Sordid, Maybe. Funny, Definitely!

A play should entertain. And Del Shores’ Sordid Lives most certainly does.

The play itself is one thing. But it is the director and actors who bring its characters to life that give it its soul. And the Bergen County Players pulled out all the stops with this one.

It is July 1998, and the family matriarch has died in a rather unflattering manner, revealing the affair she’d been having with a married man. And now the family is coming together for the funeral. But they have their own quirks. And great Texas accents.

Aunt Sissy, played by Rachel Gorden, picked the wrong week to quit smoking. And her self-prescribed therapy isn’t helping matters. She has been trapped in the role of referee for her late sister’s daughters, the extremely uptight Latrelle, played by Cheryl Woertz, and her polar opposite, the wild and crazy La Vonda, played by Meg Renton. On top of that, she is dealing with the distraught Noleta, played by Helen Boyadjian, whose husband was having the affair with Sissy’s sister. 

La Vonda and Noleta are close friends, and on a drunken binge they meet up with and abuse Noleta’s husband, GW (Joe DoBartolo), and his drinking buddies, the brothers Wardell (Jonathan Deck) and the bumbling Odell (Chris Milone, who does double duty as the hilariously inappropriate Rev. Barnes). We also meet local drunk Juanita, played by Janica Carpenter. The abuse that the men receive at the hands of the drunken women is uproariously funny.

Then we meet the oft spoken of but long institutionalized transsexual brother, Earl “Brother Boy” (Will Nolan – milking the roll of a drag-queen for all he’s worth, and getting well deserved laughs) and his therapy-needing therapist Eve (Sharon Posada). 

Tying it all together are the songs of Bitsy Mae Harling (Paula O’Brien, clearly reveling in the role of the white-trash guitar slinging tattooed singer), which occur at the start of each scene, and the closeted son of Latrelle, Ty (Keith Guthrie), who is visiting with his 27th therapist at the start of each scene as well.

Sordid Lives is an awarded winning comedy, and it is often laugh-out-loud funny.  Director Carol Fisher-Gertner of Teaneck has done an incredible job, and put together an impressive show.

Sordid Lives is the final production of this Bergen County Players season. It runs Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday matinee performances through June 5. It contains mature themes and language. For more information and to get tickets, click here.