Love, Loss and What I Wore

Love, Loss and What I Wore is an amusing look at women and their matters of the heart, their wardrobes, and their accessories. Based on the best-selling book by Ilene Beckerman, Nora and Delia Ephron sourced additional stories from friends, including Rosie O’Donnell, and have added them to this chick-flick/chick-lit collection of monologues. The authors know something about this audience with Nora having written, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle, and with Delia, You’ve Got Mail.

The show, which opened at New York’s Westside Theatre in 2009, became the second-longest running production at that venue.

Five women, dressed in black, sit on stools, consulting scripts when needed, as they take turns telling their stories, often inter-connecting, about black as a wardrobe staple, the horrors of the fitting room, and Madonna (‘every American woman under 40 who says she’s never dressed as Madonna is either lying or Amish’).

Centenary’s five women are all stalwarts of the community theatre scene and work together well as an ensemble under Ryll Bucknell’s direction. Penny Murphy is Gingy, virtually the narrator, whose story weaves in and out of the others through three marriages, many children, and the death of a child. All episodes are marked by a particular piece of clothing which is shown in sketch form on an upstage screen.

Alison Lees has fun with the wedding dress sequence, Meg Hinselwood underlines the importance of ‘heels,’ whilst Natalie Pedler recounts the handbag saga with wit and a killer punchline when she reveals the ‘metro-card’ bag. Jill Brocklebank gives up mini-skirts after being raped in college, but she doesn’t give up the boots that go with the outfit.

Spandex bras and the monoboob look, the juicy couture tracksuit, or a mother’s taste in clothes (‘I don’t understand. You could look so good if you tried.’), all pepper this affectionate look at fashion and the women who wear it with a heartfelt dose of feeling from this stellar cast.

Peter Pinne