“The Sweet Delilah Swim Club,” directed by Stephanie Coble-Day, will open Wednesday and run through Saturday nightly at 7 p.m. This production is also the theatre’s annual dinner theatre, with Tea Thyme serving dinner an hour prior to the Thursday, Friday and Saturday night shows.

Tickets for the show only are $10. Tickets for the dinner are $27. Each night will feature a chicken or a beef dinner option, with an additional fish option on Friday for Lent. Reservations for the dinner must be made by noon the day of the show by calling 515-576-6061 or online at hawkeyetheatre-106736.square.site/.

The play stars Joan Meyer as the ultra-organized Sheree Hollinger, Kari Prescott as the wisecracking overachiever Dinah Grayson, Mary Jo Laupp as the vain and sassy Lexie Richards, Susan Peters as the former nun and now-mom Jeri Neal McFeeley, and Karie Karr as the ever-unlucky Vernadette Simms.

“You’ve got five friends that met in college and they were on a swim team together, and they’ve decided that once a year, they would get together for a girl’s week,” Coble-Day said.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
As the older ladies mourn their fifth member, Dinah, whose ashes are in a martini shaker, during "The Sweet Delilah Swim Club," their Sweet Delilah Cottage is about to be torn down.

The group meets every August in North Carolina’s Outer Banks and stay at a beachfront cottage named “Sweet Delilah.”

“The rule is: no spouses, no children, no work, we just talk about life,” Coble-Day said.

The show spans the girls’ visits to the cottage when they’re in their 40s through their 70s. As they catch up each year, they save big life news and surprises to share with each other — everything from Lexie’s ever-revolving door of husbands and cosmetic surgery, to which cult Vernadette’s daughter joined this year, to Jeri hanging up her habit as a nun and becoming a mother.

“This show resonated with me because, first of all, it’s about real life — relationships and joys and losses and relying on friends and being there with each other,” Coble-Day said. “It’s a very relatable show and I think that will speak to everybody.”

Meyer, who plays the bossy former swim team captain, said she feels a connection with her character because she’s also what she calls an “organized tomboy, kind of bossy and always has a plan.”

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
An older Sheree, played by Joan Meyer, honors her late friend Dinah's ashes in her favorite cocktail shaker in "The Sweet Delilah Swim Club."

“I’ve mellowed, probably, a little from what Sheree is now, but I used to totally be her,” Meyer said.

Meyer also relates to the friendships in the play because her friends, like Prescott, are an important part of her life and they often go on girls trips with their group of friends.

“I think it’s going to resonate with a lot of people that come to the show,” Meyer said. “They’re going to be able to see themselves in this show.”

There’s also a lot of fun laugh lines throughout the production, she added.

Prescott plays lawyer Dinah, who often stands back with her martini shaker in hand while analyzing what’s happening with the other ladies. She said she enjoys being part of the community theater.

“With this particular play, with Joan and these other friends, it’s really easy to relate to the friendships that are formed up here,” she said.

“Sweet Delilah’s Swim Club” is one show that shouldn’t be missed, Cobie-Day said.

“We really encourage people to come out and support local theater, these are all local actresses and we’re really excited about the season and just thrilled to have people here and enjoying all the hard work that they’ve put in,” she said.