"My family, my whole life, has been cursed. Seems like every time we started to eek ahead some disaster would tear us back down. There'd be my ninety-nine pound daddy sweatin' and scratchin' at a dried up dust bowl of a farm. And my three hundred pound momma cookin' for eight at that wood burnin' stove. She died there. Her last words were, 'It needs more salt.' We were cursed, I tell ya." 

So sets the tone of Sweet River County, a wacky comedy about the Bumas/Haller family of central Texas. Built on the model of Greater Tuna, Sweet River County explores the misconceptions we have about the difficulties of life here on this earth. Does God have it out for us? Is He a huge cosmic foot ready to flatten us like bugs? Sweet River County takes a long look at that and makes us laugh along the way.

The play starts with the demise of Chester Haller, the ninety-nine year old patriarch of the Haller family. He fell asleep at the dinner table, dropped head first into his chili, sucked two beans up his nose and suffocated. His daughter Lurlene is convinced it is one more sign the family is cursed. To add insult to injury, the instructions were mumbled, so instead of resting in peace in a nice casket, Daddy Haller was cremated at Sweeney's Bakery.

"Oh my poor daddy. Why does this happen? You live a long, healthy life for 99 years, and in the blink of an eye you drown in your own chili and end up pea gravel in a mason jar. I can't understand it."

In Sweet River County you'll meet Chester Haller, Lurlene, Marvin, Ed, Dickey, Marlene, Charlene and Reverend/Mayor Baggins, all played with impeccable timing by the two man team Mad Dogs and Englishmen. It's a fun journey that touches on questions we all ask. But be warned, the answers will be wrapped in humor, imagination and smell a whole lot like "sticky buns."
 

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