Imagine looking for love in a time when women weren’t given much rights. What could they really expect except a man who wants to be their master? In “Intimate Apparel,” we follow the courtship of an innocent who is aided by two more knowing women.

At 35, Esther (Vanessa Williams) has given up looking for a suitable husband. She lives in a woman’s boarding house in New York City. She arrived 21 years ago from the South, and it’s 1905. She’s made her living as a seamstress, a job that gives her access to clientele from the uptown white women to the women of various colors in the downtown areas. Being able to cross the racial lines is unusual for a woman who is black and, worse, someone who cannot read or write.

Her life suddenly changes when she gets a letter from a man she’s never met, George (David St. Louis), writes her a letter.

“I don’t trust him one bit,” Esther’s landlady bluntly states. “He writes too often.”

George is working on the Panama Canal and seems well-spoken. He’s a young Caribbean-born man. Esther soon has a rich white socialite unhappy with her own marriage, Mrs. Van Buren (Angel Reda), and a well-paid prostitute Mayme (Kristy Johnson) helping her write letters to George.

Yet there is already a man in Esther’s life, another immigrant who shares her love of fabrics. Mr. Marks (Adam J. Smith), a Hasidic Jew is fond of Esther, but he’s been engaged to a woman he’s never met who lives in a different country.  It’s tradition, one that might keep him lonely for many more years. You can’t help but feel that he would have been a kindly husband if the times had been different. The first act ends with Esther marrying George. The second act is about their marriage. As it turns out, neither Esther nor George were really writing their letters, making this a marriage of complete strangers.

“Intimate Apparel” won the 2004 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway play. Under the direction of Sheldon Epps, we see the tragedy of women of different social levels. Lynn Nottage’s script allows for more than one interpretation. Under Epps all the characters are operating  in isolation–alone in a city crowded with people. Mrs. Dickson didn’t love her deceased husband, but she married out of practicality. Yet she’s not really a friend to Esther. Class, race, literacy and morals separate these six individuals and none of them find love, least of all the person who could have it but throws it away.

We’ve come a long way since women couldn’t vote and race separated communities, but not everyone is convinced that’s true. “Intimate Apparel” is a reminder of what was, but also what still is.

“Intimate Apparel” continues through December 2, 2012 at the Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8:00 p.m.; Saturdays at 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday sat 2:00 p.m. and  7:00 p.m. $32.00 – $62.00, with Premium Seating available for $100.00.