Surprises definitely abound in BILLIE'S LEAP DAY BIRTHDAY by Bruce Karp, keeping us guessing at every turn. The high comedy of a man in his 30s celebrating his 8th technical birthday leads into a more layered and poignant story about emotional growth and responsibility toward those who raised you. Karp has a sharp sense of finding the underlying emotion in any comedy and it certainly shines here.

Playwright Karp has written the best kind of play, where you think it’s about one very funny thing and it actually turns out to have some serious undertones. He keeps us on our toes as to what happens yet- plus the visuals are priceless. Don’t wait every four years to read and produce it- do it now!

Karp starts with a brilliant setup for a comic play, then subverts our expectations with a wicked portrait of family dysfunction wherein every character is an accomplice, knowingly playing his or her role in the game. The laughs derive from the gentle absurdity, the tears from the real pain beneath this family’s silliness.