The cast of East Brainerd Community Theater is presenting their rendition of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 17-19.
The play, which focuses on the lives of recent divorcees Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar, has regained popularity since its debut on Broadway in 1965 thanks to a new sitcom with Matthew Perry, said Director Marie Chattin-Carter.
“It’s the combination of a heavy topic that is a real thing with the comedic way of looking at ‘This isn’t funny, but how we’re dealing with it is,'” she said of the show.
For the first time, all eight members of the local cast have been in previous East Brainerd Community Theater performances – a mark of how far the troupe has come in its five seasons of existence.
“To have one that’s not in the downtown area,” Chattin-Carter said of the theater group, “you reach different people, and that’s exciting. The [local] theater community is such a small one so when you cast from the different areas, you draw more people in here too and you get more people out here to see these spaces outside of that typical downtown area.”
Tickets for the play cost $10. The show is at 7:30 p.m. each night at Christ Church, 8645 East Brainerd Road.
Attendees are asked to also bring a small donation for the Humane Educational Society, with which the theater group partnered at the beginning of the year to benefit area pets in need of a forever home. So far, $2,500 has been raised to help the nonprofit animal shelter, said Chattin-Carter.
For more information, visit facebook.com/eastbrainerdcommunitytheater.