As we walked into Smithfield Little Theatre on Saturday night, we were immediately struck by the perfectly captured living room on stage.  It felt totally lived in, with various knick-knacks on shelves and pictures and art covering the walls.  There were stairs to the right leading to an (offstage) upstairs, and a kitchen in the back left of the stage, but in a separate room, with a very familiar feeling peekaboo window such that you could be doing dishes in the kitchen but still feel a part of the conversation in the dual-level great room.  It totally felt like you were about to spend the evening at a friend’s house, chatting and maybe playing some cards. 

And that is exactly the feel this play is going for, as it is bridge night at Connie’s house.  However, this night of bridge is a little different than it has been for the last thirty or so years, as this group of four best friends, all women, has dropped to a group of three – Mary just passed away from some long-term illness.  The three remaining friends (Connie, Leona, and Millie) now have to try to figure out not only how to play bridge without a fourth, but also how their friendship dynamic works without Mary.  Or… do they?  Millie is the last of the friends to show up, and she… “picked up” Mary (or at least, Mary’s ashes) from the (closed) funeral home on the way to bridge night – after all, says Millie, “we always carpooled on bridge night”.

And so, antics ensue.  Connie (played by Holly Johnson) and Leona (played by Colleen Parker) are initially completely baffled and unsure how to interact with Mary’s urn, and are worried the police might show up once the break-in at the funeral home is discovered.  Parker is hilarious as she leans into the need to lighten the mood with booze… and although the wet bar on stage begins the night with only a bottle of rum on it, a ridiculous number of other bottles slowly make their way out of various hiding spots in Connie’s kitchen throughout the evening.  There must have been 15 types of alcohol on stage by the end.  I found that Johnson, as Connie, brought a lot of emotional punch to the role, as throughout all the antics, she often finds a way to connect with very real feelings of loss, bringing back memories of Mary and how Mary might feel about various happenings.  Somehow, without ever appearing in the play, the audience feels like they know Mary, a picture built out mainly through the strong story-telling of Johnson and Parker.

In an interweaved side plot, Connie’s college age daughter, Rachel, is also at home tonight, after getting stood up by her would-be date.  Eden Poteat makes this role come to life with her dramatic writing-off of men, and then she proceeds to seem to go through each stage of grief during the play (despite the play only taking place over a couple hours).  Oh, and you won’t forget Jacob Cogley as Bobby, a role that Cogley courageously pulls off with aplomb, and brings the two plot lines together – although I won’t say anything more about him here so as to avoid spoilers.

Meanwhile, off in her own world is Millie, played by Katy Feldl.  Dim-witted in some (maybe most) ways and wise in others (or maybe she just trips into wisdom every so often), Feldl is totally hilarious and steals many scenes with her perfect comedic timing.  She drops one-liners over and over again, has wonderful facial expressions, and really pulls off the “I’m just learning what that phrase means and I’m totally aghast I’ve been wrong about it for my entire life” schtick.  Millie as a character could really make or break this show as being massively entertaining or kind of annoying, and Feldl’s version absolutely is in the “massively entertaining” side of that. 

Oh – and who can forget Mayzie Melms as Butter-Butt, the cat who, when she is brought out on stage, gets an audible “aww” from the audience.  Always love to see an animal on stage, adding to the “lived in” feel of the house, and bringing that extra level of “you never know what’s going to happen” to a show.  Let’s find a way to get that cat on stage an extra time or two!

“Exit Laughing”, while dealing with issues of loss and relationships when they are suddenly and irreparably changed, does so in a fun and often light-hearted way.  In the paraphrased words of Millie, this night will absolutely be “more fun than a typical night of bridge.”  And, just as Mary would want, you will absolutely “Exit Laughing”.