Unusual for the writer of such comedies as The Odd Couple, it's a seriocomic piece blending poignancy as well as laughs that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

With an expressionistic set designed by Andrew Kay - lots of sepia tones, photos and posters evoking the past - it is very much being presented as a memory play in Canberra Repertory Society's production, directed by Angela Punch McGregor.

Lost in Yonkers is set in 1942. Recently widowed Eddie (played by Colin Milner) must travel to find work to pay off the debts incurred during his wife's final illness. He leaves his teenage sons Jay (Lachlan Ruffy) and Arty (Pip Carroll) in the care of his mother (Helen Vaughan Roberts), a woman whom life has made hard and stern.

Already dealing with the loss of their mother, the boys are thrust into a challenging situation, which also includes such relatives as Uncle Louie (Paul Jackson), a character with shady associations. For the boys, he's also another potential role model.

Jackson said of his character, ''He was raised by his mother to believe that you do what you have to do to survive.''

Deciding which man to follow - their dutiful but necessarily absent father or the more dangerous allure of their uncle - is just one of the decisions the boys face in as they and their relatives must learn to get along in a new and challenging environment. Ruffy said, ''They're teenage boys full of hormones, they get into fights with each other''.

''Most people have family problems; they can relate to what is going on''.

But, being a Neil Simon play, it's a story told with plenty of humour as well as its more serious elements.

Lost in Yonkers opens at Theatre 3, Repertory Lane (off Ellery Crescent), Acton, tonight and runs to September 29, Wednesday to Saturday at 8pm with 2pm matinees on September 22, 23 and 29. Tickets: adult $38, concession $32. Bookings 6257 1950 or canberrarep.org.au