'Love, Loss' resonates with female audience at Straz

Review

I admit it. I'm one of those women who carry my life on my shoulder in one humongous handbag.

Cell phone, a camera, a charger, two makeup bags, a comb and brush, a magazine, perfume, jewelry, sunglasses, a few letters to mail and items I don't even know are in there until I start excavating.

How refreshing – and hilarious – to hear this common female dilemma described with such gusto during "Love, Loss, and What I Wore," a play about the impact of clothes and accessories at pivotal times in our lives. The show plays through Sunday at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts.

Written by Nora and Delia Ephron, and based on the book by Ilene Beckerman, the performance is similar to "The Vagina Monologues." The actors sit on chairs in front of a microphone and music stand, with a script sharing intimate stories.

The monologues are performed by five wonderfully engaging actors: Emily Dorsch, Daisy Eagan, Sonia Manzano, Myra Lucretia Taylor and Loretta Swit. The women rarely look at their scripts, so it seems like more of an easy conversation than a reading.

The audience is taken on a 90-minute journey with vignettes that are witty, engaging and sometimes emotional about ugly prom dresses, choosing between high heels and sensible shoes, ill-fitting bras, short skirts, wedding dresses, horrible fitting room mirrors, purses, the common dilemma of having nothing to wear, and moms who made us wear dorky stuff when were young.

"Love, Loss, and What I Wore" is one of those performances that will make women think about the memories attached to some of the clothes they still own, and those they've long disposed of.

All of the actors in the show deliver perfect comic timing, and depth and feeling with the more serious topics.

When Taylor talks about the plight of being a large woman, marrying a gay man and carrying a vinyl, yellow-and-blue purse "that will never go out of style because it was never in style," it's roll-in-the-aisles funny.

Swit, who portrays Gingy, is a hoot as she takes the audience through three marriages, motherhood and what she wore the first time she had sex. Many of the outfits are brought to life by colorful sketches on stage (Swit draws her own dress during the performance).

Other funny stories involve dressing room mirrors, "Is this mirror distorted?" The lasting effects of going braless, "If you don't wear a bra you'll get pendulum breasts" and harsh words from a mother, "You have such a pretty face; you just need to lose a little weight."

Oh, and, "Can't we just stop pretending that anything is ever going to be the new black?"

There are also more poignant vignettes that remind us how we can have an emotional connection to an article of clothing, such as when Dorsch tells of donating all of her character's miniskirts to Goodwill after a sexual assault (but not her boots). And Manzano shares a story about the need to look good during surgery, wanting to get a tattoo on a newly reconstructed breast after the surgery and looking forward to wearing a lace bra.

The mostly female audience found it easy to relate to the stories, as evidenced by the reactions inside, and the discussions that took place long after the performance ended.

"You have one of those big purses (Taylor) was talking about," said one women who spied my large handbag in the ladies restroom. Several women joined in the conversation showing off their handbags and sharing their own stories.

ccabrera@tampatrib.com

(813) 259-7656

LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE

When: 7:30 p.m. today and Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, Jaeb Theater, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa; call (813) 229-7827 or visit www.strazcenter.org

Tickets: $38.50