"Intimate" Earns Rave in Times-Dispatch

The first Intimate Apparel review is in, and everything’s coming up roses. Susan Haubenstock’s assessment appears in this morning’s Times-Dispatch (Sunday, April 15), and it begins as follows: “What an excellent synergy of writing, acting, directing and design is Barksdale’s Intimate Apparel, the Lynn Nottage drama that played off-Broadway in 2004 and won the 2004 Outer Critics Circle Award. With director Steve Perigard at the helm, Nottage’s carefully plotted tale is realized with perfectly tuned sensibility.”

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know how excited we at Barksdale are about Intimate Apparel. We’re excited because Intimate Apparel is a beautiful new play by Lynn Nottage, a playwright who is now establishing her place in the top tier of favorite playwright lists all around the country. This production is a Central Virginia premiere, and the latest product of the Women’s Theatre Project we kicked off in 2001. Through this project, we commit to the production of at least one work by a woman playwright each season. Intimate Apparel is beautifully plotted and written with a real reverence for character and language. It has been a delight to produce.

We’re excited because we have been able to recruit an exceptional cast. “Adanma Onyedike’s Esther is beautifully realized, lacking in self-possession at first but growing through her difficulties to become very much herself,” says Haubenstock. “There are wonderful discoveries in the performances of Tawnya Pettiford-Wates as Mrs. Dickson, Jennifer Massey as Mrs. Van Buren, and Katrinah Carol Lewis as Mayme. Andy Nagraj is touching as Mr. Marks, and every move of Chris Lindsay’s George is charged with feeling.”

We’re excited to have the chance to again experience the organic power of Steve Perigard’s sensitive direction, the full-flavored beauty of Kim Parkin’s handsome scenic design, the magnificent period costumes created by Sue Griffin, and the spellbinding lighting of Lynne Hartman. Paul Deiss has written a wonderful rag that is performed by Katrinah and Ida (the name by which everyone knows Adanma). It sounds like Scott Joplin reborn. And, as always, Amanda Durst has created an entire world with her dialect direction.

We’re trying to live up to the standard we have set for ourselves, a standard that is appropriate for Central Virginia’s leading professional theatre. I think Intimate Apparel is representative of the artistic growth we seek. I’m proud of our production.















For the full review go to: Richmond Times-Dispatch