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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. |
