Comedy is coming to Port Arthur this weekend and next when the Act 1 Scene 1 Theatre Company presents their first production of the year, romantic farce “Til Beth Do Us Part.”

Written by the comedic team of Jones, Hope and Wooten, the production guarantees a good time.

“I just hope everybody comes and enjoys the show,” Craig Bertrand, director, said. “We might have to give out Kleenex for all the tears coming from all the laughter.”

“Til Beth Do US Part” is Bertrand’s comedic directorial debut, and is another production performed by the local theatre company from the Jones, Hope and Wooten writing team.

“We’ve done several of their plays,” Bertrand said. “They like to describe their comedies as ‘southern fried comedies.”

This production tells the story of the Haydens, a married couple of 27 years whose lives audience members will have no trouble identifying with.

Suzannah Hayden has been trying to get her career off the ground after the couple’s children moved out, but has little help on the home front from her husband, Gibby.

Enter Beth, the woman hired by Suzannah to help around the house.

“That’s where the title comes in and the hilarity ensues,” Bertrand said.

As Suzannah’s dependence on the gregarious Beth grows, so does Gibby’s dislike — especially after Suzannah gives her carte blanche to change anything in the household that would make it run more efficiently.

And the change Beth makes is convincing Suzannah that Gibby must go.

When he realizes it’s Suzannah’s career Beth is really after, a newly determined Gibby sets out to save his marriage aided by Suzannah’s best friend, Margo, a wisecracking and self-deprecating divorcee and her ex-husband, Hank, who is in the midst of his own mid-life crisis.

Their efforts to stop Beth at any cost sets up the wildly funny climax where things go uproariously awry just as Suzannah’s boss arrives for that all-important dinner.

Cast members for the show are from the Golden Triangle area including Beki Burton, of Beaumont, who plays Suzannah; Don Suarez, of Groves, as Gibby; Natashia Barker, of Groves as Beth Bailey; John Holland, of Port Arthur as Hank; Patricia Murdock, of Beaumont, as Hank’s ex-wife Margo; and Kate Richey, of Groves as Celia Carmichael.

Performances, at First Christian Church in Port Arthur, 5856 Ninth Avenue, start this weekend and continue next weekend with Friday and Saturday night dinner shows at 6:30 p.m. again at 2:30 p.m. for a matinee performance with desserts.

Tickets are $25 for the Friday and Saturday night dinner performances and $15 for the Sunday matinee performances.

E-mail: skoonce@panews.com

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