Steam Heat in a London Basement

When it comes to class distinctions, nudity is the great leveler. In Britain, however, egalitarianism comes hard. Pity that a Cockney accent isn’t as easily stripped off as clothing.

Nell Dunn’s female-bonding drama “Steaming” is set in a London steam bath--a likely arena to explore just such considerations of class and circumstance. However, for the women who frequent this dilapidated public facility, gender is the paramount social determinant, although some may not yet be conscious of that fact. In this womb-like retreat, differences of class dissolve in a shared sense of communalism, but in the larger context of the outside world, gender, at least for these women, is all too often destiny.

When first produced some 15-odd years ago, “Steaming” elicited widespread attention--at least in part because of its graphic nudity. In Mark Bringelson’s sensitive and entertaining staging for Singular Productions at the Ivy Substation, the nudity is at all times an organic offshoot of the action. Unerringly deft and subtle, Bringelson never panders to his subject matter.

The same cannot be said of the playwright. What strikes one as mildly gratuitous these days are not the bare bodies on stage, but rather the self-conscious didacticism of the play itself, a shopworn feminist allegory predicated heavily on male-bashing.

Perhaps sensing this thematic mustiness, Bringelson sagely keeps the action set in 1981, allowing us to observe the proceedings with a necessary anthropological detachment. The result is fascinating. The milieu of a London bathhouse remains a brilliant social microcosm, magnificently detailed here by Scott Storey’s Broadway-caliber set, which has been subtly and evocatively lit by Ray Thompson. We can almost smell the chlorine wafting off the surface of Storey’s remarkable onstage swimming pool, and Thompson’s flickering pool lights complete the allusion with uncanny accuracy.

The staircase leading up to the exit door, the half-light filtering in from the high windows, capture the subterranean atmosphere of this basement hothouse, a warm haven from loneliness and a bitter London winter.

A superlative cast fleshes out the stereotypes of Dunn’s limited work. Jonathan Williams is quietly effective as the unsympathetic token male, Dale Raoul is both touching and funny as the nurturing working-class bath attendant, Andrea Herz and Gail Godown are splendid as upper-crusty former school chums who took different paths in life but arrived at the same state of confusion.

Marte Boyle Slout perfectly captures the hidebound querulousness of old age, while her mentally limited daughter is played with beautiful straightforwardness by Robyn Merrill. And Pat Destro brings to the hot-blooded, downtrodden Josie all the pathos and desperation of a woman who, forestalled from any meaningful future by her class, lives sensuously and determinedly for the moment.

BE THERE

“Steaming,” Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. (No Sunday performances April 27, May 4 or May 18.) Ends May 24. $18. (310) 558-1555. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.