Theater: Ruby Red Keeps Them Laughing

August 9, 2010 | Story by: Lindsey Chester | Categories: Community, Featured, Theater

Story by Lindsey Chester. 

Cary, NC- As reported last week, The Cary Players debuted “Ruby Red,” a new work by playwright Phil Lowden over the weekend.I had the pleasure of attending the Thursday opening night performance at Page-Walker Arts and History Center. The play had two additional shows, Friday night and a Saturday  Matinee at the Herb Young Community Center.

The play was staged as a bedroom farce of the first order and had the audience howling with laughter at some of the portrayals of feuding relatives and spatting spouses.

When Lloyd, the curmudgeonly neighbor dies, he has willed his entire estate to Ann, the woman next door. As she plans for the luncheon after the funeral, Lloyd’s grown children begin to arrive with increasingly hilarious results, topped off with a winning performance by Lyman Collins as “Poke,” the ultimate redneck, married to pregnant and pigtailed Abby, played by Mika Hu Vard.

Ann (played by Joanna Herath)  and her husband Jack (Tracy Fulghum) are having marital and money troubles which center around her wish to live in her family home and his trouble keeping a job he loves. The sudden inheritance coupled with a developer willing to purchase their land seem the answer to Jack’s money woes. Arguments ensue.

I won’t spoil the plot denouement, but suffice it to say that everyone lives happily ever after, while the audience witnesses punches, husbands thrown out, a daughter running off to be married and new friends falling in love. A dream sequence, where the dead speak words of wisdom to the actors, was a break from the laughter, and did a great job of changing the pace of the plot.

This play was produced during a time when the Cary Players are usually “on vacation”. I hope this summer’s original programming, which highlights local talent,  becomes a regular part of their repertoire.

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