Stage Review: Savannah Sipping Society (Jewel Box)
Stage Review - Savannah Sipping Society
Presented By: Jewel Box Theatre, Poulsbo, WA
Date Reviewed: Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
What do you get when you take three ladies who are each facing a string of bad luck, and throw in a life coach who, unbeknownst even to herself, probably needs more help than the other three? The answer is onstage now at The Jewel Box Theatre in Pouslbo, and is something well worth taking in. Savannah Sipping Society, written by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten (collectively known as Jones Hope Wooten), and directed here by Michelle Peterson, is the story of Randa, a workaholic recently devoid of a job, Dot, still mourning the loss of her husband, Marlafaye, who lost her husband to a 23-year old dental hygienist, and Jinx, the aforementioned life coach who, it turns out, can’t figure her own life out but has no problem trying help others figure theirs out. Meeting by chance at a yoga session, Dot and Marlafaye invite themselves over for an impromptu happy hour at Randa’s, where the majority of the story takes place. Randa, thrust into the unexpected role of entertainer, is further taken aback when Dot invites her friend, and life coach, Jinx to the party. What follows is the story of three women who reluctantly give their lives to Jinx so that she can ostensibly mold them each back into something that resembles happy. It’s a story of resilience, and it’s one of hope. It’s also one that shows us that challenges are far better faced together than apart.
Savannah Sipping Society is also quite funny. It’s told through a combination of shared scenes between the lead actors and observational monologues. The story itself has a lot of humor built in, and most of that is within the design of the characters, but it’s the delivery of these roles by the actors that makes this show work. Ronni Wolfe as Randa is wonderful. Her delivery of this role is excellent. Randa’s life is her work, and when that goes away, the realization that there is nothing else is something she doesn’t accept easily, along with her new role as hostess. Ronni is very good here, as is Ann Sveen as recent widow Dot. Dot is more on the naive side than the others, that characteristic relied upon to deliver much of the role’s humor, which Ann handles nicely. It’s in the character of Marlafaye where the humor of Savannah Sipping Society takes off, though. Neicie Packer’s delivery of this wisecracking, sarcastic, Texas transplant is just superb. Neicie’s accent and mannerisms are on top notch, and she’s even fun to watch when she’s not speaking. Rounding out the cast as Jinx is Renee Murphy. For the preview performance, it was decided that Renee needed to rest her voice in advance of the show’s opening, so while she acted out the role onstage, director Michelle Peterson read Jinx’s lines from the audience. While the decision is understandable, I would have loved to see Renee in full form, as Jinx is perhaps the most complex and transformative of the characters in the show, returning to Savannah to help take care of her ailing sister, while helping Dot, Randa, and Marlafaye try to put their own lives back together.
There’s a lot of humor in the show. The target demographic is largely women over 35, so any attendees in that age group might get more from it than I did, being a male north of 50, but that’s not to say I didn’t find a decent amount of it funny. Much of the humor, for me at least, is not necessarily laugh out loud, apart from some of what comes out of the mouth of Neicie’s Marlafaye, but I did find myself chuckling quite a bit. The show knows its target audience and surely plays to it, but I will say that I did find Savannah Sipping Society enjoyable.
The preview performance wasn’t perfect, of course, which quite frankly is why they have them, to make sure everything is squared away for opening night. There were some obvious pauses as some of the actors reached for lines, but to be fair, much of this could be related to the decision to rest Renee’s voice for this performance. Having the lines fed from the seats takes a bit of getting used to, and that can easily affect the flow and pace, but the substance of the story is still there. Most of this will surely be straightened away come Friday evening, these are all actors with a good deal of experience on stage and I’m confident that they’ll hit the ground running come opening night. That aside, the only other comment I would make is around scene and set changes. There are a decent number of costume changes in this show, and the swiftness of them is impressive, but at times on Tuesday, they led to a length of time that the lights were down on stage while the audience waited for the next scene to start. Moreover, when the actors move to stage left or right for one of their observant monologues, it’s only after those that certain set changes are made, which again during the preview led to a breakup of the flow, making it feel a bit choppy. I believe that having the set changes happen simultaneously to these monologues would improve the overall flow of the production, and they wouldn’t necessarily distract the audience from the actors on stage. It would surely make the show feel better paced.
There is more to like about Savannah Sipping Society than not, though. It’s funny, engaging, and very well acted. Bill Klorig’s set is gorgeous, and really feels like the patio of a house in the deep South, I could almost sense the humidity. Deb Beddoe’s costumes, from the ladies’ initial yoga wear, to their Renaissance Faire outfits (you have to see the show to appreciate these), are varied and fitting for each scene. Perhaps one of the more subtle callouts is around lighting, and how David Ward matches his lighting to the time of day, which, if I’m being honest, took me a few scenes to catch on to. Subtle, but a very nice touch. Michelle Peterson has done a nice job utilizing all areas of the stage, though I wonder if something different could be done for the monologue pieces, something that would make them a bit more engaging for folks in all areas of the theatre space, rather than the side of the stage on which the particular actors are standing to deliver these pieces. All and all, though, Savannah Sipping Society I would say is nicely designed and well delivered.
The Jewel Box Theatre is opening its season with a tale of determination and hope, a humorous tale of four ladies and their aim to overcome individual hardships that have befallen them, realizing that there is power in togetherness, in facing them together. Savannah Sipping Society presents an alternative viewpoint to the prevalent hopelessness many find in the world today, and it’s a viewpoint that is refreshing to experience, especially when it is presented as well as it is in this production.
Savannah Sipping Society runs onstage at The Jewel Box Theatre in Poulsbo through September 24. For more information and tickets, visit https://www.jewelboxpoulsbo.org/.
