“Drinking Habits,” March 31 through April 10

Thursday, March 31, through Sunday, April 4

Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, 600 Robinson Drive, Geneseo IL

Praised by the Las Cruces Sun-News as "a delightful comedy with a touch of silliness" and "a zany and funny story with plot twists galore," the stage riot Drinking Habits enjoys a March 31 through April 10 at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, this first show in the Geneseo venue's 2022 season inspiring Willits News to rave that "those in need of a good laugh ... can rest assured that's what they'll get."

Accusations, mistaken identities, and romances run wild in this laugh-out-loud farce by author Tom Smith, a recipient of the Robert J. Pickering Award for Excellence in Playwriting and the Orlin R. Corey Outstanding Regional Playwright Award. In Smith's Drinking Habits, two nuns at the Sisters of Perpetual Sewing have been secretly making wine to keep the convent's doors open. It's a risky yet successful enterprise – or, at least, it is until reporters and former fiancees Paul and Sally wind up hot on their trails. The former intendeds decide to go undercover as a nun and priest to prove that their hunch is true. But the pair's presence, combined with the addition of a new nun, spurs paranoia throughout the convent that spies have been sent from Rome to shut them down. Wine and secrets are consequently spilled in Drinking Habits as characters try to preserve the convent and reconnect with lost loves, resulting in a stage work that the La Cruces Sun-News called a "laugh-out-loud" comedy "that just might leave you wiping tears off your cheeks."

Directing Drinking Habits for Richmond Hill is venue veteran Mike Skiles, who previously helmed Every Christmas Story Ever Told (and then some) and Escanaba in da Moonlight in Geneseo and appeared in the theatre's productions of California Suite and Dearly Beloved. Paul and Sally are portrayed by fellow Richmond Hill returnees Justin Raver (Doublewide, Texas) and Dana Skiles (Scapin), with the show's ensemble completed by Tom Akers (A Doublewide, Texas Christmas), David Beeson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Julie Gray (Arsenic & Old Lace), Terri Nelson (The Diviners), Elizabeth Shaffer (Clue: On Stage), and, in her Richmond Hill debut, Carol Neulieb. Longtime venue favorite Jennifer Kingry, meanwhile, serves as the comedy's tech designer and operator, with Bradyn Jaeger the show's stage manager and Jim Skiles its set builder.

Drinking Habits runs at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre March 31 through April 10, with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Admission is $12, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)944-2244 and visiting RHPlayers.com.