Siblings can make a kid angry, irritated, and sad, but they can also be a lifeline in family chaos. A brother or sister is the only person who can truly understand how their siblings were raised. Sometimes, especially in a strict family, a sibling can be a best friend.

Lost in Yonkers is about a German-Jewish family, the Kurnitz family, located in Yonkers, New York. In the play, the two teenage sons move in with their rigid grandmother after their father goes into major debt following his wife’s death. Their father, Eddie, fears his mother and her harsh way of raising children. However, he must face his fears and trust that she will take care of his children.

“Because it’s about family, I think it’s something that can pretty much speak to anybody,” said director Nate Sullivan said. “You can see yourself in a lot of different characters; I know I see some of myself in Jay, the older brother, because I’m an older brother. I think that’s something a lot of people can relate to.”

The show is mostly a comedy, which playwright Neil Simon is known for, but it has a serious tone at times. The play is set in the ’40s, on the brink of World War II, which is factored into the play. The Yonkers dialect helps to portray the time period, Sullivan said. The accent is not necessarily heard anymore, so it puts the audience in that era.

Duane Larson (Eddie) had to experiment with different types of accents from the New York area to see what worked.

“I’ve just been doing a generic New York accent,” Larson said. “If someone from Yonkers showed up to the show, they might be like ‘I don’t talk like that,’ so mine actually might be closer to a New Jersey accent, but it gets the idea across.”

The play isn’t solely about the dad and boys, though. Other characters have great depth and stressful situations occurring in their lives, too. Eddie has many siblings that must establish relationships with their nephews.

Erin Mills (Bella) plays Eddie’s younger sister, who suffers from a mental illness. She lives with her mother but strives for independence. She wants to get married and have children of her own.

“She’s the vocal piece of the clarity for the family sometimes,” Mills said. “It’s really hard because she’s very naïve. It’s hard to reconcile when she’s really wise, and when she’s more like a child, and when she’s both. It’s challenging to balance the different aspects of her nature.”

As a Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner, Simon clearly writes about amazing relationships among the family members with great details, Sullivan said. The family is put on display in this show, and it’s easy to read them off the page.

“We all have some kind of conception of family,” Mills said, “and they’ll find something, if not relatable, really funny about it and American culture.”

THEATER

Lost in Younkers

Where: Johnson County Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall A, 4261 Oak Crest Hill

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. March 13

7:30 p.m. March 18-19, 2 p.m. March 20