The Portland Mercury - Somewhat Recommended

"...And Mr. Marks' tongue-tied character also offers space in an otherwise too-fast-paced play. While Nottage's script is a well-researched historical drama, it often loses track of its nuanced politics in favor of unsubtle and predictable drama. Luckily, Mendelson & Co. let the play live in its transitions-in echoing steps, Mr. Marks' crinkling paper, George's heavy breathing, and the steady working of Esther's sewing machine, the rhythm of patchwork life."
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OregonLive - Recommended

"...Nottage, who won a Pulitzer prize for her play "Ruined," is a voice worth attending to. According to Artists Rep program notes, the playwright has plans to adapt "Intimate Apparel" into an opera, a good fit for this emotionally charged play observing African American history from a female viewpoint and through some magnificent storytelling."
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Willamette Week - Somewhat Recommended

"...To Nottage's credit, the play never turns didactic: The photographs of "unidentified Negroes" that flash on a back scrim remind us of history's untold stories without browbeating us. Director Michael Mendelson shirks sentimentality, but the performances of his cast tip too easily from understated to lackluster. This Intimate Apparel could stand to be a bit more revealing."
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Portland Monthly Mag - Highly Recommended

"...The able directorial hand of Michael Mendelson keeps what could be a plodding plotline moving along nimbly, and Jack O'Brien's clever set design sees the action through five distinct, lived-in spaces without a single set change. Sarah Gahagan's period costumes-crucial to a play so concerned with clothing, fabric, and their meaning-are eye catching when they need to be, and subtly constructed when they don't."
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Oregon Arts Watch - Recommended

"...Whenever Esther speaks of how she makes her living, she always says that she makes "intimate apparel." Never "underthings" or "unmentionables" or any other euphemism. It sounds like a phrase she's been taught, part marketing, part claim to respectability. But it's also a phrase that hints at some of the thematic fissures Nottage is delving into: between what's concealed and what's revealed; between surfaces and interiors; between apparent and true character; between, you might say, lures and prizes."
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Dennis Sparks Reviews - Recommended

"...Harder is a gentle soul and you instantly like him, although he seems ruled by tradition. But he is capable of change and you watch this transformation with hope. Nicely done. Shambry's character, on the surface, seems so callous at times and yet he is portrayed as a complex person, having nothing, but desiring the everything. Good job. And, for me, the one my heart went out to, was Woods's persona. A victim of circumstance who sincerely wishes to rise above her lot in life. Her music and singing betrayed a longing for a better deal of the cards. Woods has the makings of fine actress."
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