Theater

The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife: There are plays that make you cry and plays that make you laugh till you cry. Del Shores’ new tragicomedy does both. In a spot-on staging at the Zephyr Theatre, this play introduces more of the humorously off-kilter Texas types who populated such Shores comedies as “Daddy’s Dyin’ (Who’s Got the Will?)” and “Sordid Lives.” The central character, played by Beth Grant, is a battered wife, and Shores plunges audiences into her harrowing existence while keeping everyone laughing at the humor that can sprout in even the most desolate life.

-- Daryl H. Miller

Ends Sunday at the Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave., L.A. (323) 655-8587.