College of Marin comedy is hilarious, a desired respite

Watching “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” is like savoring cotton candy laced with a non-piquant spice.

It’s mouthwatering while you’re wolfing down the sugar-high — even though you’re apt to forget the empty calories mere seconds after the last bite.

The latest offering at the College of Marin’s little Studio Theatre is a superficial but hilarious comedy by Alan Ball, who created it in 1993 before winning an Oscar for writing the “American Beauty” screenplay and creating two pungent HBO series, “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood.”

This two-hour character-driven show’s riddled with sarcasm and cynicism — and guaranteed to make you smile. And, most likely, laugh aloud.

Again, and again, and again.

I did.

It may also force you to think, if only fleetingly, about some significant issues — sexual abuse, disposable relationships, black power, AIDS.

I did.

The play centers on five disgruntled bridesmaids in a posh Knoxville, Tennessee, wedding who bond over the holes in their lives — and their mutual dislike of the offstage bride and her $6,000 gown.

All wear the same pink dress (resembling, come to think of it, cotton candy) — although Meredith, the bride’s younger sister, momentarily accessorizes with a leather motorcycle jacket (and bemoans attendees as “the bland leading the bland”).

All, for different reasons, hide out in Meredith’s bedroom while a lawn reception is taking place.

All but one drink heavily, inhale weed and diss the other guests.

Amanda Eckstut masterfully portrays a hurt and angry Meredith, her long-internalized secret much bigger than just sibling rivalry. Elexa Poropudas shines as Trisha, a promiscuous blonde bombshell who’s forever treated men as sex objects but now seeks something more. And Melanie Bandera-Hess edgily plays Georgeanne, a disenchanted wife haunted by her nervous breakdown and memories of illicit sex by a dumpster, not to mention an abortion.

Shawn Oda brings the groom’s sister, Mindy, to life as a lesbian who’s highly opinionated and has never met a hors d’oeuvre she didn’t like. And Chandra Gordon pointedly skirts being a caricature as the bride’s cousin, Frances, a holier-than-thou but envy-ridden bible-thumper.

B. Cooper Goldman appears capably in a cameo role as Tripp, the latest male object of Trisha’s affection.

Indeed, I found every member of the ensemble cast commendable.

Except when their Southern accents rose and fell with as much regularity as an unseen lothario, Tommy Valentine, rang the belles’ chimes.

I also found that director Molly Noble kept everything moving at a fast-faster-fastest pace that made sure if one one-liner missed, the next one didn’t.

Over all, “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” is a ‘90s view of feminism penned by a gay playwright who adroitly captured the grand bitchiness women are capable of — as well as, in sharp contrast, their sensitivities.

Yes, I believe the film “Bridesmaids” was funnier (though not much raunchier). But this perky comedy is undeniably a welcome relief from the theatrical weightiness rife in the Bay Area lately.

And it’s easy to forget that the production is community-based.

So I pose this question:

“Why not see an impressive live show at a price not much more than a movie costs these days?”

“Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” will play at the Studio Theatre of the College of Marin, Performing Arts Bldg., Kentfield Campus, through May 10. Night performances Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; matinees, Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $10 to $20. Information: http://goo.gl/vywSyV or 485-9385.