Playwright Lynn Nottage found the inspiration for her multi-award-winning play in an old photograph of her great-grandmother and a fragment of family memory. The result is a beautifully crafted fictional tale of an African-American seamstress at the turn of the 20th century in New York.

Esther, brilliantly played by Tanya Moodie, watches girls going from her boarding house into marriage and is envious of their happiness. However, when she starts receiving letters from George, a labourer working on the Panama Canal, her life is set to change.

The play explores Esther’s relationships with her landlady; her friend who happens to be a prostitute; a high-class customer of her exquisitely sewn lingerie; a Jewish fabric merchant (their burgeoning friendship is heart-rending); and the labourer, the man in whom she invests all her hopes and dreams.

The set is cleverly designed: a shutter lifts revealing prostitute Mayme sitting at her piano in the bordello; a door opens above the players to show George speaking his love letters from afar, smoke from the canal workings billowing around him.

Moodie shines in every scene, playing Esther with great warmth and honesty, and is supported by strong performances from the rest of the cast (although Chu Omambala as George has rather a wandering accent, from Caribbean to Geordie to Bristolian).

Overall this is a terrific production of a moving story. We get to know the characters and genuinely care about their lives.

A great way to end the Ustinov’s American Season. Thoroughly recommended.