Asolo Repertory Theatre gets ‘Intimate’ with early Lynn Nottage play

Actress Aneisa J. Hicks has rarely felt so connected with a character as the one she plays in Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel” at Asolo Repertory Theatre.

Hicks, who makes her Sarasota debut in the production that begins performances on Feb. 28, plays a seamstress named Esther in 1905 New York. Esther creates beautiful undergarments for both the cream of society and prostitutes who share the same apartment building. Esther is happy in her life, but is eager for love and companionship, though she faces a bumpy road.

“It’s not every day you get characters that are so aligned to you that you feel your backs are kissing,” Hicks said. “That’s how I feel about Esther. She is so accessible to me. Every choice she makes I understand because I’ve done something similar, maybe to the detriment of myself.”

During the play, Esther begins a correspondence with George, a man from Barbados who is working on the Panama Canal. They exchange letters, but because Esther can’t read or write, she calls on help from her best friend, Mayme (played by third-year FSU/Asolo Conservatory student Trezure B. Coles), and her landlady, Mrs. Van Buren (played by Adelin Phelps in her Asolo Rep debut). Curtis Bannister, who is currently playing Rev. Jeremiah Brown in “Inherit the Wind,” takes on the role of George, who is not quite the man he suggests in his letters.

Esther also builds a friendship with Mr. Marks (played by Sasha Andreev), who sells her fabrics for her garments.

“It’s a relationship that begins as that of a salesman and a customer, but it evolves very quickly because they really have this unspoken love and unspoken affection,” Andreev said. “Neither one of these people is able to express and convey it verbally because it is forbidden or taboo for Mr. Marks.” It’s a problem of religious tradition, more than racial divide that gets in their way, the actors said.

The production, which is directed by Austene Van, joins “Inherit the Wind” and “Born with Teeth” as part of Asolo Rep’s winter rotating repertory, and opens at the tail end of the Conservatory production of Nottage’s most recent Broadway play “Clyde’s.”

A rich history of Nottage plays in the Sarasota area

Nottage has won Pulitzer Prizes for “Ruined,” which was produced by Florida Studio Theatre in 2010, and “Sweat,” which Asolo Rep staged in 2019. Asolo Rep also presented her “Las Meninas” in 2011. (Venice Theatre presented “Intimate Apparel” in 2013 and later staged Nottage’s “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark” in 2015.)

“Intimate Apparel” first opened in 2003 in Baltimore before an off-Broadway run that starred Viola Davis as Esther. Nottage and composer Ricky Ian Gordon turned it into an opera that opened at Lincoln Center Theater in 2022.

Hicks said Nottage “gives voice to the otherwise voiceless in scenarios we wouldn’t normally find people in. All the people she writes about are still relevant, even though it’s 1905. They’re still walking around right now. No matter who you look like, you see yourself on stage. That’s what makes Lynn Nottage so long-lasting and well-produced.”

Andreev, who first came to Sarasota as Tateh in the musical “Ragtime” in 2018 and also plays a snarky reporter in “Inherit the Wind,” said there’s a poetic nature to Nottage’s writing.

“It’s set in a realistic world and grounded, but there’s an elevated level of language that does not distance the audience,” he said. “It brings them in and captures them. This is the first show by Lynn Nottage that I ever saw and every word is crafted so well. At rehearsal, we keep oohing and ahhing because of how good it is.”

Hicks said she often is in awe of Esther “because she’s stronger than me at times. When she stands in her power, she is unapologetic. Her love for people is so profound. The fact that we’re so similar, I find myself discovering I don’t have to reach hard to play her, and that makes it almost like looking at myself in the mirror. Her words feel just right, even though she existed in someone’s imagination and in 1905. Her fears are my fears. Her wounds are my wounds.”

And all of Esther’s choices, however right or wrong, make sense.

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“The one thing she wants that she’s not getting is universal is love, and when you feel you’re not getting what you need, you make choices that could be for the detriment of yourself.”

Andreev said he appreciates the chance to bring the play to life.

“There’s an incredible warmth to this show. You can’t help but be enthralled by it. It’s sexy, it’s vivid. It’s incredibly human and nuanced,” he said. “I think it’s exciting and I think it’s hopeful because you see people navigating, religious, cultural differences. You see characters make good decisions and bad and you root for them even when you hate them at the same time.”

‘Intimate Apparel’

By Lynn Nottage. Directed by Austene Van. Runs Feb. 28-April 18. Asolo Repertory Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. $29-$95. 941-351-8000; asolorep.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Asolo Repertory Theatre stages Lynn Nottage’s ‘Intimate Apparel’