SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Oct. 4, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — It’s not every day you get to see a one-person show in our fair state of Utah that’s written and performed by the same person.
But Salt Lake Acting Company’s 52nd season opener is just that. The world premiere of “Can I Say Yes To That Dress?” by Sarah Shippobotham is playing in SLAC’s downstairs Chapel Theatre, at 168 W. 500 North, through Oct. 29. From a wedding dress changing room, a middle-aged British woman questions her life choices and what happens if you feel like you don’t quite fit into the socially accepted norms of femininity and femaleness.
If you’ve lived in Salt Lake City for any length of time, and are into theater, you will probably be familiar with Shippobotham. Not only does she have one of the most memorable names in town, but she’s a bit of a legend in her own right. She is the definition of a multi-hyphenate; a performer, director, dialect coach, intimacy consultant, and professor in acting and dialects at the University of Utah. She trained as an actor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama before gaining a postgraduate diploma in voice studies from the renowned Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She’s appeared in many shows for the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and at other local theaters, notably in “The Syringa Tree,” an award-winning one-woman show where she played 20 different characters. Her dialect and voice coaching credits include 18 seasons with the Shaw Festival in Canada, over 25 shows for the Pioneer Theatre Company, and shows for SLAC including last season’s “Passing Strange.”
In 2011 and 2012 Shippobotham spent seven months in New Zealand working as a dialect coach on “The Hobbit” films. It was also in 2012 that she wrote the first pages of “Can I Say Yes?” for an assignment at a clown workshop. Then, in 2022, Shippobotham applied to the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival without a finished script, which gave her the push she needed to complete a first draft. The performances sold out, and the show was moved to a larger venue in the Gateway to accommodate demand. Shippobotham was given the GSL Fringe’s award for outstanding one-person show. Then in February, the piece had a reading at SLAC’s New Play Sounding Series, which also sold out. That reading was directed by Jamie Rocha Allan, who is a fellow Brit and has gone on to direct the full-length show, the script of which Shippobotham worked on right up until opening.
There’s a lot of layers to this piece, rather like a fancy bridal gown. It’s about the character’s doubts whether a wedding dress, and as an extension of that, a married life, is the right choice for her, and also what exactly makes a perfect partner. But it’s also about society’s expectations of what it means to be a “conventional” woman in our rapidly changing modern world. The character, Sîan Jones, says at one point, “I’ve always felt different but never knew how to fully live in the world I wanted for myself. I’m not male but I don’t feel I fit into the female norms someone of my age should do. I love to swear, I love to galumph, I can drink most men under the table, don’t feel maternal, don’t wear makeup, and don’t go to the hairdressers regularly.”
The play goes pretty deep, but with a light touch, as Sîan chats to the audience about a wide range of topics including all the delicious foods she loves (of course all the descriptions are of British delicacies, which had me drooling!) to her adoration of the word f***, to a story about how she and her mum used to go wedding dress shopping before there was a groom in the picture and how fun it was to pretend to be different people. There’s even some Shakespeare in the mix. Oh, and in the program, there is a guide to some of the British things Sîan mentions, just in case you don’t know what cricket, cream crackers, or custard creams are.
The script is strong, and Shippobotham’s performance is mesmerizing. It was explained before the show began on opening night that some of the blocking needed to be simplified as she recently sustained an injury. Most of the play was delivered with the character sitting on a chaise longue downstage. I didn’t feel that this hindered the performance in any way; Shippobotham’s comic timing, nurtured by Rocha Allan’s direction, is impeccable, as is her physical comedy. One of my favorite parts of the play is when Sîan, having made herself hungry describing some of her favorite foods, discovers a nearly-empty packet of crisps in her bag. She then goes through a series of complicated maneuvers as she attempts to tuck her massive poofy dress into itself so that crisps don’t fall onto it or into her cleavage. Her dialect work is flawless too, as you would expect.
Shippobotham also delivers during the more touching and profound moments of the script; though in a very British way, of course when Sîan describes her deepest insecurities, such as the fact that she has to shave her face, and it’s wrapped in tissue-paper like layers of humor and self-deprecation. Us Brits are uncomfortable with sharing too many emotions and letting ourselves feel vulnerable.
This being a SLAC show, the production values are really lovely. The jewel in the tiara is the set design, by Cara Pomeroy; there is a large round raised playing space, painted blue, and a smaller round platform on top of it; they look rather like two giant hat boxes. There is then a metal structure upstage that resembles a cubist sculpture, with dozens of mirrors attached to it; the analogy being, perhaps, that one cannot escape one’s reflection. The other production values are simpler; the lighting by Jessica Greenberg is straightforward, as is only apt as the whole play takes place in a dressing room. There is a lovely moment at the beginning of the show when Sîan stands on the smaller platform, in a wash of blue, and Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” plays as she strikes poses reminiscent of a twirling ballerina in a music box.
The sound design by Cynthia L. Kehr Rees, and props by Arika Shockmel are uncomplicated too, but out of necessity; I think anything fussy would have seemed a little overproduced. The costume design by Spencer Potter consists of just one look; Shippobotham wears the same dress throughout, but a nice detail is that she’s wearing it with clunky brown hiking boots. And the closing moment of the show, which also involves costuming, is really beautiful.
At its’ core, “Can I Say Yes To That Dress?” is a mediation on what exactly modern marriage is and why we should want it; Sîan desires an exciting, daring partnership; she wishes her fiance, Roger, would treat her more like a sex toy “and less like his mother.” But she also wants someone who can make her feel safe and protected. But in the course of the play, it also seems that she discovers that perhaps the most important relationship she needs to accept and nurture is the one she has with herself.
Performances continue at SLAC Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. There’s also a matinee this Saturday, Oct. 7 at 2 p.m. and a performance on Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m. For tickets click here or call SLAC at 801-363-7522.
