Drama group presents laugh-out-loud comedy

Friends of the Arts invites the community to a rollicking comedy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning You Can’t Take It With You. The show goes up this Friday and Saturday evening, March 31 and April 1, at 7pm, and Sunday afternoon, April 2, at 3pm. Ticket prices are just $10 for adults and $5 for children and students. All shows are at the Hon. Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center.

You Can’t Take It With You, by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, welcomes the audience into the home of one of the zaniest, most irrepressible families ever created for the stage. Headed by Grandpa Martin Vanderhof, the Sycamores and their extended family of newfound friends who showed up and never left are free spirits following their hearts’ desires. Nothing inhibits these eclectic folks from following their passions, whether it’s making fireworks in the cellar, printing left-wing propaganda and distributing it in homemade candy, pirouetting about the living room for years with limited signs of progress, or otherwise turning out works of dubious art and literature on a typewriter that was delivered by mistake.

In the midst of this craziness is the tender love story of Alice, the one “normal” member of the Sycamore clan, and Tony Kirby, son of the wealthy but very conservative Wall Street banker. When the Kirby family arrives for dinner a day earlier than expected, “the only thing louder than the fireworks exploding and the plates crashing is the laughter that fills the theater.” (Willow Theatre Company)

You Can’t Take It With You is a period drama, set in the late 1930s, a time when the nation was just recovering from The Great Depression. The economic crisis and the factors that inhibit ordinary folks from pursuing their dreams (represented by the snakes) have been overcome by Grandpa, who indulges his family in their wacky individuality. The Kirby family, however, still is caught in the straitlaced lifestyle of economically driven expectations.

“We invite you to take a stroll back in time with us as we spend an evening with the Sycamores and the Kirbys and cheer for Alice and Tony as they attempt to defy the odds,” said Friends of the Arts in a statement.

To purchase or reserve tickets, call Melody Actouka at 235-1320 or 234-5498 Ext. 2005. Leave a message if she’s teaching or in rehearsal. Friends of the Arts members receive discounts on all shows, so become a member now and receive your discounts beginning with this show and all others through May 2007. (PR)