They’re probably the most celebrated comic siblings since The Smothers Brothers, and they seem to be everywhere: in print, on TV, in film, and on radio. When Amy and David Sedaris write together, they call themselves The Talent Family and if you’ve caught her acting on Comedy Central’s Strangers With Candy or his prose at the bookstore or on NPR, you know that the title is entirely appropriate.
Now Gypsy Stage Rep is bringing their play The Book of Liz to The Studio@620, and word is it’s one of the funniest pieces around.
It’s about Sister Elizabeth Donderstock, a cheeseball-making member of the Squeamish religious sect who decides to leave her isolated community for a good time in the wider world. She meets a Cockney-speaking Ukrainian immigrant couple who find her a job waiting tables at a family restaurant run almost entirely by recovering alcoholics; so far, so good. But though the alcoholics and customers love her, there’s a problem.
The Squeamish just can’t make traditional and smoky cheese balls as well as she did, and without her peculiar genius, they may have to give up their cloistered lifestyle. Can the Squeamish be saved? Can the cheeseballs?
Brianna Larson Jakob D, Nordstrom and Jordan Harner star. Lil Barcaski directs.
See it tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. at The Studio@620, 620 First Ave. S.; tickets $15. For tickets, call 727-895-6620 or go to thestudioat620.org.
This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2013.