This is a truly funny play that takes places in a women’s clothing store. To be more specific, in an unusually open fitting room area of the store, where women change clothes openly in whatever corner of the room is available without much regard to privacy. We’re not so sure that would really happen, but never having been in the changing room of a women’s clothing store, who knows?

Playwright Jennie Webb probably carries around one of those fun house mirrors that distort reality, giving her the opportunity to look at the more skewed side of life and then play it back with wickedly comic edges that run the gamut from slapstick to comic genius. This is how she can get away with writing in a male character who flamboyantly wanders in and out of the dressing room area giving the women advice on what to select and how to wear it, even as they shed their outer garments to try on different styles. Jaxon Duff Gwillim is terrific in the role.

Jennifer Taub - Inger Tudor - Jaxon Duff Gwillim

The female characters that come in and out of the store are an amalgamation of different types of women, identified as The Focused Woman, The Scattered Woman, The Selfless Woman, The Awkward Girl and The Woman With Children. Oh yes, there’s also the aforementioned The Only Man.

Seemingly paired off with common issues, The Focused Woman (Inger Tudor) and The Scattered Woman (Jennifer Taub) are friends who support each other although they often argue. One has mother issues and the other has taken time off from her life to care for a sick mother and now wants to get back to the job market and life in general. The Scattered Woman is absolutely a riot, with personality traits that would insure a one-way ticket to Camarillo for most people. She carries around a huge carpet bag and part of the running gag is the stuff she carries in it. An obvious “pack rat”, she starts by pulling a sandwich from the bag – later a picnic cooler – still later a clothes rack – yes you read correctly – a clothes rack about 5 feet tall and 6 feet long, then dozens of used “Yard Sale” signs which have been left behind carelessly after the yard sale. But that’s not all. She carries a full size folding chair, and she later pulls out a 6 foot folding ladder. Last but certainly not least, out come about 13 boxes (large boxes) representing items sent by her mother who is coming to live with her; all this from a carpet bag purse which is about three feet long and two feet deep. How did she do it? Director Elina de Santos pulls off a David Copperfield like staging stunt that is impressively realistic and wildly comical.

The Only Man brings his long time friend, The Woman With Children, because she is very clumsy and doesn’t have any taste in dressing herself. If Taub was terrific as The Scattered Woman, Hollace Starr creates a howler of a character when she demurely mentions that she had an accident and lost the use of her left arm. She manipulates it like a robotic appendage. But then she mentions an artificial eye – and later prosthetic legs and so on until every time she shows up you know you have to brace for a laugh attack.

Ann Bronston alternates with Maia Danziger as The Selfless Woman, a stepmother to bratty, spoiled Awkward Girl (Corryn Cummins) who tries in every way to antagonize the stepmother. However, it is her teen-age whimsy and her idea about the used yard sale signs that create an atmosphere where the others begin to come to terms with their issues. Inger Tudor (The Focused Woman ) seems to be the only one with any sense of reason and she tries to keep the proper perspective on the wacky events around her.

In this madcap scenario, many concerns are brought up and exposed – especially issues of self esteem, mother issues, children issues and sibling issues. Curiously, problems with the opposite sex were not as high on the agenda, although some mention was made. The crux is that all the women came to the store with some type of concern and they leave with a better understanding of what they can do to address it. The play doesn’t quite solve the issues of the world. But it’s a heck of a lot of fun in the way it shows them.

The production runs through November 14, 2010. Ticket information at: www.roguemachinetheatre.com