The latest Heidi Thomas Writers’ Initiative is a surprising comedy about opening your home, occasionally your wallet, and always your heart.

Marian, the matriarch of a far-flung Jewish family, had happily settled into retirement life with her new husband Richard. However, when a pregnant niece, the troubled boy next door, and a distressed daughter with a secret show up at her door, Marian’s empty nest ends up a little fuller than she imagined.

This firecracker play by DC-area playwright Dani Stoller takes the dysfunction, puts it back in the family, then gives it a hilarious — and subversive — stir.