It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. Or at least that’s what we’re led to believe in Caitlin Saylor Stephens’ new play, Five Models in Ruins, 1981.
Set against a dilapidated English estate (Afsoon Pajoufar’s scenic design, the most intriguing part of the play), high fashion photographer Roberta (Elizabeth Marvel) gathers four top models and one newbie for a Vogue cover shoot. Or so we think.
Like the suspension of disbelief required that any of us would look as flawless as what we see on the cover of a high-end fashion magazine, so, too, are we meant to believe the quintet has arrived with no knowledge of the shoot’s circumstances. No running water, food, or proper accommodations for the multi-day shoot—just one erratic photographer obsessed with capturing the right light while her muses fight over which of Princess Diana’s discarded wedding gowns they’ll don for the “multi-day” session.
Stephens’ character road map circles on itself as day turns to night and a requisite storm rolls in. We’re subjected to flat archetypes and stereotypical catfights as the young women bicker over free-flowing cans of Tab and cigarettes. Only Tatiana (a hardened Maia Novi), a Russian model descending from her professional peak, offers any compelling backstory, having escaped the former Soviet Union only to find the modeling industry equally oppressive. Circumstances perk up, albeit meagerly, when Sandy (a charming Madeline Wise), the hair and make-up hire, arrives after a wild night at the disco and a hitchhiking attempt gone awry.
The women try to outdo one another, recalling how a misogynistic industry has wronged them, then bemoan the emerging, still unnamed AIDS crisis, with one’s primary concern being who will style her hair.
The excruciating, extended finale—a collective guttural exorcism neither earned nor justified—momentarily unites the women in a final tableau. But by this point, the audience has long passed the point of caring, left only wishing that a non-existent art director would mercifully shout, “It’s a wrap.”
Five Models in Ruins, 1981 plays at Lincoln Center Theater at the Claire Tow through June 1.
‘Five Models in Ruins, 1981’ Takeaway
If you want a deeper dive into the backstory of the 80s and 90s modeling and fashion industries, curl up with one of these books instead:
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