Dick Kerekes
Theatre Jacksonville opened its first play of 2008 last weekend, with David Bottrell and Jessie Jones’ 1991 comedy Dearly Departed. If the opening night full house audience is any indication, there will be much laughter in San Marco until this play closes on January 26th.
The comedy in Dearly Departed is similar to the humor found on television shows like The Beverly Hillbillies or Hee Haw or movies such as Smokey and the Bandit and Dumb and Dumber. Yes, you guessed it, good old boy Southern Redneck humor is alive and well on the Theatre Jacksonville stage.
The story opens when the head of the family, old Ben (Fred Gatlin), dies suddenly at the breakfast table with his wife Raynelle reading a very funny letter from her sister to him. The remainder of the play has his mostly dysfunctional family and friends planning the funeral with hilarious results. What follows is a side-splittingly humorous look at stereotypical redneck topics like addiction to food, alcohol, adultery, infertility, illegitimate children, laziness, unemployment and a few more that slipped by me.
Raynelle (Shelly Higgins Hughes) has 3 sons, of which one is in prison. Ray-Bud (Bill White) is the most normal and actually has a job and makes money, probably because of his sane wife Lucille (Skyla Dawn Luckey). Junior (Kenny Logsdon) is a no-account who lost his money on a machine to clean parking lots and his wife Suzanne (Brandy Allport) won’t let him forget his shortcomings. Raynelle’s sister Marguerite (Brook Anne Hayes) is a song-singing/Bible-toting widow with a worthless, lazy son Royce (Michael Fritton). Their scene driving in a car is one of the funniest moments of this play.
Delightful (yes that is her name) is played by Zoe Matthews and is Raynelle’s butterball daughter who eats, and eats and eats all the time. Edward Kramer makes Theatre Jax debut as Reverend Hooker, the sincere preacher with a kidney problem. Teresa Arnold-Simmons is the helpful, albeit gossipy, neighbor Juanita. Rachel Clifton is never seen on stage, but she is the funeral home organist who plays religious songs on an organ off stage.
Giving a religious overtone to all the feuding and fussing going are the roving Joy of Life Singers, and you never know when they are going to burst into acapella hymns. Director Andrew Dickson has them moving all over the place, including throughout the audience and orchestra pit. Believing that no place is too sacred for sacred songs, they even sing in the restroom at one point. (Heck, this is a redneck play!) The talented singers include Amber Holland, Debbie Hurm, Lisa LaGrande, Jessica Palombo, Neal Thorburn, Chris Valade and Joseph Walz.
Death is never a fun subject (unless you go to an Irish Wake) and Director Dickson has chosen to soften the visual effect, so instead of using a real coffin at the funeral, he has a door across two saw horses representing the departed Bud. Watching people pay reverence to a two inch door was pretty funny in itself.
Kelly Wagoner’s set design is mainly an open stage with some beams high in the ceiling. There are nine scenes in act one and furniture is moved on and off. Across the back of the stage is a pile of miscellaneous junk stacked about three feet, a dig at redneck housekeeping. It is a good start for the barricade scene in “Les Miserables,” and maybe Theatre Jax can do that next.
There are a lot of funeral jokes in this play but my favorite bit of humor was when Raynelle asked “Is there TV in hell?” By golly that this something we all need to think about.
Be forewarned there is a small smattering of unnecessary profanity in the script, which may offend, but I will concede that cussing is probably a part of the redneck culture.
To the cast: y’all done good play acting and made a believer out me, but I sure would have liked to see someone dipping some snuff. It is said there is a little bit of redneck in all of us and you can find out how much you have at the Harold K. Smith Playhouse, 2032 San Marco Blvd. Call 396-4425 for more information. Don’t dress too fancy, mismatched clothing is acceptable.
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