Rosewater Theatre will show that even in the saddest of times, there still is comedy.

The subtle comic relief is what attracted Lisa Riley, Rosewater's managing director, to the group's latest show at the Cumming Playhouse, "Crimes of the Heart."

"It's a drama, but it has a lot of comedic elements," she said.

"All of us have mishaps in our lives. Nobody's life is perfect. However, this is one of those shows that has a way of sometimes seeing the comedy in everyday trials and tribulations."

The show, which opens Friday, follows three sisters waiting to hear news that their grandfather has passed away.

One sister is unmarried and facing diminishing marital prospects. Another just returned to their hometown of Hazlehurst, Miss., after a failed singing career. The third sister is out on bail after shooting her husband in the stomach.

Despite their various pasts, the trio looks toward seizing the future.

"It was a big success when Rosewater performed the show in Roswell," said Linda Heard, playhouse director.

"We expect to see it succeed here too. Rosewater always brings quality plays and quality actors."

Heard said while the playhouse often does well with gospel, holiday, comedies and Southern shows, the comic relief

in this drama will help ease into uncharted territory for Cumming.

"Audiences here are different," she said. "The people here tend to like very Southern plays, musicals, beautiful costumes, comedy and lighthearted shows. We're not into real serious drama here, but we really are still new to performing arts, so we're still trying to draw an [eclectic] crowd.

"It's going to take a while to build that following, but we expect to see this become a big success."

The actors are another new aspect to the show. Just one has performed before at the playhouse. The other five in the cast are new to the area, but Riley said that could be an advantage.

"Sometimes seeing the same people over and over again can be a disadvantage because audience members might lose the beauty of it being a believable show if they see the same person playing this role and that role," she said.

"I think at the end of the day, as long as the show is really good, I don't think people really care."