I went to a performing arts center on Jan, 28, 2014. That is my second play in USA. The play begun at 7:30pm and it came to an end at 9:30pm. The name of the play was LOVE, LOSS and WHAT I WORE. The subject matter of the play includes women’s relationships with their wardrobes and the interaction between the two. Six women take us on a journey through their past experiences, hearts and closets. A character called Gingy opened the show by sketching various parts of her wardrobe each symbolizing a memory. She told her life story describing three of her marriages, motherhood and the death of a child, each stage marked by a specific cloth.
Gingy has a set of simple renderings, beginning with her latest black dress with sleeve, her brownie uniform and finally an accessory her granddaughter recommended. The drawings she made led her into a tour of her own life. She had ugly leggings held up by suspenders that she wore only when she was outside. Gingy wanted a store bought dress because her mother made her clothes that she did not like. After her mother’s death, her father bought her two navy blue dresses for her 13th birthday. After a little while her grandmother came and took Gingy and her sister to stay with her and marks the last time she ever saw her father. This tells us that a teenage girl’s choice of dressing is usually decided by her mother. There always results an argument once the teenager dismisses her mother’s choice of clothing.
Gingy remembered the time she was fourteen years old, she wore a black bathing suit when she went to Florida with her grandmother. The bathing suit reminds her of the time when she met a twenty-six year old boy on the Bernie Maybrook beach and he requested her to go for a date with him. Her grandmother allowed her to go on condition that she was present during the date.
She remembered when her mother made a forest green wool jersey dress with re cherries for her sister who had a voluptuous figure. The dress reminded her of their nicknames (monkey-hers, the pig and tootsie-for her sister). It also reminded her of the time her sister cut out pictures from movie magazines and taped them to the walls of the bedroom they shared. She is also reminded of the time she had very ugly nails due to her biting them.
She is reminded of the time she went with her sister camping as brownies and Girl Scout, there was no electricity and they had to go in outhouse because they had no flushed toilet.
The character remembered when she wore a black taffeta outfit to dancing school at Ballet Art in the Carnegie Hall building that symbolizes the time her mother would walk her to the bus and yell at her for wearing perfume and mascara while forgetting to wash her neck.
In my opinion, the play was good, and I liked it. The characters relate their wardrobes to their past experiences throughout their lives.
Mohammad Alsediqi