by Umar Patel
If you were searching for an uplifting way to spend your Friday or Saturday evening last month, Alan Ball’s Five Women Wearing the Same Dress may not have been at the top of your list of activities. At first glance, a comedy-drama set in an upstairs, secluded bedroom at a wedding reception in early 1990s Knoxville Tennessee might not have come off as the most inspiring setup. However, at closer inspection, we found that this Southern play offers a unique perspective on self-identity, unfulfilled dreams, and life’s quest for happiness.
Premiering originally at New York City’s Manhattan Class Company in 1993, the comedy was shown at Coastal Rep this past February. It centers around five bridesmaids at the wedding reception of Tracy Marlowe who seek refuge from overwhelming standards and unresolved grievances. Initially at odds, the bridesmaids eventually realize that their struggles are more alike than they thought.
What made this play, characterized by razor-sharp banter and jarring repartee, so profound? Each bridesmaid’s story offered lessons on letting go of the past, breaking free from external pressures, and redefining a meaningful life. Let’s explore these themes further.
Weddings are an illusion of perfection.
The play heavily draws on the juxtaposition of two starkly different fronts: the artificiality of Tracy Marlowe’s wedding reception and the raw, authentic conversations taking place in Meredith’s bedroom (the latter being the play’s sole setting). Weddings often symbolize joy, unity, and happily-ever-after. However, Five Women flipped this narrative on its head, highlighting the candid sentiments of failed fantasies, justifiable envy, and flawed pasts surrounding the lavish event.
Meredith’s bedroom acts as a refuge to escape the wedding’s suffocating expectations. One by one, we saw the bridesmaids make their way upstairs: Frances (played by Desiree Medina) to escape the wedding’s uncomfortable, chaotic atmosphere; Meredith (played by Maddie Rae) after being frustrated by the phoniness of the event and having what seemed like a verbal altercation with her mother; Trisha (played by Shann Oliver) to seek refuge from men of which she had shared past entanglements; Georgeanne (played by Chloey Garza) under distress due to an encounter and unresolved feelings with her old boyfriend; and Mindy (played by Rae Lane), the groom’s sister, feeling alienated by the crowd due to her unconventional identity. Ultimately, we learned that all the bridesmaids were fleeing some form of external pressure, finding solace in their shared disillusionment.
Notably, towards the end of Act I, the bridesmaids begin to realize that the bride isn’t as flawless as everyone believes. The fact none of them share a genuine closeness with Tracy highlights her lack of meaningful relationships. As they reflect, they come to realize that despite Tracy’s successful career and seemingly fairytale marriage, her life is far from perfect – and, in some ways, not even desirable.
The mask of perfection is further symbolized through the flamboyant purple dresses. While all appearing glamourous and untarnished on the outside, we learned that this couldn’t be farther from reality. In fact, the dresses represent a mask of personal struggles and insecurity. Particularly, in Act II, Meredith changing out of her dress, which eventually leads to the most raw and pivotal conversations of the play, underscored the uncomfortable truths hiding beneath the façade of perfection.
You are not defined by what happens to you, but how you react to what happens to you.
Meredith and Mindy, soon-to-be sisters-in-law, offer two contrasting outlooks. Meredith is bitter about her situation in life: being second fiddle to her seemingly perfect older sister, jaded by societal expectations and directionless in her career. Throughout the play, her frequent sarcastic and witty remarks mask her deep dissatisfaction, yet she seldom seeks to be proactive in trying to redefine her life in the way she wants.
Mindy, on the other hand, is the direct antithesis to Meredith. Despite not fitting into the norms of typical Southern society, Mindy’s relentless positivity and unapologetic nature makes her clearly the happiest and most put-together bridesmaid in the play. Additionally, Mindy’s independent nature and self-assuredness starkly contrasts that of the other bridesmaids, whose purposes seemingly laid in male approval. This unsurprisingly translates to Mindy’s successful career (where she possesses a degree in behavioral psychology and works as a real estate agent) and forward-thinking attitude (offering career advice and emotional support to Meredith throughout the play).
