Friendship and Loss In Comedic Drama

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Sunset Playhouse 'The Cemetery Club'

Sunset Playhouse 'The Cemetery Club'

The Sunset Playhouse warms the end of winter with a snug, little dramatic comedy about three widows who meet once per month before visiting the graves of their late husbands. In The Cemetery Club, director Donna Daniels brings together a small, well-articulated ensemble in a pleasantly conversational series of scenes between four people in Queens. Three friends hit a rough patch in their relations that navigates its way through some very difficult territory for drama and comedy alike. 

Paula Garcia is well-grounded as Ida—a widow who might be ready to move on in  her late husband. Maggie Wirth summons a vividly vivacious presence in the role of Lucille—a woman who seems to have left her late husband’s memory behind long ago. Susan Loveridge contrasts against the other two as Doris. Doris is very fond of the memory of her late husband. Her frequent visits to her husband’s grace with the other two women are complicated by conflicting emotions that are given further complexity due to the chance appearance of a man at the cemetery. Ralph Garcia lends an appealing dramatic counterpoint to the women in the cast as a butcher who somewhat awkwardly fumbled into a relationship with one of the women after years of living alone.

Daniels shepherds the cart through love and friendship amidst the cast of characters, who’ve known each other for quite a long time. Garcia, Wirth and Loveridge tumble about through an appealing connection between the three women at a somewhat crucial moment in their lives. Life, death, the past and the present all come together in a thoughtful evening at the theater which mixes deep in psychological themes with light moments of sitcom humor. 

Sunset Playhouse’s production of The Cemetery Club runs through March 19 at 700 Wall St., Elm Grove. For ticket reservations, visit sunsetplayhouse.com.