Jayme Catalano as Jeri Neal, Pamela Ciochetti as Dinah, Stephanie Ahlberg as Sheree, Hilda Roe as Lexie. Photos by Robin Jackson
THE DIXIE SWIM CLUB: Comedy by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten. Directed by Linda Dunn. Ross Valley Players Barn Theatre at the Marin Art & Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Ross. For tickets, call 415-456-9555 or go to www.rossvalleyplayers.com.
July 19 – August 18, 2013
THE GOLDEN GIRLS GO TO THE BEACH
Before the virtual curtain rose on Ross Valley Player’s sixth and final production of their 2012-2013 season the group enjoying the pre-theater buffet of mostly Southern comfort food were overheard making speculative remarks about RVP’s judgment for selecting an all women show. Veteran director Linda Dunn assured the group that the play would be almost equally appreciated by the male members of the audience. She was mostly right.
If you are an aficionado of the long running TV serial comedy The Golden Girls (GG) RVP’s production of The Dixie Swim Club (DSC) is your cup of tea and you will find a couple of doppelgangers from that show gracing the Barn Theatre stage. This is understandable since James Wooten a former member of the writing team for GG, is a member of the triumvirate who wrote the DSC show. They are often listed as Jones Hope Wooten and it is easy to visualize them creating ‘laughter on the 23rd floor.” (Apologies to Neil Simon).
The play, like most TV sitcoms is formulaic with the laughs coming in bursts, minor conflict progressing to serious disagreement, and crisis appearing two thirds of the way into the script followed by a poignant denouement. Yes, the story line has all that but RVP’s cast under Linda Dunn’s tight direction makes it a winner.
Five Southern women, members of their college swim team whose motto is “The faster you swim, the faster you win” have maintained contact and friendship throughout the years. When the play opens it is 22 years since graduation and they are meeting for their yearly reunion in a rented cottage (terrific set by Ron Krempetz) on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. They have set aside a long August weekend each year when they get together without family to relive their personal experiences and rekindle their camaraderie.
The characters are diverse and each actor’s performance nails their part with distinction. It is a true ensemble work with each getting their chance to shine while integrating their roles into the whole. Lexie (Hilda L. Roe) is the many times married and divorced sexpot (think Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux in GG) who is obsessed with remaining young.
Sheree (Stephanie Saunders Ahlberg), the team swim captain tries to keep things organized, is a health nut whose ‘healthy hors d’oeuvres’ of mung bean paste in herring oil end up in the flower pot or out the window.
Dinah (Pamela Ciochetti ) martini swilling successful lawyer but with a frustrating social life is a stabilizing influence when conflict arises within the group.
Floriana Alessandria as Vernadette
Vernadette (Fioriana Alessandria) who always has to pee when she arrives and always has an injury. She has a deadbeat husband, criminal children and a front bumper on her truck held on with duct tape. She is the one who stirs up the trouble with her caustic but cogent remarks. (Think Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo from GG).
Last but not least is Jeri Neal (Jayme Catalano) a former nun who is pregnant by artificial insemination after deciding that motherhood is for her after holding the baby of a homeless woman. The first scene ends with Jeri giving birth . . . off stage of course.
The play is constructed in two acts and four scenes and the stage crew deftly moves the props on and off the set while appropriate musical interludes captures the feeling of the era being depicted. There is a 5 year gap between scenes two and three and 23 years later for the final scene. They mature from age 44 to age 77 with appropriate costume and adroit personality changes. The one line zingers abound in the first three scenes and the tenor of the play changes for the poignant ending. Running time a little over 2 hours including an intermission.
Kedar Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
