If you've never laughed while watching The Devil and Daniel Webster, it's because you were waiting for a real Gothic comedy. The first formal production from the Carbon County Cultural Project — a new theater company based in Jim Thorpe, Pa. — promises to be a humorously deviant one. The Devil and Ben Jones, local playwright Joseph Ferron Hiatt's riff on the classic Southern tale, pairs Ben Jones (Will Trichon) with the devil (William Lance) in, what else, his darkest hour. Which is a fine excuse for levity.

Before everything goes to hell, our Ben is living the mama's boy dream life at home with his mother Miss Jones (Natalie Layne Kidd). It takes hearing voices, disappearing chickens and the appearance of bears for Ben to give in to El Diablo in a test of wills, suspicious neighbors and parental pressure. But the play won't mirror the old-fashioned soul survival of its precursor. This is no sequel or remake of the original evil.

"It has been compared to The Devil and Daniel Webster inasmuch as a character deals with the devil for some sort of life of security. After that point the comparison pretty much falls apart," says Hiatt. "It's definitely a comedy, and Pops Walker's music gives it sort of an Appalachian storyteller's air."

Which is why the CCCP is putting their faith in the Trocadero, a historic venue once home to burlesque and musical comedies and now host to alt-rock shows. "The vibe of the Troc complements perfectly the nature of the play," says Hiatt. Legendary blues brother Pops Walker will testify to that, with traditional tunes during the performance, bringing funky theater back to its birthplace.

"We've had everyone from children — who love the spookiness of it — to adults who appreciate the subtext, really enjoy it," the playwright adds. "It's Faulkner meets a dirty Twain, with the steamiest tea-fixin' scene you ever saw."