October 5 - November 11 Dark Comedy by George F. Walker Directed by Peter Krause Set in a rough Toronto neighborhood, Escape from Happiness tells the story of Nora and her three adult daughters: the dutiful Gail, activist lawyer Elizabeth and self-help junkie Mary-Ann. Rejoining the family after a 10-year disappearance is Tom, Nora's ex-cop husband — though Nora insists that the semi-catatonic man now living upstairs merely resembles her children's father. Escape from Happiness could be compared to classic American comedies such as You Can't Take It with You, Moss Hart and George S. Kauffman's 1936 screwball portrait of a quirky Brooklyn household. Yet it also contains grittier, almost Tarantinolike elements. The play opens with Gail's husband, Junior, lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. Sent to investigate are Diane and Mike, a pair of mismatched police officers who believe the attack might be linked to organized crime. Instead, they discover drugs in the family basement and arrest Nora for possession. From that, all hell breaks loose. But for all the outrageousness, in some ways it's also very conservative. Despite the terrible things that happen, this seemingly hopeless little family is able to stick together and rise above.