Review: MTP "Savannah Sipping Society" a Smooth Comedy Cocktail
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
Mill Town Players “The Savannah Sipping Society,” which opened Friday night, offers a smooth Happy Hour Cocktail of comedy.
Written by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten – three of the most widely produced playwrights in the country – this Southern front-porch production warms up the stage as four single, lonely women over 50 in search of friendship are brought together by the fallout of a failed venture into hot yoga.
“Here’s to being single and drinking doubles,” a toast in one of the group’s early gatherings, becomes the rallying cry, as the quartet builds their camaraderie on Friday nights drinking on the porch and venturing into the bigger world in search of finding a purpose in middle age.
Nancy Burkard nearly steals the show as the brassy Marlafaye Mosley, a divorcee from Texas who moves to Savannah after losing her husband to a 23-year-old dental hygienist.
Burkard transforms what could have been a court jest character, even when she literally is dressed as such, with a performance which feels effortless and rich with empathy and humanity.
It is her performance which drives the show, even though the play is tangentially written around the owner of the house, and front porch, which is the primary location of the story Randa Covington, which is wound up just right by Tina Coppock.
Covington, who was fired from her architecture firm of 30 years after exploding on the boss when passed over for a partnership which went to a 30-year-old man, takes her uptight character and slowly melts away the prickly thorns. Even her walk, which seems more stilted and stiff early, relaxes as the performance, and character, unwinds.
Dona Shiflette, as Dot Haigler, a recent widower and the oldest of the crew, is the Golden Girl of the group, the only member with at least some good memories of a relationship with the opposite sex. She is also the eternal optimist, bringing in Jinx Jenkins, the flaky final member to offer her newly discovered life coaching skills.
Jenkins, whom Kelly Wallace fills with enthusiastic and sometimes clueless enthusiasm, is there to challenge the women to break out of their self-imposed cocoons. But before it’s done, the other three step up when she needs a life coach.
Jokes unapologetically fill the play, and most land well, preventing what could have been some awkward and even unnecessary dialog from dragging.
The chemistry between these women brings it all together, and is what brings the warmth to what could have digressed into just another formulamatic Southern comedy. These actors make it easy to believe they like each other.
Director Myra Greene deserves some of the credit for the success of this four-woman ensemble. It’s crisp and exacting, with a lot of movement on stage that is never confusing or distracting. Directors of local productions are often overlooked, but Greene demonstrates why this should not be the case.
The other major character in this play was a set which could not have been more spot on. Will Ragland and his team have become legendary for their sets, and this one again earns status as the best in the South. A two-story Southern house with a large front porch was perfect, right down to lights in the upstairs windows and the glimpses of the side yard plants and a half-used bag of fertilizer. Few local theater productions anywhere can boast that just looking at the set is worth the price of admission, but Mill Town manages to achieve this with each stage production.
“The Savannah Sipping Society,” is a worthy addition to the theater’s run of Southern comedies. The show runs through March 10.