Once you see the ocean you may never be able to return to the well. Once you say a thing, it’s said and can never be unheard. Once you see Small Mouth Sounds at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre, the first production on their mainstage for the 2026 calendar year, you will certainly never be able to unsee it, and you may find yourself wondering if you need to be on the path of enlightenment.
Happiness comes only in moments. And to ensure those moments, sometimes drastic action is necessary. Closing out their 2016/2017 mainstage season, the Maryland Ensemble Theatre brings to the stage a rarely produced darkly-driven British comedy. Fred’s Diner, by Penelope Skinner, takes place in an American 1950’s themed diner in present-day Britain just off the major motorway. Everything looks hunky-dory, as the Yanks might say, but upon closer examination, things aren’t always what they seem.