On a Friday night in October, we made the trek past the oldest ham in the world and parked incredibly easily in the Smithfield Little Theatre parking lot (looking at you, Little Theatre of Virginia Beach), for their performance of Four Old Broads.  It seems to be becoming a tradition at Smithfield Little Theatre to begin their season with a play focused around four older female characters, with last fall’s play being Savannah Sipping Society – and we were excited to see some familiar faces in the program whom we enjoyed from that previous performance (both Janet Moore and Sharon Suttle were back on stage for this show).

The aforementioned four old broads live in a 1990s nursing home, and the first couple scenes are focused around the four of them mostly just talking to build each of their characters up in the minds of the audience.  The entire first act was almost like an elderly, female episode of Family Guy, as although they are interacting in real-time, the dialogue is mainly a series of stories about hijinks each of the characters have engaged in throughout the past.  Those past hijinks are dominated by former stripper Beatrice Shelton, played by Tressa Barn, and her religious yet accepting gal-pal, Eaddy Mae Clayton, played by Madoline Wallace.  Barn and Wallace do a nice job of nailing this odd couple relationship, mixing in the right amount of bickering with clear underlying respect for each other’s world views.  Meanwhile, Moore’s Maude Jenkins is constantly watching soap operas.  I found that the most hilarious moments of the night were when the lighting would change to appear the cast was watching a soap opera on a TV in the audience, “Nadia’s Theme” would play, and the voices of soap actors would come on the sound system.  The facial expressions of the cast as they “watched” a soap opera were truly hilarious. 

The play takes a turn when Suttle’s Imogene Fletcher begins having issues with her meds, and it suddenly becomes a bit of a mystery as it heads into the second act.  In the words of Wallace’s Eaddy Mae – “now I don’t mean to get into your personal business” – but if you want to find out what happens, you’ll have to head on over to Smithfield and see this play for yourself!