The title of Caitlin Sayor Stephens’ Five Models in Ruins, 1981 overexplains the obvious that these models are in ruins both literally (at a rundown mansion in the English countryside, where they will wear the just-married Princess Diana’s discarded wedding gowns for a shoot with a famous American photographer) and figuratively (all five—and the photographer, Roberta—are in various states of emotional distress).

 

There’s arrogant supermodel Chrissy; cynical Tatiana; nervous newbie Grace; sardonic former superstar Alex; and Sandy, an English makeup artist and former model whom Roberta talks into joining the shoot after the fifth model doesn’t show since they’ve worked together before. As everyone prepares for the shoot, dealing with no phone or food (the former maybe, the latter unlikely), they argue, commiserate, battle, bond. The dialogue is lively but superficial, as each woman gets the chance to kvetch about sexually menacing men in the industry or the worst photo shoot of her career.  But none of this makes any of the models truly thought-out and differentiated individuals.

 

Roberta, a driven if cynical industry vet (apparently based on American photographer Deborah Turbeville), comes closest to being fully rounded, and she’s played by Elizabeth Marvel with her usual intensity. As the models, Stella Everett (Chrissy), Maia Novi (Tatiana), Britne Oldford (Alex), Sarah Marie Rodriguez (Grace) and Madeline Wise (Sandy) do what they can with their underwritten characters, but only Everett overcomes Stephens’ script with a performance of imposing physicality and biting humor.

 

Needless to say, Five Models doesn’t build to any kind of apotheosis. Instead it climaxes after Roberta hears from her editor at Vogue that he’s pulling the plug on the shoot and she loses it, letting out a primal scream that the others join until it builds to a clamorous crescendo that’s technically impressive but dramatically ineffectual. Morgan Green adroitly directs on Afsoon Pajoufar’s detailed, cluttered mansion set that, along with Cha See’s ingenious lighting, is a delicious visual asset for an undernourished play.