by Cari Lynn Pace *

Mercury Theater has done a masterful job presenting the hopes and dreams of a hardworking, self-sustaining seamstress in Intimate Apparel. This award-winning story by Lynn Nottage is presented by Mercury Theater at the old Cinnabar theater on top of a hill in Petaluma. The show runs through Sep. 13.

It’s 1905 and Esther possesses an unmatched talent at her sewing machine for creating lovely undergarments for New York society. She’s black, unmarried at 35, and resigned to her fate as a lonely spinster while other young ladies find partners at Mrs. Dickson’s Boarding House. Esther, played with quiet resolve by Noell Webber, declines Mrs. Dickson’s urging (in a bossy yet motherly role by Layce Lynne Kieu) to leave her sewing and socialize. She demurs “I discovered all I need in these fingers.”

The set design by Laurynn Malilay moves to find Esther shopping for fine fabrics for her clients at Mr. Marks’s (John Browning) store. He’s a devout Jew who shares a mutual appreciation for the quality and beauty of the fabrics Esther chooses. He also subtly admires Esther’s personal quality and beauty. When Esther’s hand accidentally touches Mr. Marks’s hand, he recoils. She is stunned, and quietly assures him “The color won’t rub off.” He quickly explains it his religion’s restriction against touching a female’s hand without marriage, nothing more. The tension between these two is filled with unspoken longing.    

George (Isiah Carter) is a Barbados laborer working on the Panama Canal. He gets Esther’s name from a church contact and writes to her. Esther is thoroughly charmed. Although she cannot read or write she returns his interest by having Mrs. Van Buren (Maddi Scarbrough,) a customer, pen her replies. Mrs. Van Buren does so, revealing her own agenda. She wants to parade Esther in front of her society friends for amusement. When George arrives to New York to marry Esther, their union is stoic and unromantic. He’s fleecing Esther for her savings, yet she is so in love with the idea of them together she cannot see it. Her best friend Mayme (Mercedes Murphy) brutally helps her see the painful truth. With George gone, Esther returns to the only solace she has in life, making Intimate Apparel. 

It’s a sad story of a love that will never be, perfectly directed by Leontyne Mbele-Mbong.

Playing through September 13, 2026 at Mercury Theater, 3333 Petaluma Blvd. N, Petaluma.

Click HERE for more information and tickets.

Photos by Mike Thompson

Cari Lynn Pace is a long-time Bay Area theatre critic whose reviews were regularly featured in the Marinscope Community Newspapers and a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.