The Kinston Community Council for the Arts and LCC present their second Dessert Theatre “Lost in Yonkers” at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 19 and 20 at the Kinston Community Council for the Arts.

This award winning show was written by America’s best-loved playwright, Neil Simon. This acclaimed production reached critical and popular success, winning Simon his first Pulitzer Prize and a number of Tony Awards. Neil Simon sheds light and a little laughter on some of the tough situations life tosses into the mix.

Set above a candy store New York, Yonkers is the story of two young brothers who come to live with their strict German grandmother during World War II. While awaiting the return of their father, the boys wrestle to contain their fiery wit as a host of relatives (one more eccentric than the next) enter their lives.

Characters include a mobster uncle, a lovesick childlike aunt, a neurotic aunt with breathing troubles, and an overbearing, hard-as-steel grandmother.  The boys find themselves nose to nose with a family as sweet and hard as the candy they peddle downstairs.

In this play, Simon is at his best riding the line between comedy and drama. It is a play about family, however dysfunctional it may be. Yonkers also has ties to North Carolina.

It was first presented by Emanuel Azenberg at the Stevens Center for the Performing Arts in Winston-Salem before opening in New York in 1991.  

This production is under the direction of  Clay Raines, a Kinston High School teacher and East Carolina University graduate. The cast includes Lyndon Fuller as Eddie, Jacquline Golebiowski as Bella, Tyler Griffin as Louie, Anne Johnson as Gert, Elliot Jones as Jay, Jared Jones as Arty, and Lysa Mackey as Grandma Kurnitz.

Ice cream sundaes and ice cold lemonade will be on the dessert menu. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the Community Council for the Arts or Lenoir Community College.

To purchase tickets or for more information, you can call 252-527-2517 or 252-233-6865. Seating is limited. Doors will open at 6:45 pm for the Ice Cream Social, and the show will start promptly at 7:30 pm.

Pictured left to right are Jay, played by Elliott Jones, Arty, played by Jared Jones, and Aunt Bella, played by Jacquline Golebiowski as they talk about their future plans.

Grandma played by Lysa Mackey questions Jay and Arty as to why they want to come live with her.

Jacquline Golebiowski as Aunt Bella

Aunt Bella, played by Jacquline Golebiowski, tells Arty, played by Jared Jones, that he can have anything he wants for dinner.

Jay, played by Elliot Jones, tells his Grandma, played by Lysa Mackey, that he has something in his eye as he tries to disguise that he’s crying.

Eddie, played by Lyndon F. Fuller, is the distraught dad who is trying to do the right thing by his sons.