Getting a child by any means necessary -- except the traditional method -- is the lot for a young married couple desperately seeking a baby in Quincy Long's The Year of the Baby, running March 22-April 15 at Off-Broadway's Soho Rep. The dark comedy opens March 30. When two youngsters bungle a child abduction, they are forced to retreat into backwoods hiding, where, while naively trying to have a child on their own, they come up against the advice of their hick neighbors. Everyone from the local bartender and mechanic to the eccentric shopkeepers have ideas on how to conceive, deliver, feed and rear a child. Along the way, the American folk music of Stephen Foster ("Beautiful Dreamer," "Maggie By My Side," "Nelly Bly") serves as the backdrop for the story.

Long is the author of The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite, Shaker Heights and The Lively Lad.

Former resident director at Off-Off-Broadway's Bat Theatre, and now Soho Rep artistic director, Daniel Aukin (Molly's Dream, Cat's Paw) directs Annette Hunt, John Seitz, Rebecca Soler, Tina Stafford, Trevor Williams and Jonathan Woodward.

Designing The Year of the Baby are Louisa Thompson (sets), Maiko Matsushima (costumes) and Michael O'Connor (lighting).

Tickets are $15-$12. Soho Rep is located at 46 Walker Street. For reservations, call (212) 334-0962. Soho Rep is on the web at http://www.sohorep.org.

Soho Rep's 25th anniversary season finishes off with the premiere of Mac Wellman's Hypatia, based on the life of the 7th Century mathematician and philosopher and Summer Camp, the Rep's annual festival of new works by new and known playwrights.

-- By Christine Ehren