Indy Theatre Habit

Last Sunday afternoon I drove a bit south of Indy to Martinsville to see “Dearly Departed,” by David Bottrell and Jessie Jones.  It was directed by Brent Wooldridge and presented at “The Depot” by The Martinsville Arts Council’s Merry MAC Players.

I was charmed and delighted by this wacky piece.  It manages to take every negative stereotype of “country white” (how is that for a euphemism?) and present it affectionately, even touchingly.  Also, while this show pokes fun at families, it also celebrates them.

The play opens with Bud and Raynelle Turpin sitting at their breakfast table.  Raynelle (Joann White) is reading aloud a letter.  Bud (John DeMoss) is pouring whiskey over his corn flakes and into Raynelle’s coffee when she is not looking.

Suddenly, Bud keels over, dead. 

The rest of the play is about the whole family pulling together - some members enthusiastically, others reluctantly - to lay Bud to rest. 

It is a little difficult to keep straight all of the relationships at first, but it is also okay to just give up and enjoy the characters’ interactions.  Eventually, everything becomes as clear to an outsider as it is to the family.

Bud’s son, Ray-Bud Turpin (Tom Danz, filling in flawlessly for Doug Horn) and his gentle wife, Lucille (Margi Danz) represent the classier branch of the family.  Lucille passes a plate of corn dogs when the family gathers at her house.  Ray-Bud has some self-esteem issues, but he also has a good job as a mechanic.

Junior Turpin (Brian Kennedy) is the failure of the family. His wife, Suzanne (Phyllis Munro), never lets him forget how disappointed she is in him for losing all their money on an ill-conceived business.  In the car on the way back home for the funeral, she finds another woman’s earring.  Uh-oh.  Kennedy and Munro are funny together throughout the play, but they are especially a riot in this, their introductory scene.  Later in the play, Munro pulls off her singing(?) solo perfectly.

Marguerite (Debbie Jones) is the dearly departed’s sister and a terrifying Bible-thumper from way back.  One of her sons, Royce (Zach Johnson), is comfortably between jobs, to his mother’s dismay, and loyal to his brother in prison.

And finally, there is Delightful Turpin (Justine Kalb), the sullen, gum-cracking, face-stuffing, surprise child of the dearly departed.

Revered Hooker (Duke Thomas Low) is their spiritual leader - magnanimous and loving, as long as they don’t bug him too much.

Low, Kalb, DeMoss, and another actor, Susan Yeaw, actually play two roles each, and each is well differentiated.  Low also plays Norval, a senile-to-the-point-of-drooling friend of the family.  Yeaw is his wife, Veda, who is not all there herself.  Yeaw also plays Juanita, a delightfully bitchy, and ultimately compassionate, former Yam Queen.  DeMoss also plays Clyde, Ray-Bud’s slithery boss from the mechanic shop.  Kalb also plays Nadine, a ridiculously fruitful young woman whose only purpose in the play seems to be to add laughs and to highlight Lucille’s yearning to have children of her own. 

In fact, all of the non-family characters just seem to have been thrown in for laughs and so that Raynelle has someone to dismiss at the end in favor of the family taking care of its own.  But that’s okay.  I enjoyed getting to know the friends of the family, too.  The Joy of Life Singers (Joann White, Debbie Jones, Susan Yeaw, and an exuberant Daniel Stec) offer a funny little window into group dynamics all on their own.

Raynelle has a moving scene late in the play in which she realizes some important things about her relationship with her late husband.  Unfortunately, on Sunday afternoon the poignancy of this scene was diluted by doors banging and other noises backstage and by someone peeking out from a crack in the curtains behind the actors.  A quiet and potentially powerful scene such as this, especially when it is in such contrast to the rest of the boisterous play, deserves the chance to be enjoyed by the audience without distractions.

The program does not say who is responsible for the costume design, so perhaps the actors dressed themselves. I especially loved the following details:  Suzanne’s leopard-print heels and Hooters’ t-shirt tied up at the sleeves with little orange bows.  Clyde’s bling and his skin-tight, green, lizard-leather pants.  Revered Hooker’s Christian tie.  Veda’s blue feather bomb hat.  Delightful’s pink high-tops to match her funeral dress.  Royce’s dew rag with his funeral suit.  The fit (not) of Junior’s funeral suit.  Both Clyde’s and Ray-Bud’s mechanic shirts.  Raynelle’s dinner-mint chenille robe and slippers.  Marguerite’s navy, no-nonsense suit.  Lucille’s tasteful beige pants and sweater.  And, even though we don’t actually see them, the shoes that Bud wears in his coffin.

The program does not mention a fight choreographer either, but the fight between the two brothers, Ray-Bud and Junior, is very believable.

Joan Kimberly designed the simple yet versatile set.  Two young girls are the stagehands; they do their jobs very capably.  The program lists Maggie Danz as stage manager and Candace Danz as assistant stage manager - perhaps these are also the ‘hands?   Everyone in the cast pitches in to help bring in or take out or re-arrange several wooden chairs to fit the various scenes.  The lights don’t dim completely during the scene changes, so the audience sees the actors coming on and off stage, but this works because almost all of the actors stay in character even when the lights are “off.”

The theatre - “The Depot” - is an actual former train station, renovated into a pleasantly cozy performance space.  When I arrived at the theatre, I heard laughter coming from a staircase leading down from the lobby.  I asked the usher if the stairs led to the green room.  She used a horror movie voice to tell me, “That’s…The Basement.”  Then she laughed, too, and said, “They are having just too much fun down there, aren’t they!”

There are several food props in this show.  Properties master Linda Grow has a huge job!  On the way home from the play I did something I would never in a million years have imagined I would do:  I stopped by the grocery store and picked up a package of frozen State Fair corn dogs.  “Dearly Departed” had given me a craving.

“Dearly Departed” has three more performances: Friday, February 22 at 8:00, Saturday, February 23 at 8:00 and Sunday, February 24 at 2:00.  Please call 765-342-3266 to make a reservation.  “The Depot” is at 210 N. Marion Street in Martinsville.

Hope Baugh - www.IndyTheatreHabit.com