Drama Dock will continue its 48th season with Lucas Hnath’s dark comedy, “A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney,” playing July 26 and 27 at Open Space for Arts & Community.

Through biting, acerbic comedy, the play imagines the entertainment mogul late in his life — sharing a fictional, autobiographical screenplay with the audience alongside his brother, Roy Disney.

Tensions between these siblings and co-storytellers soon boil over, and the introduction of Walt’s daughter and son-in-law into the “reading” reveal the cruel lengths of Walt’s pettiness, both in his business decisions and in family life.

By the play’s end, the audience is shown the vast chasm between the title character’s ego and his mortality, as Walt fights for his relevance while his health inevitably escapes him,

Playwright, and Orlando, Florida native, Lucas Hnath wrote “A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney” in 2012, still relatively early in his published career.

The play premiered at the Soho Rep in New York City in 2013, with The New York Times hailing it as “superb” and “a blackly comic inversion of the public Disney persona,” and Arts Beat LA called it “brilliant” and “scathingly funny.”

Hnath has now gone on to write “The Christians,” “Hillary and Clinton,” and “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” and received an Obie Award for Playwriting in 2016 and the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in Drama in 2018. Hnath was also a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow.

Lisa Peretti, Drama Dock’s artistic director, who is directing “A Public Reading,” said that she was first drawn to the “rhythm of the language” of the play.

“Hnath has a gift for sound and silence, and every syllable and pause and physical page turn of the ‘screenplay’ all contribute to the mood of the play,” she said.

Drama Dock’s production of the play will feature local actor Bill Epstein, as Walt Disney. Epstein was last seen in Drama Dock’s “An Inspector Calls” and “See How They Run.” The cast also includes Reed Harvey as Roy Disney, Alyssa Norling as Daughter, and Brian Palermo as Ron.

Epstein is reprising his role as Walt Disney after first playing the character in a 2017 Tuscon production, which garnered him a nomination for Best Actor from the Arizona Daily Star.

Steven Sterne, who is Drama Dock’s managing director, said that the play feels timely.

“It’s a fascinating script, and Hnath does a great job navigating us through the mirage of Walt,” Sterne said. “As this aging patriarch’s powers fade away, a different story emerges … a tyrannical, abusive narcissist, bent on deluding himself, his loved ones, and anyone who’ll listen into thinking he’s a benevolent figure when in truth, he’s a monster. Even though it was written over a decade ago, it’s a noteworthy and sobering journey to take in this election year specifically.”

In addition to director Lisa Peretti (author and composer of 2022’s “Winghaven Park”), the show’s company includes stage managed Samantha Sherman, production design by Erika Strandberg, props by Jill Bulow, and technical direction by Aleytha.

“A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney” will be performed at 7 p.m. Friday, July 26, and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at Open Space for Arts & Community. Every performance will feature a post-show talkback with the director and members of the cast. Tickets are $25 for general admission and $15 for students.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit dramadock.org.