Just in time for the holiday season! “The Pain and the Itch”

LOS ANGELES - Sept. 30, 2013 - PRLog -- Worst. Thanksgiving. Ever. Clay and Kelly share a perfect house and two perfect children in what seems to be a perfect life. That is, until Clay’s mother, Carol (a self-proclaimed socialist), his estranged brother, Cash (a staunch Republican) and Cash‘s Eastern European girlfriend (20 years his junior) arrive for Thanksgiving dinner. When something mysterious threatens to disrupt the perfect façade, the gloves come off and an awkward situation devolves into absolute chaos. A wickedly funny comedy of desire, deceit and family values by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Bruce Norris (Clybourne Park).

Director Jennifer Chambers sets the revival of this outrageous, irreverent and subversively funny satire about the politics of class and race in the Pacific Palisades — the land of palm trees, ocean views and resplendent neighborhoods.

Eric Hunnicutt (improv ensemble The Reckoning) and Beverly Hynds (Circle X, Sacred Fools, A 99-Cent Wonderama with Ken Roht) star as Clay and Kelly, who, with their perfect house and two perfect children, seem to have it all. That is, until Clay’s mother, Carol, a self-proclaimed socialist (April Adams – Off Broadway’sThe Rimers of Eldritch, The Shadowbox); his staunch Republican brother, Cash (Trent Dawson – 12 years as Henry Coleman in As the World Turns, Dead Man’s Cell Phone at ICT); and Cash‘s young Eastern European girlfriend Kalina (Beth Triffon – national tour of Peter Pan) arrive for Thanksgiving dinner.

With four-year-old Kayla (Ava Bianchi/Kiara Lisette Gamboa) in serious need of attention and a ravenous creature possibly prowling the upstairs bedrooms, what begins as an average Thanksgiving for this privileged family devolves into absolute chaos – the repercussions of which resonate so far and wide that they profoundly changethe life of a total stranger (Joe Holt – We Are Proud to Present at the Matrix, Macbeth at Antaeus).

Wickedly funny and deeply insightful, this contemporary examination of American ideals is as shocking as it is socially relevant.

“The great thing about Bruce Norris’ plays is that they deal with both the personal and the political,” says Chambers. “The situations he creates are tense and troubling, but also hilarious and true. He turns our perceptions completely upside down.”

Chambers, who has two children of her own, continues, “On the surface, Clay and Kelly seem like unlikeable people, but I also relate to how hard they’re trying to be good

parents. When our children are born they seem so pure that we will go to any lengths to protect that innocence. These are not made up people. Norris heightens the situation and makes it extreme, but he keeps the undercurrent very real, which is what makes it so frightening and so funny.”

The Pain and the Itch premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, which Norris has called his artistic home, then played Off Broadway at Playwright’s Horizons.

The Pain and the Itch opens on Saturday, Oct. 26, continuing through Dec. 1 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. (dark Friday, Nov. 29). Two low-priced preview performances take place on Thursday, Oct. 24 and Friday, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. General admission is $25.00; full-time students with ID are $15; previews are $12.50. The Zephyr Theatre is located at 7456 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046 (between Fairfax and La Brea). For reservations and information, call (323) 960-5774.