'Sordid Lives' Comes Close, But Misses Comedic Mark At SCC

What makes the human heart laugh? What is humor? Is it when we see the inanity of our behavior acted out by others that causes us to laugh? Perhaps it is embarrassment at seeing others demonstrate emotions and deeds that we sense are incipient in ourselves, but when embodied by others, we can fully appreciate their absurdity?

And so we laugh.

All of these thoughts and questions ran through my mind the morning after seeing “Sordid Lives,” the current offering of the Southampton Cultural Center Stage. Written by Del Shores, the play centers around the reactions of a Texas family to the death of one of their own—a woman who died in a seedy motel when she stumbled on the wooden legs of her much younger Vietnam vet lover as she was on the way to the bathroom. She banged her head and bled out.

Ludicrous, yes? Sounds like a good set up for a “black comedy about white trash,” as the playbill advertises.

But this production is only one third laughter; the rest is pathos. After an opening song by a country singer in tight cutoffs and fishnet stockings that promises down-home humor, we hear the first of four affecting monologues from a young man named Ty (John Leonard), who fled from Texas to New York. It’s his mother who’s just died. Will he go home to the funeral?

While his family knows he’s gay, he’s never really come out to them—or, it seems, to himself. Nothing to laugh at there. If this hasn’t happened in your extended family, you aren’t looking hard enough.

However, the first scene is indeed hilarious as two women—Sissy (JoAnna Mincarelli), the sister of the dead woman, and Noleta (Danielle Shuman), the wife of the man who strayed with Sissy’s sister—consider their options soon after the news of the embarrassing tryst goes public.

Will their friendship survive? Apparently it will, fueled by iced tea, assorted cakes, pies and, for good measure, valium. And there’s that tuna casserole with mushroom soup and Lay’s potato chips that Noleta brought over as a goodwill gesture.

In walks Sissy’s older sister, Latrelle (Kristin Whiting), who is all proper rectitude, and eventually, the rebel younger sister, LaVonda (Frances Sherman), who must have just hopped off some badass motorcycle driven by an ever more badass boyfriend. All the women here are quite entertaining and wring the humor out of the writing. In particular, Ms. Sherman again reminds us that she can steal a scene with gusto, as she did recently in The Fantasticks" without speaking a word. She was The Mute.

Other family members traipsing in and out of this dramedy include an institutionalized transvestite who wants to be the embodiment of his heroine, Tammy Wynette; a sex therapist determined to have him shed his homosexual ways; the wooden-legged lover; a couple of drunken galoots, among them the friend of the transvestite who still harbors a fondness for him; a barfly who can’t walk straight; and the minster who will preside over the wake.

The trouble is, the play is not so much a story with a beginning, middle and an end, but a series of four vignettes strung together by broad themes of infidelity, homosexuality and southern eccentricities. One can easily see why this setup would have led to a television show, as it did—not to mention the film, neither of which I caught.

The next three scenes, even with cross-dressing, drunken, backwater types, and Noleta and LaVonda pretending to be Thelma and Louise, are only marginally funny at times. Absurd, yes, but somehow not knee-slapping “hah-hah.”

Tom Gregory as Brother Boy, the transvestite, is ridiculous eye candy in his Asian robe, leopard-print pajamas, high-heeled pink slippers, boa and hairnet. But call me crazy, I have a hard time laughing at a locked-up transvestite—no matter how convincingly acted by Mr. Gregory here—who’s supposed to change his socially unacceptable ways under the tutelage of an ambitious shrink who is aiming for a shot at being on Oprah after she writes her best-selling book about her, er, success.

Maybe the LGBT crowd would have found the humor there, maybe it is a “cult classic” somewhere, but those words are typically code for “appreciated by a small, select group of people.” They were not in Southampton last Friday. One rude woman couldn’t stop texting on her cell phone, its bright light distracting those who sat behind her.

Despite flashes of humor throughout, in Southampton, “Sordid Lives,” came off as more poignant than comedic.

“Sordid Lives”

Directed by Michael Disher and Joan Lyons. Remaining cast includes, in order of appearance: Mary Sabo as Singer Bitsy; Edward Kassar as G.W., the wooden-legged lover; Scott Wilson as Wardell; Joseph Marshall as Odell and Rev. Barnes; and Deborah Marshall as Juanita, a barfly.

The production will stage through Sunday, January 31, on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $22 and $12 for students under age 21 with ID. For more information, call (631) 287-4377, or visitscc-arts.org.

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