Everything old is new again at the ‘Sweet Delilah Swim Club’
In a play crying out for a strong ensemble feel, the actors here play too much in isolation
There are some lovely moments in “The Sweet Delilah Swim Club,” an ingratiating little play about women bonding and meeting each year in a summer cottage to celebrate the past and live for the future.
As you might suspect, their annual weekend together is tinged with regret, as well as moments of raucous laughter.
We’ve been here before, of course. There’s nothing new as we follow these five champs of an award-winning college swim team, a close band of women who meet annually to laugh, love and commiserate about life.
Yes, there are regrets, recriminations and retreats from reality. Always too, there is the unmistakable realization, beyond the banter, these teammates truly care about each other.
If it reminds you of other plays about women letting their hair down, without the ameliorating presence of men, that probably isn’t surprising.
This time, we’re in a cottage on a sandy shore somewhere in North Carolina, where the jokes fly, and five likable women meet to laugh at life and the devastating curves it can throw.
Yes, it’s “Steel Magnolias” without the hair dryers.
There are some very funny lines that didn’t land as well as they might in an uneven production at Theatre Burlington that doesn’t delve beyond the play’s obvious surface.
Unfortunately, the mood is wrong from-the-get-go, starting with designer Penny Oliver’s vast, freshly painted cottage set. It looks like rollers were just downed yesterday with little sense of atmosphere.
While Oliver has provided a decent enough playing area, it’s far too linear. Without imaginative staging, the cast is forced to retreat downstage too often, addressing the audience, not each other. There are just no nooks or crannies for intimate conversations to take place. So, people tend to stand and sit in lines that are just not interesting.
Exacerbating this is director Sondra Learn’s peculiar notion of playing several of the play’s key moments in far off corners, without the help of isolating lighting.
Then too, in a play crying out for a strong ensemble feel, the actors here play too much in isolation, not connecting enough on stage.
Rose Pye is Sheree, the captain of the swim team and the driving force of this female band. She plays the role energetically, with too much kinetic fervour, waving her arms about in semaphore action. She has nice moments trying to shepherd her teammates through troubling moments, but less frenzy would be helpful.
Cynthia Crofoot’s Lexie finds the comedy in her shameless objectification of muscled males and goodlooking, available lads. And truth is, she looks great herself in Bev Barnes’ always appropriate costumes.
When the play calls for her to face some unfortunate truths about aging and the enemy time, she delivers such shocks nicely.
Dinah is the wisecracking, smart as a whip lawyer of the group, who sticks it to wayward husbands and downs martinis like harmless Dr. Peppers chilled in a fancy glass. Deb Dagenais gives her just enough tart delivery to disguise the loneliness underneath.
Maueen Ali is the accident-prone Vernadette, the one with a not so happy life and a family of losers. Unfortunately, she has a habit of breaking her lines in peculiar places that impede their flow.
Vanessa Scott has a game go at playing Jeri Neal, the nun who escapes convent life for something more exotic.
“The Sweet Delilah Swim Club” needs much quicker pacing to re- ally work. There are just way too many pauses, way too many lines delivered without sufficient vocal energy and way too much concen- tration on weighty playing that robs the play of its comic edge.
Jesse Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten who penned this pleasant little play, are all veterans of “The Golden Girls” TV team so they do know what funny lines are.
Of course, on TV they had crack actresses and a strong coach to make the comedy sizzle, without giving in to sloppy pace and attenuation.
This play is deemed a dramedy, whatever that means. I suppose it suggests comedy with dramatic moments. Well, here, the dramatic moments are unfortunately belaboured. Consider the embarrassingly staged ending, where hokey music, slowly dimming lights and cumbersome stage direction turn what ought to be a touching little moment into unrestrained bathos.
“The Sweet Delilah Swim Club” is a pleasant little play. It just ought to be a tad sweeter than it is these nights in Burlington.