Saturday 17 February
On stage April
Contact details: [email protected] or
text Sonya 022 632 8975 for further info.
Libby Ruth, Deedra, Monette and Charlie are committed to the notion that careers, waistlines and even marriages may disappear, but real friendships last a lifetime. Forsaking all others, in sickness and in health, they repeatedly struggle to stage the perfect wedding despite fistfights at the altar, runaway brides and the mistaken, and unfortunate, release of a flock of white doves on the first day of hunting season. Always a Bridesmaid is the rollicking tale of four loyal and determined women who definitively answer the question; “Just how far are you willing to go to keep a promise to a friend?”
If you’ve ever elbowed a stranger out of the way to catch a bride’s bouquet, seriously questioned the mental stability of the duo saying “I do” or been forced to wear the world’s ugliest bridesmaid dress, this deliriously funny comedy is definitely for you … and your dearly beloved!
SETTING
An upstairs sitting room at historic Laurelton Oaks, Laurelton, Virginia, twenty miles northwest of Richmond.
TIME
The play takes place over a period of seven years
CHARACTERS
Kari
Character age: 20s
A kind-hearted, spirited Southern charmer. Interspersed between scenes are vignettes of Kari Ames-Bissette, daughter of Libby Ruth, as she gives the toast at her wedding reception. Besides adding some additional humour, she acts as a narrator of sorts, tying the scenes together, and eventually appears in the final scene as the cycle of marriage continues into the next generation.
Libby Ruth
Character age: 40s/50s
Hopeful romantic with the perfect marriage who believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that her friends can find the very same happiness
Monette
Character age: 40s/50s
Flashy, high-spirited and self-involved, continues to test her friends' love and patience with all-too-frequent trips down the aisle
Charlie
Character age: 40s/50s
Salt-of-the-earth, tree-hugging Charlie discovers, the hard way, that marital bliss is not the end of her rainbow and panics in outrageous style when the opportunity presents itself
Deedra
Character age: 40s/50s
Headstrong with a dry with, no-nonsense Northern transplant. Her "rock-solid" union hangs by a thread when she discovers her husband of many years not only has a wandering eye, but the hands to match
Sedalia
Character age: 60s
A gregarious, no-nonsense, energetic Virginia hostess & wedding planner who is so enamoured with her establishment's reputation of never having lost a bride that she is not above employing a few, um, extreme tactics in preserving it.