Intimate Apparel is a diverse tale bound in tight colourful corsets, made of fabric from around the world. The play unfolds themes of desire, repressed by expectations, class and race in the early 1900s.

The play tells the story of Esther, a 35-year-old black seamstress. Esther devotes her time sewing for clients and visiting the fabric shop of Mr. Marks, a Romanian Orthodox Jew.

Jonathon Young as Mr. Marks and Marci T. House as Esther
Photo by David Cooper

In a world distinguished between black and white in more ways than just skin colour, it’s among the many colours of Mr. Marks’ shop where he and Esther share a mutual love for fine fabrics. Beyond their love of fabric, Mr. Marks and Esther know, yet are reluctant, and most notably, unable to acknowledge a deep admiration and, perhaps, love for one another.

“It was before people really understood the nature of their feelings and desires” says New York playwright Lynn Nottage. “They just felt – and had a limited vocabulary to share those feelings. You find people with complicated emotions, but they can’t express themselves because the language simply didn’t exist yet. So they have to find an alternative means of expression.”

Nottage says that Mr. Marks and Esther find a unique and personal way of expressing themselves – through touch and the exploration of fabrics.

Marci T. House as Esther
Photo by David Cooper

“The two are interesting because they’re so close and yet so far apart; or maybe it’s the other way around,” says Nottage. “They’re obviously from different worlds, but they’ve found a common ground and a remarkable level of intimacy.”

Throughout the play you can see characters testing the boundaries of convention and expectation. One of Esther’s clients, Mrs. Van Buren, is a wealthy Fifth Avenue socialite. It’s clear that she’s in a hapless marriage, but she endures her husband’s wanderings for fear of the social repercussions if she were to leave him.

She takes a keen interest in her seamstress as she helps her write letters to a potential husband [George] working in Panama who turns out to just want Esther for her hard earned money. Van Buren also confides in Esther about the inane details of her life and asks about Esther’s friend, Mayme, who is a talented pianist, but makes a living as a prostitute.

Mrs. Van Buren is so bored of her life that at one point she, to the surprise of many, plants a big kiss on Esther’s lips. As Esther rejects her advances, Mrs. Van Buren yells at her, calling her a “coward.” It’s clear that, as Nottage says, Mrs. Van Buren “covets the freedom and sexual liberation of Mayme,” so much that she pushes social norms and conventions. Meanwhile, Nottage goes on to say, “Mayme covets the legitimacy and the wealth and the place in society that Mrs. Van Buren enjoys.”

Daren Herbert as George
Photo by David Cooper

In her own muted and delicate way, Esther herself pushes the envelope of what is expected and appropriate for a black woman. While in Mr. Marks’s shop, in the midst of looking at fabrics, she allows her hand to lightly touch Mr. Marks’s. He backs away quickly, insulting Esther, but he reassures her by telling her that in his religion it is inappropriate for him to touch a woman who is not his wife.

Esther knew this but, like Mrs. Van Buren, and perhaps many women of the time, she had to take a risk in order to find intimacy beyond the cloth.

The rampant repression of emotions, feelings and desires is apparent throughout the play. Esther sums up the frustration of many by confiding to her friend: “I knew it was wrong, but I had to touch him.”

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Intimate Apparel runs until Mar. 10 at Arts Club Granville Island Stage, 1585 Johnston St.
Tickets: $29 to $49 from www.artsclub.com or 604 687 1644

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All photos by David Cooper