Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

The French Connection

Every family has its secrets, but the Middlebury Community Players are about to let the skeletons out of the closet. Spanning four generations, time and place — the settings range from World War I-era France to present-day Lake Tahoe — Vermont playwright and director David Moats’ An Afternoon in France explores familial ties through an unexpected discovery about the past. Though this marks the play’s world premiere, the drama’s not quite new; Moats, whose work has been produced by MCP four times already, completed writing it 12 years ago. Finally seeing it onstage “feels great,” he says, “mainly because I’ve got a great cast of characters who are finding in the play what I meant to be there.”