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From the
perhaps unfortunate title, you may be forgiven for suspecting that
this play is unlikely to hold anything like a comic element. In fact,
as you will discover nothing is further from the truth.
The
Cemetery Club proves to be a heart warming study of three Manhattan
Jewish ladies of a certain age (lifelong
friends) whose husbands have all departed this mortal coil within a
few years of each other. Now they
allocate their time between canasta, attending other people's
weddings and funerals and once a month visiting their dead husbands' graves.
Flirty
flighty Lucille is all out for a good time while staid priggish Doris
seems content to spend her remaining days living in the memory of her marriage.
Ida is not
sure what she wants but being part of a club where half the members
are dead doesn't seem to fit the bill.
When
Sam, the local butcher arrives on the scene sparks
begin to fly as both Ida and Lucille decide to make a play for him
with Doris left to try and maintain the status quo.
Lots of
laughs lovely music and
some very touching moments mean that this is one of those plays you
will remember for a long time to come.
Ivan
Menchell later worked the script up into a screen play for a 1993
film starring Ellen Burstyn, Olympia Dukakis, and a young Christina
Ricci. The stage play retains a feeling of intimacy with the main
characters which in many ways the film lost. |
