THE CEMETERY CLUB

THE CEMETERY CLUB

Little Waltham Drama Group at the Memorial Hall

24.04.15

September Song on the soundtrack, and for Little Waltham's trademark proscenium pictures, a vaguely impressionist pair of cemetery gates in the fall [Liz Willsher].

Mags Simmonds' enjoyable production of this favourite five-hander has heart-warming performances from the three widows, united in convivial mourning for their menfolk.

What are “the boys” doing now, they wonder as they sip their tea. Cue for a heavenly spin-off there, maybe ?

Ida, the home body in whose bijou apartment they meet, is played with emotional subtlety and throwaway comic timing by Linda Burrow. She's joined by Vicky Weavers' glamorous Lucille, in her thrift-shop mink with matching muff, and Helen Langley's Doris, still missing Abe after four years. They all have a good feel for the wise-cracking, world-weary Jewish comedy, and the pace is lively despite some interventions from prompt corner.

Witty, warm and often touchingly insightful, the show has some wonderful moments, from the broadly comic Cha Cha Cha to the subtly poignant – poor, confused Ida as she turns out the lights.

The cast is completed by Brian Corrie as Katz, the butcher who delivers, and Sally Lever as the flamboyant, flirtatious Mildred – looking as if she could give Lucille a run for her money …

THE CEMETERY CLUB

THE CEMETERY CLUB

Writtle Cards at Writtle Village Hall

25.02.15

Three Jewish widows keep a regular rendez-vous at the cemetery. They support each other; they bring gossip and grand-children’s photos.

The Golden Girls theme – by that nice Jewish boy Andrew Gold, now in an L.A. cemetery himself – sets the sit-com tone. The “pals and confidantes” here are wise-cracking Ida, [beautifully done by Liz Curley] man-hungry Lucille in her thrift-shop mink [a bold and brassy performance from Steph Edwards] and devoted widow Doris [touchingly characterized by Sharon Goodwin].

Most of the “action” takes place in Ida's sitting room, nicely realised for this production with a set that is both stylish and lived-in. But we see the Forest Hills “Perpetual Care” plots, too, on a little apron in front of the stage.

Paulette Harris's production wisely lets Menchell's dialogue speak for itself, but there are many telling moments of truth – Ida looking longingly at the mink in the mirror, envying Lucille's way with men, the sozzled home-coming after what must have been a great Jewish wedding, the show-down when Ida learns of her friends' duplicity, Lucille's phonecall to Sam [Daniel Curley], the timid kosher butcher “playboy” reluctantly caught up in the widows' net. Dee Irons plays Mildred, his temporary fancy-woman defence.

It's a sweet comedy, with flashes of insight and plenty of laughs. A good choice for the Cards, whose next is Enchanted April – but you'll have to wait till June for that ...

THE CEMETERY CLUB

THE CEMETERY CLUB

Ian Dickens Productions International Ltd at the Mercury Theatre Colchester

18.06.2012

for The Public Reviews

This comedy drama, first seen some twenty years since on Broadway, tells the tale of three Jewish widows, who meet each month, chat over tea, then head for the cemetery to commune with their late hubbies.

It's a piece still popular with amateur groups, or, as here, as a Golden Girls-style vehicle for doyennes of the stage.

Audiences drawn by the names on the playbill will not be disappointed: there are some skilled, sentimental characterizations on offer here.

Anita Harris is Ida, a no-nonsense widow who wouldn't say no to a new man in her life, and, sure enough, becomes a blushing teenager when Sam [Peter Ellis] comes on the scene [at the cemetery, of course]. Her confusion and her disappointment, when her affections seem to be spurned, are palpable; her scenes with the "butcher who delivers", tender and truthful, are some of the best moments in the show.

Elsewhere, we might expect, given the time already spent on the road, a slicker, crisper delivery. The conversation where ages are never mentioned is nicely done, though, and I enjoyed the drunken wine, cake and cha cha cha, followed by the inevitable morning after. Both of these come in the second half, where most of the soul-baring goes on, including a moving few minutes when these three widows wistfully recall their first meeting with their man, a sad showdown where home truths are shared, and the not entirely unexpected dénouement before one final visit to the cemetery.

Shirley-Anne Field is Lucille, the man-hunter – very elegant as she acquires mink after mink. Anne Charleston, as Doris, the career widow whose Abe has been gone just four years, gets closest to the cutting Jewish repartee which pervades Menchell's so-so script. And Debbie Norman makes the most of the few minutes she has as Sam's new fancy-woman, wonderfully garrulous with the most irritating of laughs.

Designer Alan Miller-Bunford has given Ida a bijou flat, compact enough to fit the smallest stage, dressed with the kind of furniture she might have bought when she married. The problem is that we need to go with the girls on their monthly pilgrimage to visit their late husbands, and this involves trucking a very cramped cemetery in front of the set, while we stare at the tabs and listen to the Rat Pack.

We want to share the joy and pain of these three ladies, but it would take a classier production, and swifter scene changes, to give them the attention they deserve.

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews