THEATRE + COMEDY

Country Playhouse presents Mr. Marmalade, running August 10 through August 25.

Lonely little four-year-old Lucy fantasizes about adult life and dreams up an imaginary friend, Mr. Marmalade, who takes on a troubling life of his own, personifying her fearful fascination with grownups and their games. Enter Larry, the little boy next door, at age five the youngest attempted suicide in the history of the state, and the two neglected toddlers awkwardly unite to dispel Mr. Marmalade’s sinister power and break through into a normal childhood.

Drawing on the “Alice in Wonderland” scenario of a wise child in a mad, mad world, Mr. Marmalade casts adult actors in children’s roles, to heighten the irreality of it all. Comedy and pathos interweave in this delightful funhouse fable of naïve worldliness on the brink. Hints of cruelty and pornography nibble at the edges of the story, shadows of forbidden knowledge to whet the curiosity of modern girls and boys who seemingly know too much, yet understand little.

Directed by Scott McWhirter, the cast features Monica Passley, Taylor Biltoft, Danny Seibert, Laura Chapman, Louis Crespo, Keshia Lovewell, and Beverly Hutchison.

For Mature Audiences.