Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain
By Mark Dunn
Novato Theater Company runs through June 10, 2018

American playwright Mark Dunn’s gentle comedy of five women working together in a bank premiered in 1993, which was a long time ago in terms of the developments in feminism since then. None of the characters even have cell phones, good grief. Still, even in enlightened 2018 it’s hard to find a play on stage anywhere that features a full female cast of five—we haven’t progressed that much, evidently—and hearing five treble voices converse in public for two hours is still a novelty. Novato Theater Company has the good graces to deliver this rarity with an excellent cast, wrapped up in attractive production values, and lets us ponder how far women have or haven’t come in the intervening decades.

 

No need to guess too hard on the premise: five women of varying ages and temperaments all work in the same bank in northern Mississippi—four average bank tellers (back when tellers were required and plentiful) and one head teller. We see them only in the mornings before the bank opens, in the office break room. None of the male bosses would be caught dead entering this woman’s domain, so the women have it all to themselves, where they can kvetch, joke, laugh, and bond over bad coffee and stale Moon Pies. …

To continue reading about this production, see the full review at Talkin’Broadway:
Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain