If you don't get enough family drama at your Thanksgiving table, head to South Burlington this weekend to see Happy Thanksgiving, a comedy by Tim Boland. The play is set in 2016, just after Donald Trump was elected president. Conservative Midwestern parents Arthur and Bev Harmon are hosting their gay Log Cabin Republican son, two liberal daughters and the daughters' husbands, one of whom is Black, the other Latino. Boland, an independent from a blue-and-red family, wrote dialogue to present clashing viewpoints evenly and respectfully as he serves up a bipartisan roast. Audience members will laugh at people from the left and right, he said: "There are no heroes and villains in my story. There's just human beings with lots of imperfections and flaws and contradictions." Amid the hilarity is a message: People who disagree politically have to start talking to each other. "There's a line in the play that says, 'If we can't learn to get along here as a family, how can we ever expect America to?'" Boland said. An American living in Sutton, Québec, Boland is best known for writing In the Name of the People, a play adapted into a 2000 TV movie. Happy Thanksgiving was one of two winners at the 2018 Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival. Trump's reelection has given the show a second life. "Whether we like or dislike him, he's the gift that keeps on giving" to artists, Boland said. Happy Thanksgiving will have three staged readings at Spotlight Vermont's black-box theater. The performance will look much like any other play except for the fact that the actors hold scripts. Timothy Barden, a Colchester actor and cofounder of Spotlight Theatre Academy, directs the seven-member cast. Discussions follow each show. Audience members can expect to laugh and cry at the production, Boland said: "It'll be thought-provoking, but they're going to enjoy the ride." Admission is free, but reservations are required. A live stream of each performance will also be available. The original print version of this article was headlined "Passions Play" …