The theatre company Manbites Dog will find out if North Carolina is safe territory for the work of Nicky Silver Dec. 6, when in opens its production of Fit to Be Tied. The comedy, directed by Serena Ebhardt, runs through Jan. 6, 2002.

The play's typically Silverian plot has the neurotic young gay hero, Arloc, try to solve his romantic problems by kidnapping an actor playing an Angel at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with whom he has fallen in love. What trouble this creates is compounded by the arrival of Arloc's perpetually soused, shopaholic mother. One look at her son's captive boyfriend and mom spies her latest conquest.

Lynda Clark, Wade F. Dansby III, Mark Filiaci, and Al Singer star. Sets are by Sonya Drum, lights by Jesse Belsky and Sound Design by by Al Singer.

Fit to Be Tied debuted at Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons with Jean Smart as the mother and T. Scott Cunningham as her son.

Tickets are $15-$5. Manbites Dog Theater is located at 703 Foster Street, Durham, North Carolina. Call (919) 682-3343 for information and reservations, or get online info at www.manbitesdogtheater.org(http://www.manbitesdogtheater.org) . —By Robert Simonson