Jennifer Cullen was all set to head to Montana for vacation when “The Cemetery Club” called out to her.
Vacation canceled.
Instead, Cullen stayed on Kauai to play the role of Lucille in this Women in Theatre production directed by Arnold Meister.
“It’s about life,” Cullen said. “It’s about sweet life.”
It’s also a chance to take the stage again and work with the renowned and respected Meister.
Cullen describes her character as complex, a bit over the top, who likes attention. She didn’t have a happy marriage and wants to move on with life, which causes some conflict with her friends.
Her character is one of three widows in this humorous and poignant play that tells the story of three Jewish widows who meet once a month for tea before going to visit their husbands’ graves.
“There are not that many roles for mature women,” Cullen said.
They are described like this: “Ida is sweet-tempered and ready to begin a new life; Lucille is a feisty embodiment of the girl who just wants to have fun; and Doris is priggish and judgmental, particularly when Sam the butcher enters the scene. Sam meets the widows while visiting his wife’s grave and finds a romantic connection with Ida. Doris and Lucille squash the budding romance and are guilt-stricken when this nearly breaks Ida’s heart.”
The play opens at 7 tonight and runs through Oct. 14 at WIT’s End Theater at Kukui Grove Center.
Meister most recently directed “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum” with Kauai Community Players in January. He said he didn’t know much about “The Cemetery Club,” written by Ivan Menchell,which was suggested to him by a WIT board member.
So he read it — and loved it.
“I just wondered why I hadn’t heard of that play because it’s very good,” he said.
The two-hour play with an intermission presents situations faced by many women as they grow older and loved ones pass away.
“Do you seek male companionship or is it being disloyal to the man you married and the husband you loved?” Meister asked.
The three main characters, best friends, have their own challenges. One is fiercely loyal to the memory of her husband. One had a great marriage and wouldn’t mind marrying again. The third is cynical about relationships because her marriage wasn’t great.
Theirs is a club, someone quips in the play, where half of the members are no longer there. They share insults, laughs and tears as they deal with loneliness.
“The Cemetery Club” has a range of emotions as the story unfolds.
“It’s the way friends talk to each other when they’re not worried about insulting each other,” Meister said.
The widower, played by Ron Wood, shakes things up when he enters their world. Suddenly, that loyalty to dead husbands is no longer quite such a sure thing. Perhaps there is life beyond those cemetery visits.
“It really changes a lot of their thinking, and it provokes some conflict,” Meister said.
Meister has worked with Wood and Laurel McGraw, who plays Doris. Maureen Sharpe plays Ida, and Claudia Cowden plays Mildred, a bold and brassy character who briefly joins the story.
“It’s wonderful working with different actors. They’re so talented,” he said. “It’s been a joy to direct this show.”
Those who see it are in for love and laughs.
“It’s a very personal play,” he said. “It’s an evening of well-crafted performances.”
Wood, asked about his character Sam who breaks up the happy trio, says: “I’m the guy that causes havoc. Not in a bad way, but a good way.”
He said when he heard Meister was directing “The Cemetery Club,” he wanted in, “because it’s going to be a great play.”
And this one is “something different.” Those who see it will “get rid of all the anxiety in the world and come here and get comedy relief,” Wood said.
Sharpe says her character, Ida, is trying to decide if she’s ready to move on with life when she meets Sam.
“She finds out she is ready to move on,” said Sharpe, who was in last year’s Kauai Community Players production of “Savannah Sipping Society.”
“Of course I jumped at this,” she said. “At our age, we don’t get that many parts.”
“The Cemetery Club” includes betrayal and friendship.
“It’s about the humanity and the issues of aging,” Sharpe said. “There’s something in it for everybody.”
McGraw plays Doris, described as someone who assumed the role of matriarch, judges how everyone should behave and has the least desire to change.
“She’s actually trapped in her past,” McGraw said.
This play, she said, “speaks to the heart of the truth of most older people’s experience, which is coming to terms with the fact that in order to stay alive, you have to keep living. You have to keep making forward choices instead of being trapped in the past.”
“The Cemetery Club,” she added, “will move you, instruct you, and hopefully have you leave wanting to be kinder to those that you love.”
Shows are 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays.
For tickets, $20 in advance, $25 at the door, call 635-3727 or go to womenintheatre.org
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Bill Buley, editor-in-chief, can be reached at 245-0457 or bbuley@thegardenisland.com.
