A widow, a divorcee & two middle-aged single ladies walk into a bar…

Savannah Sipping Society review

||| FROM LISA SPESARD |||

What a hoot! Opening night at The Grange is a big welcome back to normalcy. Masks required and vaccine checks aside; this gem of a play is laugh out loud funny with rough edges. You won’t need to hold back because everyone around you is laughing, too!

Suzanne Gropper, Melinda Milligan, Diane Craig, Dorrie Braun light up the stage with humor, insight, jabs, and wheelbarrows filled with compassion. Acceptance is Key when cliff-diving into friendships!

The loss of a husband, the loss of a loser husband, the loss of self & the loss of perspective are the last women standing at the end of the night and make up the Savannah Sipping Society. Although not a one of them sips! They gulp down hooch and do it with style. Almost.

Ladies, who accidentally, on purpose, overtake the Veranda of a tightly wound Randa, prove to the audience just how happy they can be in the unhappiness of their present circumstances. What they thought their lives would be are tossed aside for much needed companionship outside Hot Yoga. Marla Faye knocks her ex with that big TEXAS heart o’ sarcasm. Dot shows us that even after such a devastating loss, that À vaillant coeur rien d’impossible. -Jacques Cœur. Who needed a life coach more than Jinx? What a jinxtaposition she must have with this character trying to calm her insides just enough to settle down. Imagine the see-saw she must balance to hide in all those activities. Randa has been doing this alone thing forever. She, logically, realizes quickly what she finds in these three new people is exactly what she was missing all along.

This play is for those of us that need a pushy ray of sunshine to make us fill our calendars with memories. Everyone else come along for the ride! The monologues allow each actor to shine. The cast is delish. Pass the cheese straws, please.

Come to the Grange this weekend and next; let loose to see our favorite dynamic duo Gropper and Milligan pop off one-liners like bottles of Champagne corks. Diane Craig and Dorrie Braun have so much to shout about with these first-time on our stage performances. There is no way they’re newcomers. So glad The Actor’s Theater of Orcas Island is back on stage.

Shows Sept 4 Saturday, Sept 5 Sunday at 7 :30; next week on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday Sept 9 -12. Tickets are always $10. Cookies from Paula make an appearance. Go to www.orcasactors.org for online tickets or visit Darvill’s Books for tickets to add to your collection.