BWW Reviews: Bethlehem Players' SOUTHERN FRIED FUNERAL

 

Bless their hearts, J. Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler have scored a bonafide hit with their latest collaboration, Southern Fried Funeral, now onstage in a lively production from Franklin's Bethlehem Players. Genuinely funny - and very affectionate toward the cast of characters created by the playwrights - the comedy offers an accurate, if somewhat derivative, perspective on Southern manners and traditions.

Clearly, Osborne and Eppler are writing about the people, places and things they have known from birth (in fact, on opening night, Osborne's family members from Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee were on hand to witness the world premiere of the play, thus his pedigree is assured) and they display an impressive knowledge of what constitutes proper funeral etiquette and the peculiarly Southern way of life and death in all its "Jesus Called...And Dewey Answered" glory.

While the playwrights are mining much of the same territory already visited by other writers (you'll see flashes of Jones-Hope-Wooten's Futrelle family trilogy, Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias, Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes, Tyler Perry's Madea family opus and even a lagniappe of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird), they succeed nonetheless in adding their own unique voices to that softly lilting cacophony of regional drawls. Perhaps the most noteworthy achievement to be realized in Southern Fried Funeral is the clear delineation of characters, all of whom speak in their own individual voices. The dialogue created by Osborne and Eppler is wonderfully genuine - as if their words were springing from the hearts and minds of the broadly drawn characters rather than from the fertile imaginations of the two writers.

Set in the small Mississippi town of New Edinburgh, the play's action takes place over several days in August during the funeral of Dewey Frye, who dropped dead in the middle of a joke to the Rotarians during their dinner meeting. His wife, Dorothy (effectively underplayed by Debbie Robinson, who steers clear of histrionics, save for one short stint in Sally Field-land), is faced with dealing with funeral arrangements, the realities of widowhood and a crazy assemblage of family, both real and imagined.

The characters are as colorfully wacky as you'd find in any Southern neighborhood and the relationships are as richly diverse as you would expect to find there. There's Dorothy and Dewey's three children: Harline (Kandace Christian manages to avoid stereotype and creates a portrayal that is at once over the top while remaining genuine and earthbound), the black sheep daughter who made off for Dallas at the first opportunity; Sammy Jo (confidently played by Lisha Pope), the younger daughter who personifies contemporary Southern belle perfection (I guarantee she was New Edinburgh's Fairest of the Fair, although the playwrights fail to tell us that fact); and Dewey Jr., aka "Dew Drop" (Miles McNulty in a believable performance), who's kinda daft and sweetly weird in a not-quite-Boo Radley sorta way. Jim Maden plays Dub Frye, the late Dewey's dastardly brother, with just the right blend of condescension and smarmy Southern charm.

The cast also includes the always likable Johnny Peppers as Atticus VanLeer, the Frye family's consigliere (that's "lawyer" for all you hicks out there) and Flynt Foster, who's perfectly cast as Sammy Jo's adoring husband (who obviously loves her despite the fact that she's overbearing and bossy). Ginny Welles, Janie Varn, Paul Gant (in a terrific comic turn), Donna Thomas and Jim Melrose complete the cast as friends, of a sort, of the Frye family.

Osborne directs his actors with his usual calm and steady hand, propelling the play's action along at a strong pace and creating tableaux that make for pleasing visual effects onstage. The actors clearly are having a grand time with Southern Fried Funeral which translates wonderfully onstage, making it a surefire hit with audiences and suggesting a promising future for this particular script from two very talented local writers.

- Southern Fried Funeral. By J. Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler. Directed by J. Dietz Osborne. Presented by Bethlehem Players, Franklin. Through Saturday, March 20. For tickets, call (615) 791-6456.

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