The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

ENTERTAINMENT GLT play is painfully funny commentary on Christmas and families TED BROWN Staff Writer It's been said that Christmas brings out the best and sometime the worst in everyone-- and Georgetown Little Theatre's Some Assembly Required proves that point. The play, which opened Thursday at John Elliott Theatre, centers around a Christmas reunion of a somewhat dysfunctional family of five, who all have some bizarre issues about each other. Mother Charlotte is a bit different, content to hide in her bedroom in the dark, a result of the dreaded `condition' which all the rest of the family avoid like the plague, afraid to cross Mother in the tiniest way. Father Darwin, is obsessed with his day-today `system,' which includes (among many other things) fanatically playing his collection of old long-playing records in the exact numbered sequence they are filed in, much to the eyerolling chagrin of his three children. Son Walter, the oldest, comes home for Christmas Eve, and receives a lukewarm reception from his parents, which one could believe is the norm in this family. He soon learns his brother Gordon is holed up in the basement, armed with a BB gun and drinking homemade eggnog, not wanting to talk to anyone, while his sister Stacy is also home, a study in spastic paranoia who is near to twitching level, craving a cigarette in the worst way. What results is an exchange of sometimes disjointed, but also funny dialogue as the five members of the family try to sort out their differences and finally settle down to have a proper Christmas dinner, before Christmas Eve wastes away before them. Paul d'Entremont plays oldest child Walter, and carries the play. D'Entremont gives his character a sincerity and vulnerability that endears him to the audience. In addition, his character appears to be the most `sane' of the entire family. Roscoe Peterson plays Father, portraying his character as one who lives in a little dream world of happy denial, while he plays his records, visits his wife's dark bedroom using a flashlight, and immerses himself in his notebook of totally useless facts and records that he tends to use to justify himself. Peterson's performance melds nicely with d'Entremont's character. Barbara Stasiw handles the part of Mother, who spends most of the play in bed. Stasiw gives a solid performance for her character, but the play's dialogue doesn't give her much to work with.