Stoughton Players’ cast and crew pulled off four successful shows of Exit Laughing at the Stoughton branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, on Dec. 9-10 and 16-17, with over 300 people attending.
A five-member cast and the cat Butterbutt rehearsed since the beginning of October to bring this adult comedic play to the stage.
The show is situated in Birmingham, Ala. It is evening and they have no clue what year it is, and it really does not matter, according to the director, Scott Richardson.
For 30 years, four female friends have played bridge only to have one friend, Mary, pass away. This sends the remaining friends Connie, Leona and Millie into a tailspin of emotions.
Millie, played by Debbie Mclenaghen, portrays a bizarre friend who decides to steal Mary’s ashes so she can have one last bridge game, and so she would not be alone at the funeral home.
Leona was portrayed by Terri Stocker who is a bit of a drinker and openly admits it, while being sarcastic towards her friends.
Louise Hislop played Connie, who is also a drinker but does not admit to it. Connie also has an adult daughter attending college, who gets stood up by her date, Bobby.
Les Griffin played the police officer/stripper named Bobby. Who is hired by the dead friend Mary to attend the bridge game and give some life to the remaining friends, and the plot thickens from there.
The moral of the play was, do not forget to live and have fun before it is too late. Always do what you want and enjoy laughing, as tomorrow may be too late.
This play had the crowd in laughter right from the beginning, and Danielle Hoffman, one of the committee volunteers said, this has been the funniest play so far.
Hoffman also said at the beginning that if a person did not laugh, she would give them their money back, in Monopoly money of course.
According to Mclenaghen, Jonathan Lake is an excellent stage manager and really knows his stuff.
