“Tastes like Chicken” is a blackly comic exploration of the fragility at the heart of the modern family, the perils of self-fulfillment, and the power of the past to shape the present in unexpected, sometimes terrifying ways.

At the beginning of the play, the Lloyds are a not very happy bunch. The father, Fred, is facing competition from a younger colleague at work. The son, Sawyer, has dropped out of music school because of depression. The daughter, Brittany, is a frustrated animal rights activist. But the mother, Marcia, keeps everyone together through a relentless optimism encouraged (off-stage) by Dr. Silverstein, a specialist in “serenity studies.”

This uneasy equilibrium is destroyed one Thanksgiving with the appearance of Marcia’s brother, Todd Blunt, with an iguana (Stan) in tow. Todd proceeds to ingratiate himself with every member of the Lloyd family, except Marcia, who is soon an outcast in her own home. Todd – whose secret only his sister knows – propels the family towards destruction as Marcia watches helplessly. The comedy – and the horror – climax with Todd’s complete victory over his sister and her murderous effort to set things right.