How do five college friends and former swim team members age gracefully?
Sheree (Katherine Encrapera), a well organized planner, meets her former teammates in an oceanfront beach cottage on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for their annual reunion. Each member has their own agenda or story. Lexie (B.T. Bauer) is a multiple divorcee, man crazy, and narcissistic. Dinah (Nolarae Stein), a very driven divorce lawyer who likes her martinis too well. Vernadene (Noel Miner) has had nothing but bad luck in marriage and her children. Jeri Neal (Cindy Stewart) a nun reveals she left the convent and is eight months pregnant through artificial insemination.
“The Dixie Swim Club” is currently being staged by the Bay Street Players in Eustis.
The play starts in 1984, 22 years after graduation, and each scene skips about five years to the final jump to 2017. Families, Health, Dementia, and Death have interceded in the life of “The Swim Club.”
All is done with sensitivity and good humor that anyone in the “Senior” age bracket can identify with or know these characters personally.
The stage scenery is a masterful work of art and the decor changes with each scene date. The characters can move about unrestricted and the set exudes a resort feeling. Each actor is equipped with mikes so nothing is missed, particularly some of the one liners. The only problem seemed to be in the flow of dialogue, at times, and appeared more of a recitation than conversation.
The Dixie Swim Club runs through Oct. 1. Call 352-357-777 for tickets
Villager Don Simson reviews local theater for Villages-News.com
