cal State Fullerton Performing Arts Center, State College Boulevard at Nutwood Avenue, Fullerton. Wednesday-Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2:30 & 8 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m. Ends Oct. 27. $6-$8. (714) 773-3371. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

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“Five Women Wearing the Same Dress,”

Keri Hostetler: Frances

Lucina M. Guerrero: Meredith

Shannon Mahoney: Trisha

Riley Haynes: Georgeanne

Jennifer Adams: Mindy

Ty T. Turner: Tripp

A Cal State Fullerton Department of Theatre & Dance production of Alan Ball’s comedy-drama. Directed by Don Finn. Scenic design: Barbara Braden Meyer. Lighting design: David Miller. Costume/makeup/hair design: Christine Walters-Murphy. Sound design: John R. Fisher. Stage manager: John Vasquez.