Dark, grim and wretched - the comedy.

Byline: Fred Crafts The Register-Guard

Give Michael Watkins a dark comedy such as "Sordid Lives," and watch him grin.

"It's outrageously funny," he says about the play he is directing at the Actors Cabaret of Eugene, and which opens Friday. "And its also very touching and heartbreaking."

OPENING THIS WEEK

Laughter through tears is the perfect combination for Watkins. Dark comedies are his "favorite kind of play."

"To me, a black comedy is a play that takes bizarre characters, and extreme and sometimes horrible situations, and couches them in comedy so that they become accessible," he explains.

`You're laughing but you think, `I really shouldn't be laughing at this because it's not politically correct or it's bad or it's a horrible situation.' It sucks you in,' he says.

A first-rate example of black comedy is, he says, Del Shores' "Sordid Lives."

Set in a world of trailer trash and country music, the play is launched by a spectacularly gruesome event - the family's philandering matriarch, while having an illicit affair with a Vietnam veteran whose legs have been amputated, gets up in the middle of the night, trips over his wooden leg, hits her head on the motel room sink and dies.

It's all downhill from there, ending with the entire family, including the transvestite son, gathered for the old woman's funeral.

`You start out thinking, `I can't identify with these people, because they're wacked or whatever,' but as the play goes along, you think, `I do identify with these people because what they're dealing with is basic human emotion and relation- ship,' ' Watkins says.

Still, Watkins wouldn't be surprised if the play gains some detractors.

"It will offend some people but, you know, that's one of the purposes of theater, in my opinion. It's to make them think. Let's face it: If you only do shows that aren't going to offend, you're pretty limited."

For all its clowning around, "Sordid Lives" has, Watkins believes, a strong family message: "Love and accept the people in your family for who they are."

"You're left with a nice feeling," he adds. "You're left with everybody resolving things, and who knows what's going to happen next in their lives."

"Sordid Lives" was made into a 2001 movie featuring Bonnie Bedelia, Delta Burke, Beau Bridges and Olivia Newton- John.

Playing the outlandish characters in the ACE production is a veteran cast: Carol Horne (Bitsy Mae Harling), Benjamin Newman (Ty Williamson), Nancy Boyett (Sissy Hickey), Emily Gilbert (Noleta Nethercroft), Sharon Sless (Latrelle Williamson), Marla Norton (La Vonda Dupree), Chris Pinto (G.W. Nethercroft), Don Kelley (Wardell `Bubba' Owens), Michael Walker (Odell Owens), Lisa Moes (Dr. Eve Bolinger) and Gerald Walters (Earl ``Brother Boy'' Ingram).

The play will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and Feb. 5-7, 13-14 and 20-21, and at 2 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Actors Cabaret of Eugene's Annex Theater, 39 W. 10th Ave. Tickets, at $5, $10 and $12 each, are available through the theater box office (683-4368).

Fred Crafts can be reached at 338-2575 or fcrafts@guardnet .com.

CAPTION(S):

Emily Gilbert, playing Noleta Nethercroft, threatens Chris Pinto's G.W. Nethercroft in Actors Cabaret of Eugene's production of "Sordid Lives," a black comedy written by Del Shores.