‘Intimate Apparel’ on Pittsburgh Playhouse Stage (Wed., 2/21/24)

INTIMATE APPAREL by Lynn Nottage. Conservatory Theatre Company at Pittsburgh Playhouse. February 21 – 25.

The show’s title makes it sound like a racy, risque revue, when in fact it is a stirring drama by a great contemporary playwright. Intimate Apparel springs from the creative mind of Lynn Nottage, known for writing powerful works and giving them cryptically brief names. Ruined and Sweat each received a Pulitzer Prize for Drama—making Nottage the only woman (so far) to win the award twice—and her rambunctious Clyde’s played in Pittsburgh recently. Intimate Apparel is a history play set in New York City in 1905. The lead character is a seamstress who makes sexy undergarments, often to be worn by women on their wedding nights. Meanwhile, Esther herself seems fated to be always the provocatrice but never the bride: She has a crush that can’t be pursued because she is Black and he’s Jewish. Then, when a dashing gent from out of town begins to court her by mail, comical complications lead to very unsettling results. Point Park University’s Conservatory Theatre Company stages Intimate Apparel in the Highmark Theatre at Pittsburgh Playhouse. 7:30 p.m. 350 Forbes Ave., Downtown. (M.V.) 

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