Benevolent.

We went upstairs at IATI Theater, but somehow felt as though we had walked down into a basement. That was our first response to Benevolent, and it says a lot about how convincingly this production creates its world. Charlotte Shi’s set was simple but effective, surrounding us with the laundry room’s sheets, fabric and dirtiness. Before we had got very far into the story, we already felt we were somewhere quite different from the theater we had entered.

Sophie McIntosh’s new play is set in 1917 at the Inwood Benevolent Home in New York City. Everything happens in the downstairs laundry, where four girls are on “soiled duty,” washing dirty bedding and sheets. To us, that duty felt like a metaphor for washing away the girls’ supposed sins, or what society saw as wrongdoing. These are girls considered to have done something wrong, though the reasons tell us plenty about the society judging them. Some have been accused of prostitution. One has been sent there by her father simply for meeting a man unaccompanied. It is a tough starting point, with women’s lives very much under the control of fathers and other men.

The laundry never felt like a backdrop that the actors happened to be standing in. They used real water and real soap, with tools and washing activity that felt right for the period. We loved watching them actually work while they talked. They were continually doing something, rather than just delivering dialogue beside a pile of props, and that made the situation much more convincing. We could see the job they had been made to do, and it carried on around their conversations.

At points, we almost felt we could smell the dirt. There is one particular scene we will leave undescribed, but the disgust a character felt was so immediate that we could practically feel it ourselves. That is quite an achievement: making a room feel unpleasant enough to reach us physically, without our actually being in that laundry.

Then there was the laundry chute, which became a very funny part of this miserable job. Every time the girls seemed close to finishing, another load came down. We loved the argument with the people upstairs, with abuse shouted up the chute and a thoroughly unwelcome response coming back down. It also helped create the sense of a much larger building above them. We knew we had gone upstairs to get to our seats, yet we could readily believe there were several floors of people sending their dirty washing down into this basement.

Paige Seber’s lighting had some lovely, practical touches. The pendant lights were used to follow the characters rather than relying on a spotlight, which we thought was particularly clever. The small scene changes happened in semi-darkness instead of full blackouts, so we could still see what was going on. We liked that choice. The production did not need huge changes of scenery to move us through the story, and these quieter transitions worked very well.

Max Van’s sound design did just as much to establish the parts of the home we could not see. There were atmospheric sounds, but also specific noises from the floor above, giving us a sense of activity beyond the laundry. Sound also moved the story forward during those dimly lit transitions. We heard snippets of offstage events and felt we had experienced something of them, so when the girls returned, their appearance and changed circumstances made sense. We will leave the events themselves for audiences to discover, but the way they were handled was very effective.

For all the strength of that setting, what mattered most was how close we felt to the girls. Mia Fowler as Emma, Livvy Marcus as Abby, Rachel Ravel as Sarah and Chani Reese as Margaret gave us a group we wanted to stay with. With a story like this, it would be easy to sit outside their situation and judge them. Instead, we felt alongside them, sharing the room and getting to know them beyond the reasons they had been sent there.

They do not immediately offer one another that same understanding. At first there is judgment within the group too: one will not speak to another, while someone else is nervous about approaching her. We watched smaller friendships begin to form before the four became more of a team. We will not explain what brings about those changes, but seeing them genuinely look out for each other was one of the most beautiful parts of the play. That growing sense of being in it together really stayed with us.

There was also much more laughter than the difficult subject matter might suggest. Some of these characters were very funny, and we had a lot of fun with them even while recognizing how sad their situation was. Together, without someone there to tell them off, they could swear, speak freely and let more of themselves show. Against the expectations that women should be proper and polite, those moments of freedom were especially enjoyable to watch.

Even then, differences in background affected how freely they spoke. One girl came from a more comfortable family and a posher part of the city, and some of what the others said shocked her. In turn, they sometimes seemed to hold themselves back because she was there. We liked those little reactions. Being alone together did not instantly remove the barriers between them, which made watching them become more comfortable with one another all the more satisfying.

The singing deserves a mention too. There was a beautiful voice among this group, another detail we really enjoyed. More broadly, McIntosh’s writing and Nina Goodheart’s direction brought together the hard story, the humor and the changing relationships very well. There was a lot going on within that one room, and we remained interested in both the conversations and the work continuing around them.

We sometimes get a little worried when we hear “100 minutes, no intermission,” but this flew by. It kept moving, and we never felt we were waiting for the next thing to happen. We would love to see Benevolent continue its Off-Off-Broadway life, and could also imagine it working in a slightly larger space. The production felt very well put together, with plenty to hold our attention beyond the closeness of this particular room.

That image of “soiled duty” as washing away the girls’ supposed sins stayed with us. But the more we got to know them, the less sense it made to confuse being human with being unclean. Bodies smell; that is not a moral failing. And when we do make mistakes, we still deserve understanding and the chance to be forgiven. What moved us was watching the girls begin to offer each other that understanding rather than simply accepting society’s judgment. Benevolent gave us a tough, often very sad story, but also laughter, friendship and the pleasure of watching these girls find support in each other. We really enjoyed it, and we would love to see where it goes next.