WHAT's PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT Begins Performances 8/28

WHAT's relationship with the Tennessee Williams Festival continues this year with Period of Adjustment, directed by Michael Unger. Previews are August 28 and 29, and are open to the public. Opening night is August 30. A Playmaker Talkback is scheduled for Thursday, September 4. Performance dates at the Tennessee Williams Festival to be announced.

Period of Adjustment was written in response to the comment of a Hollywood columnist that said Williams' plays were always "plunging into the sewers." But Williams also said, "I would like to write a happy play for a while. Maybe some day I will suddenly become hilarious."

You will see familiar, perhaps composite, characters from his other plays - bits of Brick and Blanche, some Alma and Maggie, some Stanley, some Tom and even Kilroy. With Williams, that family tree is always fabulously rich. Period of Adjustment is labeled as a "serious comedy." But none of it is frivolous; Tennessee takes his comedy very seriously.

If you picture suburbia through the lens of 1950s sitcoms, you'll find the relationships that Williams is skewering. His story and the comedy contribute to a hopeful ending - but it takes four tragically mismatched people to make harmony out of these two couples and the world of High Point, Tennessee.

Period of AdjustmentWritten by Tennessee WilliamsDirected by Michael Unger Previews: August 28, 29 • Opens: August 30 • Closes: August 21Tennessee Williams Festival Dates: TBA Tickets: $20-$45; $12 students Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater2357 Route 6, Wellfleet508-349-9428 | www.what.org.

Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater is the award-winning theater company that inspired "a new vigor for theater on the Cape" (New York Times). In honor of the theater's namesake, Julie Harris, WHAT continues to be a sounding board for new and bold ideas, presenting "continually adventurous theater" (Boston Globe), and year-round programming.