Everything is a matter of perspective. One woman?s 9-to-5 job is another?s escape to freedom. One woman?s jest is another?s faith. “Desdemona: A Play About A Handkerchief” is about much more than linens ? it is black comedy at its blackest as three women?s lives intertwine over frank discussions about sex, men, friendship and love.

Paula Vogel?s play offers us another look at Shakespeare?s tragedy “Othello,” this time from the women?s point of view. Tara Garwood portrays Desdemona as a “young, unbridled colt” who escapes the drudgery of marriage by moonlighting as a prostitute. Emilia (Molly Moores) is her maid and laundress, a woman who clings to her rosary and her propriety while praying for the day her husband, Iago, “makes her a lieutenant?s widow.” And Bianca (Beth Hylton), the “harlot with heart of gold,” provides Desdemona with graphic tutelage in the finer arts of sadomasochism while actually dreaming for what Desdemona would happily abandon: marriage.