It has been a long time since such a group of colorful and dysfunctional Southern eccentrics gathered on the stage of Town Theatre. The patriarch of the family keels over dead in the first scene and, from that point on, there is bucolic mayhem including a widow who wants to put "mean and surly" on the tombstone. The Turpin family proves that living and dying in the South is seldom tidy and often hilarious. As Ray Bud says to his wife, "When I die, don't tell nobody. Just bury me in the back yard and tell everybody I left you."

Leading the pack is Bill DeWitt (the lecherous business partner in There Goes the Bride) who drinks himself silly as the funeral bills mount. Standing by her man is Lucille, the long-suffering wife played by Mona Lisa Botts (See How They Run). And then there's Junior (Town newcomer Paul Covington) who juggles financial ruin, a pack of monster kids and his wife Suzanne (a Town debut for Denise Pearman). We could go on and on about this family and their eccentric community; but instead, we'll just invite ya'll down to Town to see Dearly Departed - this slice of Southern life is drop-dead funny!