The play “Intimate Apparel”, by Lynn Nottage takes us back to 1905, where  Esther, a 35 year old African American is a talented seamstress, whose clients range from pampered Fifth Avenue society wife Mrs. Van Buren, who hates her life, to a prostitute named Mayme who could have been a successful pianist but instead she sells herself.  All Esther wants is a good man to marry. She finds herself unattractive. On one side there is man who she married meeting through letters and on the other side there is this charming, sensitive man but his religion and traditions turns Esther’s love into nothing but a dream.
Through this play script Lynn Nottage touches on issues of race, women’s sense of worth, and the struggle against compromising one’s dreams. Plays explore life through storytelling and acting. It becomes entertaining when performing and visual act comes together. Reading a play script is different than reading a narrated story. A play script consists almost entirely of dialogue. This helped me to engage and to be alert by going into a certain character’s world. I found myself become a part of the whole experience like watching a movie.
Also, through this play Lynn Nottage helped me explore questions like How do we love? How do we find happiness by also looking at themes like religion and traditions.  Each character is boxed into certain excepted norm of what their role is in the society and their struggle to be heard.  For example Mr. Marks who owns the store where Ester buys fabrics. He is an observant Jew who respects old world traditions, but his affection for his favorite customer is obvious. “It isn’t often that something so fine and delicate enters the store,” he says, referring to a particular fabric but perhaps meaning Esther herself. Their love, obviously, can never be.
I felt like Lynn Nottage uncovered and interpreted her past and present through characters by this play. It helped us to enter the world of the play writer. Although set in 1905, Esther and her world speak to our everyday struggles like traditions, religion, race, self worth and one’s dreams.
Sibel,
I agree reading a play script you do find yourself reading it like a movie. There is so much dialogue that it just really consumes you. I think I might even prefer them over regular novels. Anyways I find that when the lights cross fade they add some symbolism. For example at the end of act 1 when the lights cross fade from Mr. Marks over to George. I felt like it was symbolism of Mr. Marks being put in the dark by Ester because her main focus was George and the wedding.
I liked that you pointed out the relationship between Mr. Marks and Ester. I found it interesting that he had an interest in Ester, because they are of different race, they couldn’t be together. It reveals how times have changed to drastically. These days, they could’ve been together without a lot less apprehension as they would’ve had back then. The fact that interracial relationships are more accepted now and that this play was written recently even though it takes place in 1905 shows the writer not only recognized the change, but wanted to shed light to her viewers about the change.