The Women at the SiLo Theatre

By SHANNON HUSE

The Women is a grown-up treat for little girls who watched Dynasty, Dallas and Gloss and dreamed of being obscenely rich, fabulously well-dressed and dangerously armed with an arsenal of withering putdowns.

Written by Clare Booth Luce more than 70 years ago, The Women takes the audience into the rarified world of New York high society.

While obviously a period piece, it remains startlingly relevant.

The characters are fools in love who struggle to choose between family and career, chase the body beautiful, deal with toxic friends and well-meaning mothers, fight to be taken seriously, find themselves traded in for younger models, and adore men and are let down by them. Sound familiar, girls?

Foremost, this is a comedy, and director Katie Wolfe and her talented cast show great skill in maintaining a quick pace and a light tone in what is a technically difficult piece.

The eight actors play multiple characters and they have to deal with machinegun-fast dialogue, a dazzling array of costumes and accessories, props including food, quick scene changes, and scenes in their underwear.

It is all achieved with the grace of a well-choreographed dance.

Lucy Wigmore infuses the key protagonist of jilted wife Mary Haines with just the right amount of dignity, and makes an excellent foil for the other, more flamboyant characters.

Her nemesis, the gold-digger Crystal Allen, is played by Mia Blake who has great presence.

Sally Stockwell is suitably bitchy as the gossip Sylvia Fowler, and she keeps the comedy factor high by injecting an element of slapstick into her performance.

Susan Brady is a skilled comic and character actor who also captures just the right amount of farce. She is especially enjoyable as the much-married Countess De Lage, who will do anything for love.

Anna Hutchison gives her ingenue, Peggy Day, some interesting layers and is a good sport (and a good body) in a scene as an underwear model.

Jacqueline Nairn makes the most of her witty lines as the all-knowing writer Nancy Blake and is also sympathetic in her lesser roles.

Hannah Tolich is a standout, playing everyone from a spoiled brat to an Eastern European princess and Mid-Western trailer-trash character.

She is particularly good as the fast-talking manicurist who reveals a secret and initiates chaos.

Jacque Drew is another scene-stealer who manages more than anyone to nail the American essence of the piece with a Bette Midler-like charisma.

Shane Bosher's set design consists of a subdued blue carpet that runs the length of the stage and up two walls, and some well-selected chrome and leather furniture.

It does little to create atmosphere but it does make an excellent backdrop for the real design stars of the show, which are the wonderful costumes.

Stylist Sara Beale magically creates a period piece from contemporary fashion by well-known New Zealand designers such as as Zambesi, Liz Mitchell, Trelise Copper, Nom d, Carlson, RJC, State of Grace and Moontide.

The Women is being marketed with the line "Sex, Sin and the City", alluding to the popular television show.

Although the play explores similar issues, it is made of much sterner stuff.

The sassy society queens in The Women would eat the neurotic Sex in the City foursome for breakfast.

Sex in the City has sickly sweet overtones, whereas The Women is as dry and sophisticated as a good martini, and just as potent.

* The Women is at the SiLo Theatre to November 6