Port Polson Players continue season with laughfest

Hopeless nerd Rick Steadman (Kai McDonald) takes a ride on the wild side as the Port Polson Players continue their 48th season with Larry Shue’s masterpiece, “The Nerd,” July 21-Aug. 6.

Now an aspiring young architect in Terre Haute, Indiana, Willum Cubbert has often told his friends about the debt he owes to Steadman, a fellow ex-GI whom he has never met but who saved his life after he was seriously wounded in Vietnam.

Willum is delighted when Rick shows up unexpectedly at his apartment on the night of his 34th birthday party. But his delight soon fades as it becomes apparent that Rick is a hopeless “nerd” – a bumbling oaf with no social sense, little intelligence and less tact. And Rick stays on and on, until the normally placid Willum finds himself contemplating violence—a dire development which, happily, is staved off by the surprising “twist” ending of the play.

Also performing in this riotous upside-down comedy are Seth Stanley, Alexandra Haynes, Neal Lewing, Jeff Tschida and Karen Lewing. Miles Lewing and Henry Bartel round out the Players’ uproarious cast for a play the Milwaukee Tribune lauded as a “spring tonic of side-bruising laughter.”

Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, July 21-Aug. 6, at Polson’s air-conditioned Theatre on the Lake. Call 406-883-9212 or head to www.portpolsonplayers.com.