'The Sugar Bean Sisters' bring their wacky world to The Naples Players

The Naples Players present a weird and wacky world in a swamp close to us. "The Sugar Bean Sisters," a Southern Gothic style comedy by Florida playwright Nathan Sanders, opens April 22 for a fourweek run on the main stage of the Sugden Community Theatre in downtown Naples.

Sibling rivalry, spinsterhood, alien abduction and a very spooky "reptile woman" create an imaginative setting for a play that the L.A. Times called "hilarious!" and the Gainesville Sun described as "an exuberantly wacky comedy…weird and wonderful."

Sanders received the Oppenheimer Award nomination from New York 's

Newsday for "the most impressive debut of a new American playwright" when "Sugar Bean Sisters" opened in New York in 1995.

Directed by John McKerrow, the cast of "The Sugar Bean Sisters" includes Janina Birtolo, Debi Garnett, Todd Irby, Erin Laughlin and Janet Vogel. New York set designer Todd Potter has created a set that transforms Blackburn Hall stage into a shack in the swamps of Florida's sugar cane fields.

"The Sugar Bean Sisters" opens Wednesday, April 22, with a champagne reception, and is on stage Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. until May 16. Tickets are $30 and available at The Naples Players Box Office, 701 5th Avenue South in downtown Naples, by phone at (239) 263-7990 or on the Web at www. naplesplayers.org