Put a bunch of earnest but cock-eyed characters in a setting guaranteed to induce chronic paranoia and you have a recipe for impending disaster -- or a comic strip played out live on stage. Such is the premise behind Esops & Tender O f fers , a wacked-out farce set in a back-water corner of a big bank in a big city, coming to the main stage at the Opera House in Boothbay Harbor on March 15.

It centers plot-wise on the presence of an outrageous ice rink perched ominously above the Trust department of Metro Bank that leaks. Drip, drip, drip. Impossible premise? "Not really," says playwright Larry Crane of Southport. The plot complications and the motives of the people are straight out of my big bank work experience including moving from plush surroundings on Fifth Avenue to a converted warehouse on the east side of Manhattan near the rail yard."

In the play, Beauregard Prescott, a clueless manager with a penchant for fantasy conversations with figures, including Napoleon Bonaparte and the Red Baron, is certain that the purpose for the first visit in 20 years by his boss is to recognize his long and meritorious service to the bank. His pregnant secretary is betting that the visit more likely spells doom for her chronically distracted boss. What follows is a funny, rapid fire full length play, performed without sets or props as Readers Theater with actors' scripts in hand.

Playwright Crane adds, "The audience needs to come with their imagination churning because we'll perform the play as a live read, which overcomes the difficulty of creating a demanding set, complete with industrial grade elevator, vault and clanking overhead pipes. The actors will move about, and there will be lots of sound effects, but it will be a script-in-hand reading." The cast for this one night production comes from the midcoast and Portland and includes Ron Bouffard, Nancy Durgin, Carrie Langlois, Bill Michaud, Peter Panagore and Rick Prose.

Tickets for this premiere of Esops and Tender Offers are $10 if purchased in advance or $15 on the day of the performance. Tickets are available by contacting the box office, Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at 633-5159. Tickets are also available online at www.boothbayoperahouse.org.

The doors open at 7:30 p.m.; the performance begins at 8 p.m. Following the production there will be an opportunity for the playwright and cast to meet with audience members and the Friends of the Opera House will have a display of decadent desserts available for sale.