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The Walpole Footlighter's first show of their
86th season is the New England area premiere of "The Dixie Swim
Club", a comedy by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten. This
touching comedy centers around five Southern women who became friends on
their college swim team. The group sets aside a long weekend every August
to recharge their relationships. Free from husbands, kids and jobs, they
meet at the same beach cottage on North Carolina's Outer Banks to catch
up, laugh and meddle in each other's lives. The play
begins 22 years after they graduate from
college. "The Dixie Swim Club" focuses on four of those
weekends and spans a period of thirty-three years. As their lives unfold
and the years pass, these women increasingly rely on one another, through
advice and raucous repartee, to get through the challenges (men, sex,
marriage, parenting, divorce and aging) that life flings at them. And when
fate throws a wrench into one of their lives in the second act, these
friends, proving the enduring power of 'teamwork', rally around their own
with the strength and love that takes this comedy in a poignant and
surprising direction. It is really a study in friendship and how it grows
and changes through the years. Kay Carter
Blaha directs the show wonderfully, mixing the comic and touching
moments perfectly, giving each one of her actresses their moment to shine
in their roles.
Kay blocks her cast very well and gives them each a distinct
personality so you can tell them apart. She is also a wonderful actress
who I reviewed as Nanny in "Hollywood Arms" back in 2006. Her
assistant director is Christine Grudinskas who I reviewed in "Over
the River and Through the Woods". The fantastic unit set is a
gorgeous Outer Banks summer cottage designed and built by Roger
Pettis. The set contains a bay window that shows the beach outside it with
a realistic lighthouse with an actual beacon in it. The wonderful lighting
design is by Doug Gordon and the production manager who keeps things
running smoothly all night long is Debbie Ranaldi. She and her crew change
the scene with props and decorations with the last one of sheets being put
on the furniture winning it applause at their expertise.The technical
director is Dan Sheehan with the beautiful costumes by Kate Smith
especially comical are Lexie's slutty outfits and Vernadette's clown
costume. These five women have personalities that probably never
would have developed into friendships if not for their common bond as
teammates in college. The show illustrates the value of friendships
and the fact that in the midst of experiencing life's
challenges women just want someone to listen to them. It is also
very comedic with the woman not getting along with each other until a
final poignant moment.
All five women do a terrific job with their roles. Sheree, the
spunky team captain, desperately tries to maintain her organized and
'perfect' life, and continues to be the group leader. Gorgeous blond
haired Linda Nelson plays this control and health freak whose healthy hors
d'oeuvres are not liked by the other girls. (A funny scene takes place as
each of them spits them out into the plant in the cottage.) She leads
them in their cheer year after year, feels sad about becoming a
grandmother and has a touching scene at the end of the show. Ninette
Cummings plays Dinah, the wise-cracking overachiever is a career
dynamo, but her victories in the courtroom are a stark contrast to the
frustrations of her personal life. Dinah has an eye for detail and
finally finds love with Randall, one of Lexie's ex-husbands. Ninette has
many funny moments and a touching one in the first scene of the
second act when she comforts one of the ladies on their
impending cancer surgery. (I previously reviewed Ninette
as Claire in "A Delicate Balance" in 2005 and as Flo in "Picnic" in
2007.) Lexie, pampered and outspoken, is determined to hold on to her
looks and youth as long as possible. She enjoys being married over and
over and over again. Cynthia Wegel plays the scene
stealing, Lexie who is reminiscent of Blanche from "Golden Girls" TV
show. (I last reviewed her in "45 Seconds from Broadway".
Lexie is a vain trollop whose personal life is a mess with her many
divorces. She vacillates from shrew to nice and back again. Cynthia's
character shows her heart of gold in the last scene when she takes
one of the women in to be her roommate.
The self-deprecating and acerbic Vernadette, acutely aware of the
dark cloud that hovers over her life, has decided to just give in and
embrace the chaos. She is played by Irene Bagodian whose character
is the happiest, an easy going woman with a deadbeat husband,
delinquent children and a truck bumper held on with duct tape. Vernadette
always has to pee when she first arrives at the cottage
and she always has some kind of injury. She arrives in one scene in
a clown outfit because her husband hid all her clothes from her. Irene
has a show stopping speech about Southern women making biscuits
which wins her applause from the audience. The
final member is sweet, eager-to-please, Jeri Neal played
by Colleen Lavery, who experiences a late entry into motherhood that
takes them all by surprise. Jeri is a former nun who is pregnant,
courtesy of artificial insemination, after catching baby fever while
holding one for a homeless woman at a shelter and is a hoot at the end of
the first scene when she starts to go into labor. Jeri marries Bryce,
a younger man and always looks at things optimistically. (I also reviewed
Colleen in "45 Seconds to Broadway".) So for a look at a brand new comedy,
be sure to catch "Dixie Swim Club" at Walpole Footlighters where you will
have many laughs and a poignant moment or two during this topnotch
show.
DIXIE SWIM CLUB ( 9 to 25 October,
2009)
The Walpole Footlighters, 5 Scout Road, East
Walpole, MA
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