These dual personalities clash when Mindy confronts Meredith in Act II. Specifically, Mindy questions Meredith’s integrity, explaining that she is all talk when it comes to her complaints on social issues and her personal life. What we found was that ultimately, Mindy is all about action, whereas Meredith dwells in resentment. This taught us that happiness with life is all about mindset, not necessarily circumstance.
You can’t run away from your past.
It’s human nature to want to run away from your past, but confronting some of the lingering trauma in life is how you grow. The play is marked with past histories, as heard through the lens of the individual bridesmaids and their experiences with other characters. Through discussing their pasts, rather than suppressing unresolved sentiments, they can cope with any trauma or personal struggles that burdened them – this is seen in some shape or form amongst all the bridesmaids, but particularly through Meredith.
Meredith’s biting sarcasm and cynical outlook on life can be seen as a coping mechanism for past suffering, specifically stemming from being taken advantage of when she was younger – something far more profound than she initially lets on. Her deflective, jaded demeanor and simmering anger serve as ways to avoid confronting the painful realities of her past.
This natural and understandable urge to escape past traumas isn’t just reflected in the lives of the bridesmaids themselves. Although he never appears on stage, Frances’s date, Bradford, is also haunted by his past. We learned that the death of his former wife had affected him to the point that he refuses to return to his hometown.
Rejection is a universal element of the human experience.
All five women found their way to Meredith’s bedroom due to rejection in some form: Frances arrives feeling as though her innocence and sweet-hearted nature doesn’t belong amongst the chaos of the wedding crowd. Meredith makes her way upstairs due to what she perceives as a completely pretentious wedding affair. Trisha comes to the room feeling uncomfortable by toxic men at the event. Georgeanne feels rejected by her fantasies and broken dreams. And Mindy feels ostracized amongst the traditional southern community that refuses to accept her differences.
Despite their initial differences, the women found unexpected camaraderie in their collective sentiments of exclusion. They ultimately discovered strength in their struggles when tackling them together, underscoring the transformative power of facing the hardships of life together.
Life isn’t about you. It’s about being a part of something bigger than yourself.
In Five Women, Alan Ball made no attempt to hide the fact that oftentimes, life doesn’t revolve around you.
Ouch.
And it doesn’t matter how hard you try or how badly you may want something.
Double ouch.
The women find out that despite their dreams and efforts to change their lives, reality doesn’t always align with what they want. Meredith, burdened with her mother’s expectations and overshadowed by her primadonna older sister, longs to escape her current life. But the reality is she cannot escape her past grievances nor present distress. As Mindy encourages, change comes from shaping one’s own path, and not simply lamenting about what doesn’t please you.
Frances, the play’s overly zealous religious angel, romanticizes about finding a godly man free of past sins. But her unrealistic standards gives her a clouded, somewhat distorted view of the world. Only after Trisha’s stern reality check does Frances become slightly more self-aware of her unreasonable expectations.
And finally, Georgeanne, whose comments throughout the play fixate on wealth, looks, and status, romanticizes men of the likes of Tommy Valentine. But her misaligned values are confronted when she realizes the disparity between her fantasies and reality.
Ultimately, the play showed that happiness isn’t about chasing a “perfect” future, but rather in embracing and making the most of the situation life presents you with. Mindy deftly exemplifies this – though ostracized, she leads a life full of purpose both in her career as well as in helping support her fellow bridesmaids. And at the end of the play, it wasn’t the women’s aspirations and fantasies that made them happy. Instead, it was their purpose in their newfound sisterhood that did, showcasing that life is about being a part of something bigger than themselves.
Conclusion
So, as the city of Half Moon Bay laughed the nights away last month, let us not forget to take some of the valuable lessons the five wonderful women on stage taught us and implement them in our own lives.
Cheers to embracing self-acceptance and friendship, every step of the way!
Until next time, Cha Cha Cheeze Whiz!
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