Piping hot gossip. That’s what Firehouse Community Theatre will be serving to audiences in its season opener, says Director Michael Shough.
“The September show is two one-act comedies, ‘Mustn't Tell’ and ‘Laundry and Bourbon,’” said Shough. “We're calling it ‘Piping Hot’ and it's going to be fun.”
Although men gossip just as much as women, the casts for both "Piping Hot" comedies are all female.
“The first one is in circa 1960,” Shough noted. “Five women gather for tea and for gossip.”
In “Musn’t Tell,” Darla is sworn to secrecy as she’s bombarded with gossip by and about her four friends, Bettie, Bonnie, Bunnie and Bootie before the four B's turn the tables, cattily gossiping about her as she sits there aghast.
“’Laundry and Bourbon,’ that's a little more sitting on a porch, having a bourbon, gossiping and folding laundry,” said Shough.
Dirty laundry gets aired when a self-righteous blabbermouth drops by uninvited and spills the beans about the philandering husband of one of the two women.
The Firehouse Community Theatre is one of LaBelle’s best-kept secrets. “Piping Hot: An Evening of One Act Plays” runs Sept. 19-28.
MORE INFORMATION:
The 2025-2026 season will be Firehouse Community Theatre’s 33rd.
The theater has built a reputation for comedy.
“Our audiences like comedy,” Shough noted. “We do drama and suspense occasionally, but a lot of comedy. People seem to like comedy, so that's what we do.”
Comedy includes farce. “Mustn’t Tell” is a lively farce, full of movement and acrobatic language.
This one-act comedy takes place in a sunny suburban living room in the early ‘60s. Five women have gathered for tea. The gossip begins when the hostess, Bettie, dispatches friends Bonnie, Bunnie, and Bootie to see her garden. It’s a ploy that allows Bettie to share a juicy tidbit of gossip with the fifth woman, Darla. It seems that the man-crazy Bonnie has once again disgraced herself at the bridal shower all five women recently attended. Darla listens dutifully but is clearly reluctant to be made the keeper of secrets.
When the others return, Bonnie button-holes Darla and relates a similar tidbit concerning the “sweet but dumb” Bunnie.
And so it goes, the women singly or in duos and trios compelling the long-suffering Darla to listen to tales of drunken faux pas. The ruses employed to get each other out of the room grow increasingly absurd (yet never fail) and the instructions concerning whom Darla “mustn’t tell” grow increasingly elaborate, like this one:
“You can tell Bettie what I said about Bonnie, and Bunnie what I said about Bettie, but don’t tell Bonnie about Bunnie or Bettie, unless Bunnie first tells Bonnie about Bettie; and certainly, don’t tell Bunnie about Bonnie, or Bettie about Bunnie, promise?”
In the end the “Four B's” turn their sights on Darla, openly talking about her as she sits there in amazement … until the seemingly unassuming Darla surprises them with her own boldness and triumphant rejoinder.
The setting for “Laundry and Bourbon” is the front porch of Roy and Elizabeth’s home in Maynard, Texas, on a hot summer afternoon. Elizabeth and her friend, Hattie, are whiling away the time folding laundry, watching TV, sipping bourbon and Coke and gossiping about the many open secrets that are so integrally woven into small-town life.
The day takes an unsettling turn when Elizabeth and Hattie are joined by Amy Lee, a self-righteous busybody who drops by uninvited. Among other tidbits, Amy Lee can’t resist blurting out that Roy has been seen around town with another woman. As the ensuing conversation becomes increasingly tinged with bitter humor, Elizabeth’s inner strength emerges along with quiet understanding of the turmoil that has beset her husband since his return from Vietnam. He is wild. He is unfaithful. But he needs her. And she loves him. And she’ll be waiting for him when he comes home — no matter what others may say or think.
For more about the theater, read/hear, “Firehouse Community Theatre’s journey denoted by resourcefulness and ingenuity.”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.