Kimberly Akimbo
by David Lindsey-Abaire

May 11 - June 2, 2007

Directed by Rhonda Clark

Kimberly is a precocious 16-year-old going on 72. She has progeria, a genetic disorder that ages her at four and a half times the normal rate. Fitting in at her new high school is tough, especially since she looks more like the lunch ladies than her classmates.

Her health problems are always a concern but her off-kilter family creates an even bigger challenge for her. The family suddenly moved away from Secaucus, New Jersey for mysterious reasons that her parents will not divulge.

Now, her wayward father Buddy spends more time at work and local bars than with the family. Her sad sack mother is a pregnant hypochondriac, and her only aunt has been in and out of jail for years.

When a classmate wants to write a paper about Kimberly's disease for a biology assignment, they meet and form a fast friendship. Like Kimberly, Jeff also feels like an outsider both at school and at home. he loves word games, especially anagrams, and his anagram of Kimberly's name helps form the play's title.

When Kimberly's Aunt Debra enlists the two teenagers for her latest get-rich-quick scheme, it sets the unlikely young lovers on an exciting, but uncertain course. After being ignored by their self-absorbed families one too many times, both are ready to escape.

In a plot laced with humor and poignancy, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire reveals how important it is to make each moment in life count. When asked about his plays, Lindsay-Abaire explained: "Most of my work, on the surface at least, seems to be broadly comic, inhabiting strange worlds, upside down worlds. I like the audience to feel 'Where am I? What's going on here?' Maybe because that's often how I go through my day." Commenting more specifically on KIMBERLY AKIMBO, he said: "My plays present a very specific world that is absurd and funny, and yet has a real sadness at its base that is quite real. The stakes for the characters are high and real. In KIMBERLY, they want to be normal. They want to overcome their fears and seek alternatives to the inevitable. Get that wolf away from the door."

Carpenter Square Theatre has produced other plays be Lindsay-Abaire, such as WONDER OF THE WORLD and FUDDY MEERS. When FUDDY MEERS became an Off-Broadway hit, Time Magazine named him one of its "People to Watch." In 2003, The New York Times dubbed KIMBERLY AKIMBO as "The Comedy of the Year." In 2007, he received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his most recent play, RABBIT HOLE, which CST plans to produce in its 24th season.

The show is rated PG-13 for strong language.