“Aching, hilarious, erotic,” wrote New York Times critic Frank Rich about Tina Howe’s “Coastal Disturbances” when it opened at Broadway’s Circle-in-the-Square in 1987; the play ran for 350 performances and was nominated for a Tony Award. Annette Bening made her Broadway debut as Holly.

Focusing on the budding romance between lifeguard Leo Hart, and vulnerable and beautiful Manhattan photographer Holly Dancer, COASTAL DISTURBANCES is a comedy full of emotion and skyrocketing exhilaration. Set on a private New England beach, four generations of visitors and residents navigate the last two weeks of August

before they return to their workaday worlds.

Holly Dancer summered on this beach with her friend Faith as a child; Faith, now pregnant with her second child, welcomes the city photographer home. As does the handsome, romantic Leo. Lust and yes, love, are in the warm sea air. Children squabble, lovers bicker and reconcile, and a whale is beached, all amidst the changing landscape of light on this quintessential New England beach. Does love win in the end?

The Courthouse cast will include Joseph Robinson (TITANIC) as Leo, and Charles Sweigart and Eliza Collins (HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS, TITANIC) as Hamilton and M.J. Adams, a septuagenarian couple celebrating an anniversary: “Don’t ask us which one. We’ve lost count.”

Performances begin Thursday, August 9th and continue through August 26th on the following schedule: Thursdays at 8 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.. Tickets are $25 and $15. Call 401-782-1018 to reserve, or online at www.courthousearts.org. The Courthouse Center for the Arts is air-conditioned, handicapped accessible and has ample parking on property.