A squalid trailer under the summer sun may not be a cooling idea, but with images of dangerous Himalayan ascents in the background, Annapurna, opening July 19 at The Little Theatre, promises a bracing theatrical experience.

Broadway World called the play “sharp, funny, and consistently honest.” The Town Players of Newtown will be offering a production of the work as its summer offering.

Readers should note Annapurna is replacing the previously announced Silent Sky as the July-August production due to insuperable production difficulties.

Written by Sharr White, Annapurna is equal parts comedy and drama as an estranged couple searches through mists of memory to understand the past and cope with the present. Emma (being played by Ann Kinner) and Ulysses (Alexander Kulcsar) used to be married to each other, but the marriage broke up twenty years ago, and they haven’t seen or heard from each other since.

Now Ulysses is dying, and Emma has come to find him because their son, who has grown up believing in a mythical image of his father, wants to see him before he dies. Ulysses doesn’t remember the awful events that broke up their marriage because he was blind drunk at the time, and the mystery has haunted both of them ever since.

The play offers them, and the audience, a path toward redemption. One critic called the play a “breathtaking story about the longevity of love.”

Town Players veteran Ruth Anne Baumgartner is directing, supported by Sarah Marsh as stage manager and Michael Arena on lights and sound. Nick Kaye is lighting designer.

Annapurna, which is being produced by arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, will run weekends through August 10. Curtain is Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 pm, and Sundays, July 28 and August 10, at 2 pm.

Tickets are $25 for the evening performances and $20 for matinees. Reservations are available through [naviga:u]newtownplayers.org[/naviga:u].

The theater is at 18 Orchard Hill Road.