As the curtain opens on “Calendar Girls”, the final show of the 2023-2024 season at Peninsula Community Theatre, we are brought into what seems to be just another meeting of the Women’s Institute of Yorkshire.  Chris (played by Lyra Hale most recently seen in Private Lives and Dead Man’s Cell Phone) leads a tai chi session with hilarious incompetency, Cora (Stacey Sherman) leads the women in song on her piano, and the guest speaker of the day is Brenda Hulse (played by Brenda Epling), who has prepared a presentation on the fascinating topic of… broccoli.  Yes, the vegetable. 

Over the next few scenes, we see a bit less than a year pass of Women’s Institute meetings, and the friendship between our six leading ladies (Chris and Cora above are joined by Ola Allen’s retired teacher Jessie, Rachel Madden’s confident Celia, the kind-hearted suck up Ruth played by Sarah Faber-Catanese, and Chris’s best friend Annie, played by Erica Chigos-White) becomes well established.  These scenes serve a couple purposes – to show the rapport between these six ladies and build their characters, and to also show us the sad progression of Annie’s husband John (in an emotional performance by Ben Jenkin) as he slowly loses his battle with leukemia.  Jenkin and Chigos-White do a nice job of showing slices of what that journey may look like for a long-married couple, and it isn’t easy to watch as Jenkin leaves the stage for the final time.

Some time after John loses his battle with leukemia, we are back at the Women’s Institute, and Marie, the stuffy leader of the women’s group played well by Holly Johnson (who we recently saw in Exit Laughing), introduces her plan for next year’s fundraising calendar – another boring set of pictures of bridges.  Hale’s Chris, however, has another idea, one which is sure to raise lots of money in support of a new settee (i.e. couch) for the waiting area in the cancer wing of the hospital in memory of John.  She pitches that the women themselves should be the subjects of the calendar.  And, to drum up even more interest, they won’t take just any pictures – they will pose nude (with strategically placed props)!  The other women are not so sure, but Chris has an indomitable will, and, in a flurry of women’s empowerment and some fancy English language footwork distinguishing between the outlandish “naked” and the tasteful “nude”, they each embrace the idea. 

Over the next twenty minutes, the theatre is incredibly fun, as each woman (including the ensemble) gets their photo done for the calendar.  This is done through some smart prop-work and clever staging (credit to director Justin Giroux) to keep the actors (mostly) covered.  There is also strong timing of lighting and projections (props to Scott Hayes and Hannah Crowder in addition to Giroux for that), and some very funny costuming (done by Kara Friend), providing for a very suggestive and entertaining photo session.  The cast is clearly having a lot of fun embracing their bodies, and the audience feels that positive energy coming off the stage and embraces it too.  You are likely to see a least a few bare breasts, but all tastefully done.  You can also purchase the PCT version of the calendar itself, proceeds of which go to support charities related to fighting cancer, which is a nice addition.

As the calendars go to print in the play, the women have to deal with the fallout, which becomes the basis of the plot in the second act.  It really delves into how these different personalities on stage react to their newfound fame, and how it affects their relationships to each other.  Hurry back from intermission, as Lyra Hale delivers an inspiring speech right at the beginning of the second act that you won’t want to miss, and Rachel Madden also has a wonderful turn as she rants about her husband’s golf club.  And Hale’s chemistry with Chigos-White in the central relationship of the show is the straw that stirs the drink, driving the plot to its ultimate conclusion. 

You may be drawn into this show for the nudity, but you will stay for the commentary on interpersonal relationships provided by this true story.  You just might find yourself walking out with a calendar of suggestive pictures of some brave and beautiful locals, all to support charity.