For Immediate Release:
Contact: David Kuehn, Executive Director
Cotuit Center for the Arts
Phone: (508) 428-0669
Email: David@cotuitcenterforthearts.org
Website: ArtsOnTheCape.org
“Sordid Lives” Opens January 12 at Cotuit Center for the Arts
Cotuit Center for the Arts presents “Sordid Lives,” Del Shores’ “black comedy about white trash,”
January 12 to 24. Performances are Tuesday and Wednesday, January 12 and 13, at 7:30, Thursday
through Saturday at 7:30, and Sunday at 2 PM.
Directed by Ian Ryan, “Sordid Lives” is set in the small town of Winters, Texas, in 1995, as a large
extended family comes to grips with the death of its matriarch, Peggy. Peggy hit her head and bled to
death in a seedy motel room after tripping over her much younger lover’s wooden legs. G.W.
Nethercott, her lover, and a legless Vietnam vet, played by Michael Ernst, is distraught—and his wife
Noleta, played by Christine Ernst, is livid.
“It’s so much fun to work with my husband,” said Christine Ernst. “We have a mostly blissful
relationship in real life, but it is fun to explore that dynamic of a lousy marriage -- I get to drunkenly
scream in his face and humiliate him. It’s new territory for us, but we’re having a ball. Well, I'm
having a ball.”
Peggy’s younger sister, Sissy Hickey (Liz Liuzzi) is trying to hold the family together and deal with
Peggy’s daughters, worldly LaVonda Dupree (Cat Wilson) and uptight LaTrelle Wiliamson (Ruthe
Lew), and her son, Earl “Brother Boy” Ingram (Tom Crutchfield), who was committed to a psychiatric
facility 20 years earlier because of his penchant for cross-dressing and impersonating Tammy
Wynette. Peggy’s grandson, Ty Williamson (Blake Gronlund), is gay and contemplating coming out to
his family at the funeral.
“The play is ridiculously funny. It’s about sex, infidelity, coming out, heartbreak, family members
betraying each other,” said Christine Ernst. “Del Shores grew up in Texas, and the characters are
based on people that he knew, and he is very clear in a foreword in the script that the characters are
real people, not cartoons— but their behavior is so outrageous, it's challenging for the actor to not
go overboard.
“Also not to crack up during the scenes—we haven't gotten through a rehearsal yet without
someone losing it. We're basically a bunch of jerks behaving atrociously and getting drunk and
shooting guns and gossiping about everyone we know, but we actually love each other. It is really a
story about any family, any small town, and how a close-knit group of people absorb the stupid blows
of life and move on,” Ernst said.
“We have come a long way since the 1990s in terms of societal acceptance of gay marriage,
transvestites, and transgender people,” said Ernst. “That was all alien territory then. I would not have
predicted we would have come this far in 20 years, but ‘Sordid Lives’ is still relevant and just as
funny—and still rates a PG-13 for language and content and frank talk about sex.
“It’s so funny because it is about West Texas, with a bunch of rubes shooting guns and gossiping
about trashy girls, but it is really a story about any family, any small town, and how a close-knit group
of people absorb the blows of life and move on,” Ernst said.
Despite the humor, the play raises some very serious issues about identity and tolerance. “We have
come a long way since the 1990s in terms of societal acceptance of gay marriage and gender
fluidity,” said Ernst. “I would not have predicted we would see such wonderful change in 20 years.
Now, ‘Sordid Lives’ is stuck fast and hard in mid-90s red-state culture, but it's still relevant and just as
funny—even more so in hindsight. It also still rates a PG-13 for language and content and frank talk
about sex. We're pretty sordid, y'all."
Rebecca Riley plays Bitsy Mae Harling, a guitar-playing ex-con singer, who provides a musical
narrative to the play. Bonnie Fairbanks, who appeared in “Gypsy,” “Grey Gardens” and “Spamalot” at
Cotuit Center for the Arts, plays Dr. Eve Bolinger, Brother Boy’s over-sexed, pill-popping, and
alcoholic therapist.
Rick Martin is Wardell Bubba Owens, a formerly gay-bashing but now remorseful bartender; and
Kempton Parker plays both Odell, Wardell’s worthless, storytelling brother, and Reverend Barnes, a
Southern Baptist preacher.
Aaron Mayo will play guitar to accompany Rebecca Riley.
“Sordid Lives” premiered in 1996 and was followed by an independent film of the same name in 2000
and a television series, “Sordid Lives: The Series,” in 2008, which was a prequel to the play. The play
won 14 Drama-Logue Awards and became a cult hit with LGBT fans, particularly in the South. A
sequel, “A Very Sordid Wedding,” is currently in the works.
.
Tickets are $28, $25 for seniors, $23 for members, and $15 for students. Cotuit Center for the Arts is
at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit artsonthecape.org or
call 508-428-0669.
# # #
What:
“Sordid Lives,” by Del Shores
Where:
Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28, Cotuit
When:
January 12 to 24. Tuesday and Wednesday, January 12 and 13, at 7:30; Thursday through Saturday
at 7:30; and Sunday at 2 PM.
Admission:
$28, $25 for seniors and veterans, $23 for members, and $15 for students.
END