Critic’s Notebook: “Cemetery Club” a play for lifelong friends

October 1, 2026

The people who keep choosing you

by Heather Parish

The Cemetery Club” is a play for lifelong friends. It is also a play for anyone who has had to cope with the loss of a partner, but really, it is about lifelong friends — the people who have known us long enough to remember who we were, who we have become and, sometimes, who we are trying very hard not to become. Good Company Players’ production features Elizabeth Fiester as even-keel Ida, Karan Johnson as critical Doris and Valerie Munoz as happy-go-lucky Lucille, three widows who have spent several years visiting the graves of their husbands together. The arrival of Max (charmer Noel Adams), a potential new love interest for Ida, creates new tensions among the widows, two of whom are feeling rather stuck. A brief complication in the arrival of Mildred (Terri Jerel) complicates the already complicated dynamics of the group. The setup is simple enough, but the relationships are anything but.

As I watched three theatrically accomplished women who have been friends for decades play “friends for decades,” I found myself reflecting on my own friendships, many of which were also forged in the fires of backstage drama and personal losses, yet have remained steadfast. One of those is with the director of “The Cemetery Club,” Kristin Lyn Crase. She’s one of a handful of friends whose work I can’t be objective about, given the depth and breadth of our friendship, which is why you’re reading a reflection on this show rather than a review.

three actresses and friends in The Cemetery Club laugh

Courtesy of Good Company Players

Courtesy of Good Company Players

Courtesy of Good Company Players

Kristin and I met 20 years ago at a table in Mr. Gables bar in Visalia through a mutual friend, Brooke Aiello. We talked about theater, ideas for shows we wanted to do, and launched many productions together from that date. Over the years, our circle has widened, but is still anchored by four to six tightly knit friends who have seen each other through marriages, divorces, singlehood, the death of parents, and many, many theater productions (both good and bad!).

So, while watching “The Cemetery Club,” I recognized the arguments, the sideways swipes from the one who doesn’t like change, the aggressiveness of the one who wants to hurry things along, and the frustration of the one who is just trying to get through day by day. There is something deeply familiar about watching people who love each other become, occasionally, the people most capable of hurting each other. “The Cemetery Club” dramatizes this particular kind of foundational relationship, and that is where it does its best work: in the ways women communicate with their friends, the things they say when they are frightened or frustrated, and the old wounds they know exactly how to poke. But mostly, it is about the ways they can forgive, support and love each other through it all, as long as they’re willing to keep showing up.

“The Cemetery Club” is a show to take your best girlfriends to. It will remind you of what a gift you are to each other and what a blessing it is to have people who will sit beside you through the hard things, call you on your nonsense and keep coming back after the inevitable arguments. And if you’re still on the young side, it will show you what you have to look forward to, if you stick with your “ride or dies.” Because there is something quietly profound about the idea that friendship is not just about the people who know you best. It is about the people who keep choosing you, year after year, loss after loss, change after change.

Read the review of “The Cemetery Club” by Donald Munro.