River City Players present 'Steel Maganolias' for Mother's Day

This Mother's Day you can take mom to see the classic story of a mother's love, the bonds of friendship and share a few catty laughs at the River City Players presentation of Robert Harling's "Steel Magnolias."

The community theater group, which performs dinner theater at Port Cape, decided to bring back the play after a decade's absence. They threw in a Mother's Day matinee for good measure this year.

"We actually did this before in 1997, and we sold out every night," said the show's director Stacey Storey. "The people just loved it."

She was assistant director back then and said the play garnered so much interest, they added an extra matinee and another weekend of performances. The popularity and the holiday made the play a good fit for a repeat performance.

The story follows a group of Southern women who gather regularly in a beauty salon to fuss over and deal with life's events. It's mostly about family — taking care of one, wanting one and finding one in your friends.

M'Lynn, one of the women, has a daughter, Shelby, who is getting married and decides to have a child despite having diabetes. Complications arise from Shelby's decision and the women must support each other and M'Lynn through the process, all the while dealing with their own issues with men, growing up and growing old.

"It was ideal for Mother's Day," Storey said.

Unlike the movie, the play takes place exclusively in Truvy's Beauty Shop and the cast is entirely female. The play opens at 7 p.m. May 8 for a show only. On May 9 and 10 and May 16 and 17, the doors open at 6:30 p.m., with dinner starting at 7 p.m. and the show at 8. Doors open at 1:30 p.m. May 11 for the Mother's Day Dessert matinee. The show starts at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 for the dinner/show, $15 for the Mother's Day matinees and $10 for show only May 8. For reservations, call 334-0954.