Review: Life after divorce is a laughing matter

Alil Vardar's

The Divorcees Club

proves one thing: The French are no more sophisticated than we are.

Sure, they can boast the literary brilliance of novelist Michel Houellebecq and the biting satire of Charlie Hebdo magazine, but their biggest theatrical hit of the last two decades hasn't been the intellectually loaded dramas of Yasmina Reza (Art, God of Carnage), but Vardar's mindless 2003 comedy.

The raunchy, riotous, Americanized U.S. premiere at Penn's Landing Playhouse shows why. The Divorcees Club starts with a too-familiar situation: Bethany (Aileen Goldberg) is a recently divorced, nearing-middle-age woman trying to piece her life back together after dissolving her marriage because she was dissatisfied with her husband. Though she can boast a Mayflower heritage, she can't pay the rent on her posh Walnut Street apartment and seeks roommates, with the stipulation that they must also be divorced women.

In this 90-minute three-hander, she takes the first two women who answer her ad. And the hilarity of this situation comedy begins the moment South Carolina small-town Bridget (Stephen Croce) (yes, Stephen) drags her luggage in the door.

Bridget unleashes an evening-long torrent of unintentionally self-deprecating anecdotes and biting insults, most directed at the third roommate, Marie (Kellie Cooper), a South Jersey tart who parades around wearing little but an idiot's understanding of each situation. That Croce plays the role in drag only accentuates the nasty humor, letting us jeer at an outwardly hideous, yet ultimately sympathetic woman.

Vardar retooled the show for its English translation at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and threaded in local details for Philadelphia audiences. A few references (TV's The Dating Game and print-media personal ads) date the piece.

No matter. Director Hazis Vardar (the playwright's brother) ploughs ahead through any line that sounds awkward or doesn't score laughs, and the three talented actors never shy away from a ridiculous aside or diversion. If every joke is a nail, they're pounding them home with sledgehammers.

Despite the show's brevity, it's made me laugh more than any other production in years. Whatever social commentary the French version may have lost in translation, this richly funny play offers a welcome evening of meaningless entertainment in a spring theater season filled with serious, sophisticated dramas.

The Divorcees Club

Through March 22 at the Penn's Landing Playhouse, Independence Seaport Museum, Columbus Boulevard and Walnut Street

Tickets: $25-$65.

Information: 855-448-7469 or www.plplayhouse.com

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