Get ready to laugh in the face of death as Iberia Performing Arts League presents “Death in England,” when curtains open on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m at the Essanee Theater.

“Death who is played by a person for the first time I’ve ever seen in a show comes to the home of Michael Henges,” IPAL Director Donna Berard said.

 Audiences won’t be left guessing for long as the plot unravels a rather awkward and comical look at death itself. 

“Death finds he’s at the wrong house. He was supposed to be at Lester Hedges’ house and then people start to see him which they are not supposed to be able to do,” Berard explains. “People are dying without him having his hand in it, so he seems to be losing his power,”

That’s when death calls on Inspector Mirabelle played by Milton Resweber to figure out exactly why death seems to have lost his grip.

“Death has got a problem,” Resweber said. “He is not happy with things because someone has stole his power so I get called in to investigate and find out who the culprit is who is messing with his omnipotent power,” 

The Sam Bobrick’s play and its eight member cast bring humor and insight to an otherwise grim topic in a way audiences are sure to be entertained.

“The play is a comedy and we’ve got a lot of fun stuff to do in our script and the cast is fun, very playful,” Resweber said.

“Death is not the person you would expect him to be,” Ryan Berard said who plays the character Death in the play. “Most people are used to thinking of death as this very scary, fearful character, the kind noone wants to be with…he’s actually delightful to be around, he has a sense of humor and is very lighthearted,” Berard explained. “This version of death you would want to have as a dinner guest,”

Tired of receiving a bad reputation in this adaptation of death he  tries to make his job as accommodating as possible as he asks those he comes for “How would you like to die?” and “How would you like to be found?,”

“There’s a lot of twists to death in this play,” Berard said. “He wants to be liked, totally naked is one of the choices he gives in how do you want to be found,” she laughed.

What wouldn’t die during the six month effort to bring the play to life is the determination of the director and cast as they stuck to to the stage cliche “the show must go on.”

“It took a little bit longer than normal because we had a change of cast,” Berard said. “We cast one person and due to conflicting dates that cast member drops out, then a cast member got sick and had to have surgery, but we pushed a little harder in rehearsal and got everyone adjusted to the new cast members,” Berard added.

“Death in England” will run for two consecutive weekends, closing September 16th. Curtains open at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. New Sunday Matinee times are at 2p.m.

Advance tickets are available at Delaune’s Pharmacy, Paul’s Flower Shop, The Daily Iberian, online via brownpaperticket.com (Search IPAL) or by calling 364-6114 and leaving a name and phone number. Tickets also can be purchased at the door at the time of performance. All tickets are $10 and general seating.