The Albright Theatre Presents "Wonder of the World"

After making a shocking discovery in her husband’s sweater drawer, Cass flees to Niagara Falls to reexamine her life. Along the way, she is joined by an assortment of quirky characters, including a blithely suicidal alcoholic, a lonely tour-boat captain, a pair of bickering private detectives, and a party clown doubling as a counselor. Throw in a strange caper involving a gargantuan jar of peanut butter, and the audience is off on a wild ride over the falls in a barrel of laughs.

“Wonder of the World is one of the few shows I’m willing to direct more than once,” said the show’s director, Craig Gustafson of Lombard. “I directed the Midwestern premiere in 2003 at First Street Playhouse. Wonder of the World and Fuddy Meers, both by David Lindsay-Abaire, are two of the darkest, funniest plays ever written. It’s like taking someone with a fear of clowns to the circus. Very funny things happen that could send the heroine off the deep end.”

Heidi Swarthout of Oswego plays the intrepid Cass. Cheryl Rice of Elmhurst plays Cass’ sidekick, Lois. They are joined in the cast by J.P. Quirk of South Elgin, Galen Malick of Bartlett, Joel Greenblatt of Hoffman Estates, Jen Connon of Batavia, and Lynda Wellhausen of Glendale Heights. Jeannine Collins of Carol Stream is producer, and Linda Brooks of North Aurora is assistant director.

“Lindsay-Abaire is a terrific play constructionist, even better than Larry Shue, with whom he shares the propensity for filling the play with weird, esoteric information, all of which is used later in the play,” Gustafson said. “Wonder of the World is great for actors who want parts that are funny, insightful and just plain weird. And it gets huge laughs from the audience.”

Wonder of the World will run weekends April 24 through May 9 and is rated MA for mature audiences.

Performance times are Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. The Albright Theatre Company is located at 100 N. Island Avenue (3rd floor of the Batavia Government Building), Batavia, IL 60510. Tickets are $15 for Adults and $12 for Students/Seniors. Reservations are highly recommended – please call (630) 406-8838. For more information, please visit the Albright Theatre website at www.albrighttheatre.com.