Dearly Departed

At his kitchen table, Bud (a "Big Daddy" of sorts) hears his sister, Marguerite, will be visiting to discuss religion with him. With a quiver, he promptly drops dead. The demise of this Dearly Departed results in his oddball family planning and attending his funeral services.

Running jokes make up the plot. The deceased's wife Raynelle (Donna Hadley, soft-voiced but determined) strives to get "Mean and Surly" on his tombstone. Ray-Bud ("Dubya" look-alike Jeremy Stone, who grows in dignity) relentlessly pursues cost-cutting and shows the effect of little air conditioning at the wake. He wishes his nice wife Lucille (Vanessa Radovan) hadn't asked relatives to stay with them. (They have room to spare: she's had eight miscarriages.)

Having badly invested his money in a parking-lot cleaning business, Junior (Steve O'Dea, confounded, confused) finds it hard to face his brother and to deal with wife Suzanne (Heather O'Dea, effectively on edge). Even more unhappy than he that his family knows about their problems, she's also ambivalent about being a working or at-home mother. An earring she finds in Junior's truck begins a ruckus.

Loud, bossy Marguerite (Suzanne Coccia, full of fervor) nags her son to travel with her to the gathering. Cartoon-like funny, she's always after Royce (Jeremy Stone, moving between easy-going and exasperated) to get a job, God, new friends.

Perhaps the funniest character is Delightful (big, blank-faced Allan Kollar), junk food eater and soda swigger non-stop. In countrified dresses, with long straw-blond braids, s/he was the product of Bud and Raynelle's one night of love during a thirty-plus years' abstinence. His rare dialogue consists of monosyllables.

Fine in "sick" appearances are David Boza, the preacher Hooker, who should not have eaten Mexican food, and Steve Credeur, wheezer in a wheelchair. Veda (expressive Kay Crosby) helps him pop pills profusely, not forgetting applications of oxygen. Visitors Nadine, a former Yam Queen (cross-dressing Eric Scneider), and Juanita (Candice Sullivan) do comic takes over food served at the funeral. After the ceremonies, family ties become knotted. (Raynelle's are knotty.)

Director Kelly Woodland keeps the many shifts of place, activities and character interaction moving, if a bit slowly. It might have been easier had the scenic design not included so many defined locales and of different styles. For instance, the slightly used kitchens are big and detailed, whereas Ray-Bud's wide living room is nearly bare and Raynelle's is suggested by a davenport off to one side. Royce sleeps on a sofa used as a bed, strangely next to a sink. No coffin appears at wake or funeral. Happily, costumes all seem appropriate to the characters and their situations. All the jokes run together finally to reach a satisfactory destination.