Theater Company of RI Serves Best of Friends

The Theater Company of Rhode Island is celebrating its 30^th year in a new venue in Chepachet. It’s a great benefit to theater lovers in Rhode Island to have companies from north to south. The September play, Best Of Friends by James Elward, is a lively comedy that takes us through family clashes, secrets and surprises. The Purple Cat Vineyard and Winery is a wonderful, distinctive venue for a non-musical play. Artistic director Michael Thurber says that the company will continue to use the Assembly Theater for the larger casts and sets of musicals.

It’s a beautiful drive on Rt. 44 West, past the lakes and trees, only about a half hour from Providence on Money Hill Road. In fact, make a day of it. Take the drive, and at the Purple Cat Vineyard and Winery, you can sample their wares at the bar and have a custom-made crepe at the café, the Philanthropy Tea and Coffee Co. where the owners give a portion of their profits to prevent human trafficking. Then sit on one of the many comfy couches and relax until it’s time for the play. Or take a stroll outdoors and sit beneath the trees in an Adirondack chair. The space for the Theater Company of RI is downstairs, in a lovely, wooden-floored, exposed-beam room. Thurber has the room currently arranged in an intimate in-the-round setup. This brings the actors and the action right into the audience’s lap. It is great fun for a comedy.

Steven Taschereau plays the globe-trotting, well-known author and cheating husband, Archer, who arrives with a beautiful, young assistant (Jane Addington-May) in tow to the family home. Taschereau keeps a high energy throughout the show. This family and the two, now grown children with one married (Derek Colantuano, Alice Bennett, Brooke Soltys) is the same Archer abandoned years before. Not to mention that the family thinks Archer is dead, since they received news his plane crashed. The fact that Archer is alive is only the smallest of surprises, compared to the rest of what happens. There are other infidelities, long-kept secrets, accusations, discoveries and arguments. Even the family’s lawyer (a manic Tobin Ferretti) gets embroiled in the drama. Archer never divorced his wife, now neither he nor she (a smooth and reserved Katrina Claflin) can decide if that can or should still happen.

These family interchanges could happen at any date in history. But this play was written and set in the 1960s. There are no cell phones or even computers, but there is mention of carbon copies. You can Google it, folks. It is interesting that protests, mentioned in the play, don’t need any explanation. Best of Friends continues at the Purple Cat Vineyard and Winery on September 25 and 26 at 8pm and on September 27 at 2pm. For more information about the Theater Company of Rhode Island, go to tcrionline.com. To check out the list of other events at the Purple Cat, go to purplecatwinery.com. Glasses and bottles of the wine are available during intermission. Home baked goods are also served free of charge, with a donation request if one has the means.