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THE CEMETERY CLUB by Ivan Menchell 15 May to 7 June 1997 Directed by Kurt A. Lerps Cast List Reviews Lively Fleshing Out of a Alison Cotes - The Courier Mail - 19 May 1997 A girl's best friend isn't necessarily a girl's best friend, especially when the girls are three middle-aged American Jewish widows, who meet once a month to visit the graves of their dead husbands - all, of course, struck down in their prime. Lucille (played with immense gusto by Simone de Haas) is the blowsy merry widow, always on the look-out for a new man; Ida (Dale Murison giving her familiar frazzled housewife a new and witty twist) is ready to spread her wings a little; while Doris (Bronwen Doherty) is still faithful to the memory of Abe, the fourth anniversary of whose death provides the impetus for the action. If this were a film, it wouldn't be a Woody Allen bitter-sweet comedy - these dames are socially two rungs above, but intellectually three rungs lower than his troubled Jewish New Yorkers; and, although they meet for regular canasta parties, not one of them would dream of visiting a psychiatrist. Into this not-so-cosy cemetery party comes Sam the local butcher (TV actor Brian Hinselwood in appropriately gormless mode), visiting his wife's grave but also ready for action. Clearly one of the trio is destined to be the new Mrs. Sam; but which one does, and how he comes courting with a parcel of chicken livers, makes for many gentle giggles, as does the third (fourth? fifth?) wedding of their friend Selma, which provides the catalyst for a minor tragedy, an obligatory moment of truth and the inevitable happy ending. The costuming is wonderful - full-length black mink coats (second-hand, of course, and at a good price), gold lame stretched over a bulging frame, trench coats with big scarves and silver lace party dresses define the characters perfectly - and the set is much smarter than we usually see in the Cement Box Theatre. Mixed Company are on to a winning formula with their policy of performing only light-weight comedies, and "The Cemetery Club" is well worth a visit if you like relaxing theatre which doesn't tax the brain, but is not as predictable as you might expect. Time Pieces Paul Galloway - Brisbane News - 28 May 1997 . . . If you want to see exposition handled just right, although, admittedly in a far more modest play, I recommend The Cemetery Club which Mixed Company is currently presenting with its usual professionalism. I can't say that it's my type of play. Set in New York and revolving around the vexed question of whether three Jewish widows ought to remain faithful to their dead husbands, it's a Neil Simon comedy laden with schmaltz and lacking Simon's edge. Preoccupied with death and beginning to notice how their circle is thinning out, the women ought properly to be played by actors on their late 50s. The women here are at least 10 years younger than that, but they do very well to suggest Time's scythe sweeping their corner of the paddock. This is a funny, warm, smartly paced production, the details of which will probably slip from my memory within a week or two, but not the impression of being gently and pleasantly lead by careful exposition from scene one to the final blackout. |
