'Catfish Moon' continues at River City Yacht Club

Curly (Champ Friend), Frog (Dan Finch) and Gordon (Jeff Statler) have been friends since childhood. They're still fishing buddies, but something or rather someone has come between them. Her name is Betty (Stacey Storey), a fiery beauty who is Curly's younger sister, Frog's ex-wife and Gordon's new flame.

It's a combustible mix that makes for disagreements and declarations of love and for tragedy in "Catfish Moon," the new production by the River City Players. The play opened Thursday and continues through May 25 at the River City Yacht Club.

Audiences will be struck first by the wooden boat dock that thrusts off the stage into the seating area. The entire play is set on the dock, a realistically rustic touch built by Tim Roth.

This is largely a memory play that contrasts the buddies' recollections of their good times together to their present troubles. Curly has perpetual heartburn he doesn't pay attention to, Gordon is an alcoholic who struggles to remain sober and seeks guidance in horoscopes, and Frog still isn't over his ex-wife, especially since she began seeing one of his best friends.

"You broke my heart," he says to Gordon after taking a swing at him. "We were like brothers. You broke a very sacred bond of trust."

Betty isn't ready to be anybody's woman again.

"Wedlock," she responds to Gordon. "Isn't that a nasty sounding little word, wedlock?"

Friend, Finch and Statler are skilled and amiable actors imaginable as fishing buddies who don't always get along. Storey, one of the RCP's most sure actresses, keeps the boys honest with her portrayal of the independent-minded Betty, who loves all three of them.

Women may be a big reason men fight among themselves, but they also have the power to bring them back together.

"Catfish Moon" contains some evocative scenes, especially one in which Frog recounts a boyhood shenanigan right down to how bad the alligator's breath smelled.

The fishing buddies talk the way fishing buddies often do, so the language in the play gets salty once in awhile. Director Chuck Ross advises the play is not intended for children.

Dr. Roseanna Whitlow, a faculty member in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Southeast, is the assistant director.

The lighting is by Keith West and Lloyd Williams.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182