Gather for ‘Dearly Departed’

In the small town of Lula, located somewhere below the Mason-Dixon line, funerals are a down-home, irreverently religious excuse for a good ole feuding and feeding family gathering. Relatives come from far and near to offer their final condolences. And no one deserves a better send-off, or gets one, than Bud Turpin in the Edge of the World production of “Dearly Departed.” So beloved is this man his epitaph, if wife Raynelle has her way, will be “Mean and Surly.”

“Dearly Departed” takes you straight into the Bible Belt where a wild cast of characters prepare to bury the family patriarch. The show consists of multiple vignettes beginning with Raynelle (Melanie Calderwood) reading a letter from Bud’s sister Marguerite to Bud, who’s ensconced behind the morning news. Without missing a line, Raynelle barely blinks when Bud’s chair topples backward and Bud heads on to his sweet reward.

Telephone lines burn with the news as the Turpins gather for Bud’s funeral. One of the first to arrive is Bud’s Bible-thumping sister Marguerite (Melody Mistlin), whose church is sponsoring missionaries to teach lesser civilized women how to wear brassieres, and her slacker son Royce (Matthew Dunlap).

Then Bud’s sons arrive, Ray-Bud (Brian Vyrostek) and Junior (Jack Hamblin). Ray-Bud is a robust southern gentleman married to Lucille (Laurell Haapanen), and a mechanic whose only concern is how much this thing is going to cost. That’s because tall lanky Junior, married to Suzanne (Sara Trowbridge), is broke. He lost everything on his parking lot cleaning machine. Now he’s about to lose his wife from an affair with a K-Mart parking lot cleaning machine groupie. There’s also a daughter at the family home. Bud and Raynelle, were married 39 years — 33 without so much as a handshake except for one slip that resulted in their daughter Delightful (Julie Drummond).

The Turpins, their progeny and a few odd characters including the minister (Keith Remon), Veda (Claire Cassidy), loving caretaker to her very overmedicated husband and Nadine (Drummond) and her passel of children all named after actors (“Cut that out Oprah!) are hilarious. Whether shouting Bible verses, saying good-bye to Bud in his casket — “Looks like Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke”, says Marguerite snapping a photo, or having a make-up rolling embrace on the floor of the funeral home during the service, the Turpins are genuine and real, letting it all hang out all the time.

Though the ensemble performance is classic, my favorite vignette is Suzanne and Junior driving to Raynelle’s. Suzanne’s never-ending rampage at Junior only stops when she screams at their three kids in the back seat. Looking in the rearview mirror she shouts, “How’d you like me to leave ya in the middle of the road — you’d starve.” Finally Junior’s had enough. Stopping the car, he pulls out a gun, threatening to kill all of them. Without missing a beat … or a syllable, Suzanne responds, “Tense, tense, tense. You’re so tense. Put that away.” And thus they continue on as does the whole family, without Bud, as they journey to a funny, yet surprisingly touching end of this chapter of their lives.