Review: CALENDAR GIRLS Exposes Fun

Last night I had a very unusual theatre experience. (You know I try to tell you about my whole experience, not just a synopsis of the play.) During the first act of CALENDAR GIRLS at Virginia Samford Theatre, water began to drip from the ceiling, splashing people on the house right side in the first five rows. During an extended intermission, those people had to be moved to other seats. Luckily, the theatre was nowhere near full, so this was handled easily.

It left me with a completely clear view to the stage since I was on that side and in the first row not to be affected. The only problem was, the leak became worse during the second act and I had to watch the play through "rain" (even though it was not raining outside) and had to try to hear through a continuously louder and louder rhythmical drip, drip, drip.

Hopefully, this problem will be addressed before the show tonight.

And now on to the play itself.

CALENDAR GIRLS by Tim Firth, is a delightful play based on the movie of the same name. Catherine Rye Gilmore says she has been working on getting this fun, new work to VST for nearly two years.

You will be pleased with the set the moment that you walk into the theatre. The outside of a quaint brick church is well constructed and beautiful. It turns to reveal the inside of the same building which is the setting for most of the story.

Celeste Burnum as Annie and Jan D. Hunter as Chris have an appealing friendship that comes across as genuine. They seem to enjoy being together and their relationship is fun to watch.

Debbie Smith and Holly Dikeman are the two actresses that my eyes kept going to on stage. They are real and funny in a very believable, natural way.

Some of the other characters come across as almost caricatures of the people they are portraying, which can be funny to some theatre goers, but for the most part does not appeal to me.

For a female driven show, I was probably most impressed with the men in the cast. Jamie Lawrence as John, David Strickland as Lawrence, and John Ambrose as Liam have solid performances as the men in the lives of these strong women. The times that John "reappears" after his death are rather oddly handled, but overall, Mr. Lawrence does an admirable job.

Clay Boyce, as Rod, is noteworthy. He is the quintessential every man, easy to relate to and care about. He probably comes across as the most authentic character on the stage.

Costumes for this show are questionable. Even my husband, who cares nothing for such details, made mention of how unflattering some of the outfits are.

Although the tech aspects of the show are handled very well, I was a bit disappointed with what I saw at the two most pivotal scenes. When I read the script back during the summer, I thought these scenes would be the most challenging and I guess I was right.

The memorable scene when the calendar is actually being photographed is very awkward. I guess the actual act of trying to take nude photos while not showing anything to the photographer (or the audience) is tricky and would indeed just be awkward, so I will give them a pass on that particular scene. We did at one point see more than I think (or at least hope) they meant to show us.

However, the final scene, which is described in the script as "magical" was anything but. Instead of a field of stately sunflowers, a few bunches of short, mismatched flowers raised up laboriously out of the floor downstage. And the "fluid, beautiful t'ai chi" went on way too long and was far from fluid, one of many reasons to shorten that part of the show.

To me the whole story is summed up in that scene- the legacy John left them. He wanted them to remember to enjoy life, appreciate the last phase of their bloom and face towards the sun as the sunflower does. While they were arguing and selling their calendar, they nearly missed out on the spectacular beauty growing on the hillside. I fear a lot of the beauty was lost due to the audience (and I noticed it with some of the actresses as well) being taken out of the scene due to the danger of the huge openings in the floor and the unappealing look of the tiny flowers in those holes. It was a missed opportunity that made me sad.

Overall, CALENDAR GIRLS is a pleasant and enjoyable play, especially for a "girls' night out." It runs at Virginia Samford Theatre until November 22. Call 205-251-1206 or visit www.virginiasamfordtheatre.org for exact times and ticket information.

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