'Laugh, Cry, Pee, Repeat!' wraps the golden years in Depends and a good laugh

Actress Bette Davis originated the immortal line: "Old age ain't no place for sissies."

It also ain't no place for people without a sense of humor. So say three Naples women who have put its embarrassments, doubts and frustrations onstage in an original comedy, "Laugh, Cry, Pee, Repeat!" 

Their play is a knowing wink to anyone — male or female — who has suffered the constant mantra to exercise, had a bladder shed its excess without permission or became unhinged over senior dating. Patronizing family members.

The world premiere is at Marco Players this week, and its playwrights aren't worried about getting a seat in the COVID-19 regulated theater. Patty Corsini Caroli is in the play. Her colleague Natalie King is reprising her traditional community theater backstage work. Carole Fenstermacher, the third of the trio, directs.

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Fenstermacher attributes the original idea to a chance meeting at a birthday party with Beverly Dahlstrom, artistic director and president of Marco Players. Dahlstrom had scheduled several of Fenstermacher's works and knew she was a playwright. 

"Bev said to me, 'Y'know, somebody should do a look-alike for 'Love, Loss and What I Wore,' only for older women.' " And I told her 'Bev, that's a great idea!' " Fenstermacher recalled.

But it wasn't such a great idea as a solo project for Fenstermacher, whose narrative works like "Tango at 2:30" have made the rounds regionally. The Nora and Delia Ephron comedy was created as character monologues and "chat lines," snippets of conversation among groups of actors. Marco Players has done both the Ephrons' "Love, Loss..." and Fenstermacher's "Tango," but Fenstermacher wasn't sure she could create in the Ephron format alone. 

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So she called on friends with experience.

"We've known each other from Naples Players and from Studio Players and from here for close to 15 years," Fenstermacher said. So the chemistry would be no problem. 

The problem, King added, became an overabundance of topics: "The material kept coming in so fast we couldn't put it all in. We've got wonderful stuff for two more plays."

"We came up with topics that women in older age would discuss, things that affect all of us, and tried to find the funny in all of that stuff. Then we divvied up the topics and we each went into our separate corners," Fenstermacher explained. "So this was a sort of collaboration, but with independence."

"I said I wanted to do one about dieting. And somebody else wanted to do something about taking meds. Someone wanted to do something about exercise —" Caroli offered. "And surveys!" King added. 

"That really worked well for us, because it's given us the different characters," she added. The three also have different writing styles, yet, she added, a test audience told them they couldn't tell which one of them wrote what. "Except for the Italian grandmother," King pointed out, teasing Caroli.

 "We helped each other when we needed it because we all got stuck on something. Sometimes we just needed a line. Or, 'This is really long. What should I cut?'" Fenstermacher recalled. 

Caroli said it was an education for her, with only one play to her credit. King has written a slew of one-acts and Fenstermacher has had her four plays accepted locally and for theaters as far away as Buffalo, New York.

"I went from writing a one-act play to working with superstars," she said.

"It was a new experience for me that I had sounding boards onboard. Working with other people keeps you honest, don't you think?" Fenstermacher asked the others, who nodded. 

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Adding the cast's perspective has refined the play more.

"When an actor says, 'I don't know what the hell you mean here,' you know you have to change something," Fenstermacher said.

The three haven't been able to resist a little tinkering on their own, as late as last week. In one series of repartees, an actress sighs that her obsessions have retreated "from heavy sex to heavy socks."

In a way, this production is reinforcing the strength of senior tenacity while it pokes fun at age's misfortunes. Just a week ago, a cast member broke a metatarsal bone, which would keep her from executing the simple choreography and moving her own props, which all the players do. So Marilyn Hilbert, just off a grueling role for The Studio Players as the deteriorating matriarch of "The Waverly Gallery," stepped into that role.

Coincidentally, Hilbert also starred in the Marco Players' 2015 production of the play that inspired all this, "Love, Loss and What I Wore."

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"I hope a lot of women and men — men will appreciate it, too, whether they see themselves or they see their wives in us — come out and say, 'This is stuff that happens all the time. But these girls wrote it down,' Caroli said. 

"After we came up with the name — and Patti gets the credit for the title — I called Beverly and said, 'The name of our play is 'Laugh, Cry, Pee, Repeat!' And she said, 'We're doing it,'" Fenstermacher said.

"She hadn't read a word of it, and she already identified with it."

Harriet Howard Heithaus covers arts and entertainment for the Naples Daily News/naplesnews.com. Reach her at 239-213-6091.

Who: Marco Players production, a world premiere of the comedy on the ignominies of age 

When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays now through Feb. 27. 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Feb. 28. Feb. 17 sold out.

Where: Marco Players Theater, 1089 N. Collier Blvd., Marco Island 

Admission: $38.50

To  buy: themarcoplayers.com or 239-642-7270