"CLEVER LITTLE LIES" ARE POPPING AT SQUARE ONE THEATRE

JOSIE KULP AND PEGGY NELSON IN "CLEVER LITTLE LIES"

Author and humorist Mark Twain once quipped, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything” and also “A lie will go round the world while truth is putting on its shoes.” Unfortunately, the idea of infidelity and adultery exist on the premise of lying…to yourself and to your spouse, and even to your family. Just ask Billy, the cheating husband of Jane in Joe DiPietro’s slyly humorous “Clever Little Lies” being entertaining at Square One Theatre Company at Stratford Academy weekends until March 17.

 Paul Araujo’s Billy has just been defeated by his dad Bill, Sr., an understanding Peter Wood, in tennis match when the son confesses to his father he is having an affair with a personal trainer at their gym. Even though he is a new father himself with a loving wife Jane, a devoted Josie Kulp, Billy is infatuated and feels this is really love. Bill Sr. is rightfully appalled but wants to be helpful. He also fears his wife Alice, an intuitive Peggy Nelson, will ferret out the truth and stick her Sherlock Homes’ nose into the “affair.”

Of course, the secret pops out of the bag as soon as Bill and Alice start to talk, and they quickly get to work to invite the new family over, on the pretense of sharing a cheesecake. What ensues is an awkward evening of misunderstandings, evasions and confessions. Alice makes revelations that astound everyone and shake up all the participants. What she says rivals any of the romance novels she sells in her bookstore in its surprises. Tom Holehan balances the drama and comedy with skills as all the lies and truths come spilling out into the air.

 For tickets ($22, seniors $20), call Square One Theatre, Stratford Academy, 719 Birdseye Street, Stratford at 203-375-8778 or online atwww.squareonetheatre.com. Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Come digest unexpected “news” and cheesecake and learn how to find your “happy” and the best way to show your “shiny” side.