Kith and Kin

The eldest, Darryl, is a thrice-divorced ne'er-do-well who relishes the memory of having forcibly introduced his siblings to the world of aberrant sex

Big Boots, the middle brother, is a confused and threatening type who has been serving a jail sentence for strangling his wife

While Tommy Joe, the youngest of the three, is a "sensitive" sort who gives piano lessons and has been looking after Little Boots, his brother's young son, during the latter's stay in prison

Completing the cast are Charlene, the town bawd, whose favors all the brothers have shared, but who now believes that she is on the verge of a permanent relationship with Tommy Joe

And Sarah, the recently widowed (and now pregnant) housemaid who has also conceived a desperate, but unrequited, passion for Tommy Joe

Trouble looms when Big Boots, who now earns his living massaging males in Dallas, demands the return of his son, much to the distress of his brother

Questions of sexual confusion arise hilariously from the rowdy, macho confrontations which ensue, and long-standing resentments test whether blood is, indeed, thicker than water

In the end, however, a sort of tenuous truce is achieved, with passions still simmering but with the reassuring hope that family feeling will, in the long run, bring order out of the antic chaos which still reigns as the curtain falls

"Hailey's play proved to be a raucous jape of people with five-ounce brains hidden beneath ten-gallon hats. The rowdy manner of KITH AND KIN conceals a heart-warming faith in families" - Time