Three Coconuts at Miles Memorial Playhouse

This play is suggested by an actual incident.

The setting is Chicago, 1968, during the Democratic National Convention. Downtown, cops are fighting demonstrators in the streets. Meanwhile, in the Albany Park neighborhood, Ida Blumenthal is preparing for sabbath dinner.

Ida’s husband is long-gone. So, Ida, looking for a new husband for herself and, most importantly, a new father for her young son Sammy, has taken out an ad in the Jewish newspaper, the Forward.

She has invited three gentlemen to her first-floor apartment for her home-cooked Shabbat dinner. Three candidates arrive. Her brother, Irving, noting their eccentricities, dubs them Three Coconuts.

Meanwhile, Ida’s second-story neighbor, Maury, has been operating a bordello on his premises.

When the local constabulary come calling, Ida, Sammy, and the Three Coconuts risk being swept up in the vice cops’ dragnet.

It was just supposed to be Shabbat dinner. What could possibly go wrong?

The cast includes Jill Remez, Zachary Nemes, Shelly Kurtz, Sean Michael Williams, Joelle Tshudy, Skip Pipo, Warren Davis, Kevin Dulude, Kyle D. Ochs, Dennis Delsing, and Patrick Martinsen.

Howard Teichman and Steven G. Simon are the playwrights and directors.