Overview

• Lynette Linton returns to Donmar Warehouse to direct the revival as a highlight of artistic director Tim Sheader’s inaugural season.
• Samira Wiley delivers a revelatory turn as Esther Mills, a 35-year-old African American seamstress navigating dreams of opening her own beauty parlour.
• The production uses Esther’s illiteracy as a narrative device by enlisting clients Mrs Van Buren and Mayme for letter writing.
• A six-member cast earns praise for collapsing race and class boundaries through intimate fittings and period-accurate design.
• Projections of George Armstrong’s letters appear above the stage to reinforce the emotional resonance of Esther’s epistolary journey.