“Pints, Pounds and Pilgrims,” a rollicking comedy about the collision of two theater companies, one American, one Irish, is being presented just in time for St. Patrick’s Day by Crowded Kitchen Players, at 8 p.m. March 10, 11, 17 and 18 and 2 p.m. March 12 and 19, Unicorn Theatre, 417 Front St, Catasauqua.

“It’s set on the Island of Inisbofin, off the west coast of Ireland, at an arts festival called the Inishbofin Festival for the Arts. The islanders have decided that to attract more attention to their tiny little arts festival in the middle of nowhere they want to have a play put on,” says playwright and director Ara Barlieb.

“So, they hire a renowned British director and playwright to put on this show. He comes to the island with his cast and proceeds to try to stage this truly terrible Irish tragedy, which offends everybody. They would really prefer that he would do a comedy but he hates comedy.

“They invite an American dinner theater to come over and do an American dinner theater comedy, something they think that they’d prefer. But the American company, when they realize that that is their invitation to go to Ireland, decides that they want to do something really important, like, an Irish tragedy.

“They go to Ireland and the two theater companies come together and there’s a big fight. They both come up on the stage at the same time, and put on both of their plays at exactly the same time on the same stage.” Barlieb says.

Barlieb’s inspiration for the show came from a 2000 trip to Ireland to film a documentary of the now defunct Allentown Theatre Outlet’s experience staging an Irish play. A 20-min. version of the documentary is available on YouTube.

“The documentary that aired on Irish television and aired on public television here was called ‘Pints, Pounds and Pilgrims.’

“And then, like, 17 years later, I was on a radio show [“Lehigh Valley Arts Salon,” WDIY] with the people [“Salon” hosts George B. Miller and Kate Scuffle], who used to run Theatre Outlet and they said, ‘Oh, we had such a good time in the year 2000. What’s your next production?’ And I said, ‘We’re going to do a comedy called “Pints, Pounds and Pilgrims.” I just said it as a joke and then I thought, ‘Wait a second. That’s not a bad idea,” says Barlieb.

Barlieb’s process of writing and casting the show was “not easy, but fun.

“I’ve written comedy my whole life. I used to write comedy for television and I’ve written quite a few plays and so that part wasn’t so hard. It was just trying to come up with something original, trying to come up with something fresher.

“And there’s always the challenge in the Lehigh Valley to come up with something that you can find the right cast members for. I think there are 14 people in this show, fairly big for a comedy,” says Barlieb.

Barlieb decided to re-stage the show after its initial success at the Charles A. Brown Ice House last year. The remounting of “Pints, Pounds and Pilgrims” includes George B. Miller and mandolin player Kris Kehr.

“Live theater is hard on a lot of people. Seeing a live presentation, seeing actors up on stage is hard on people. It’s not as easy as a movie. With a movie you can just sit yourself down.

“When you’re in the theater for a live presentation you’re kind of living and dying with the people onstage.”

Tickets: ckplayers.com; ckplayers@rcn.com