There is a distinct possibility that somewhere in "Bachelorette" there is a morality play about friendship, excess, jealousy and truth.

However, that morality play is buried in an avalanche of intimate female discussion about casual sex, oral sex, boys, men, love, bad jobs, kids with cancer, marriage, brides, maids of honor, champagne, suicide, Jimi Hendrix and Woodstock, cocaine, bowls of weed, the "Star Spangled Banner," abortions, lying and Russian roulette.

And oh yes, it is very very funny.

"Bachelorette" is running at Alchemist Theater under the always adventurous production team at Theatre Red.

And despite the attempt late in the play to turn a party into a psalm, it’s the laughter that rings truest in this production. It’s almost as if at some point playwright Leslye Headland said, "well, that’s enough of the raunchy laughs. Let’s give them a little something to take this whole thing more seriously."

The only problem is that in Part I of the play my tears came with laughter at three women who had gathered on the wedding eve of a friend who wasn’t in the bridal suite. Two men showed up later and the tears continued to pour down my face, and the collected faces of a packed house that got every joke and every laugh that you could wring out of this situation.

Then came Part II and Headland began to beg for more tears, but this time she wanted tears of sorrow and sympathy. She should have left well enough alone and gone home while we were still rolling in the aisles. The last thing we needed after all of this merriment was to seriously consider the wicket ways and woes of these girls.

There are four women in the play, all friends from their days in high school. They are all near 30 and at a variety of points in their life journeys.

Becky (Kelly Doherty) is getting married to a handsome rich guy. Her maid of honor, Regan (Tess Cinpinski) is spending the night before the wedding in the bridal suite while Becky spends the night with her hubby-to-be.

Regan invites two classmates, Geena (Liz Faraglia) and Katie (Shannon Nettesheim) to join her for a party, even though neither of them had been invited to the wedding. Gena and Katie are brutal to the unseen Becky and the insults climb, one on top of the other, as they sample the free champagne chilling in the bathtub, smoke joints and do lines of coke that just adds to their crazed behavior.

It would be great to provide a snippet of dialogue from the play, but I can’t print that kind of language in a review. The three women who are gracing (using that term loosely) the bridal suite have no filters on them. If it pops into their mind, they say it.

One of the things that’s clear in this play is that women can be as raunchy, and perhaps even raunchier, than men.  Under the direction of Mark Boergers this production has an an impeccable sense of timing. It would be easy to get distracted because some of it comes at breakneck speed, but he keeps a rein on things so the audience can easily follow the wildness without having to pause to get what’s going on here.

The first two women we see are Gena and Katie and they couldn’t be more diverse.

Faraglia is like a motorcycle chick with the tough girl mien running through her every moment. She would like to have us think she is unshakable and in control, but she may well be the exact opposite.

Nettesheim is an absolute wonder as the ultra-needy Katie. She’s a former prom queen who is still looking around for the spotlight dance while the rest of her class watches with envy. She loves the black hole she can smoke, snort and drink herself into because she’s safe there, not needing to deal with the real world that has crept up on her.

Regan then arrives and Cinpinski creates a woman who wants to believe that her life is in good order, on a smooth path to a smooth future but has a big enough load of doubt to sink her dream ship. Cinpinski is an actor of awesome talent and she has the widest arc of all the characters, from loyal friend to easily seduced ex-coed.

The two boys who stumble into this triad of tarts are Evan Koepnick and Nick Narcisi, both of whom create wildly different characters. Koepnick is full of the kind of slacker personality that attaches easily to Katie and Narcisi is the smooth-talker who takes the chill out of Cinpinski.

Finally, after all the madcap, Doherty arrives in her suite to find the world in a shambles.

Doherty has ranged all over the play without ever being seen and when she finally shows up we see the actor who can dominate a stage and a production. She is most often a force of nature who understands the nuance of character development as well as anyone  you may ever see.

The combination of these wonderful actors and a clever and risque script, makes for a night of high comedy and great laughter.

"Bachelorette" runs through March 19 and information on tickets and showtimes is available here.

Production Credits: Director, Mark Boergers; Scenic Decoration, Marcee Doherty-Elst; Scenic and Lighting Designer, Aaron Kopec; Costume Designer, Katie Gray; Stage Manager, Keri Ryan.