You want a little theatrical frisson, you put two opposites in close proximity. Say, for instance, a hard-driving female ad exec and a reclusive poet become neighbors in a New York co-op. Say, oh, I don't know, you throw into the mix a lawyer and a mother.

This is the set-up for Richard Manley's comedy "An Ignorant Man," which the Stonington Players are staging this weekend and next.

Another of Manley's works, "Chew Toy Research," was chosen for Stonington Players' "Tables & Chairs" in Nov. 2012.

For "Tables & Chairs," the Players sought out plays that ran under 15 minutes, boasted no more than five characters, and required no set other than tables and chairs. (They received 130 manuscripts and selected 11 to perform.)

The Players sought full-length plays from some of those dramatists, with the idea that the theater group might stage one of them. They chose Manley's "An Ignorant Man." (Manley lives in New York and is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America.")

This production stars David Foulkes, Callie Beaulieu Frisell, Helen Cronin, Richard Caruso, Robert Gwyn, and Sandy Staub. Jacqueline Princevalle directs.

The seating is cabaret-style, and beverages and refreshments will be sold.

- KRISTINA DORSEY

"An Ignorant Man," Stonington Community Center, 28 Cutler St., Stonington; Stonington Players; starts Friday and runs through May 4; 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat. and 2 p.m. this Sunday and May 4; $12; (860) 287-7393.