By John Lyle Belden

It’s the easiest trap most of us fall into: You need to save this. You must hold on to that. I’m not finished reading this. I’ll get around to making something with that… Time passes, boxes stack up. And then there are the mementos – especially when they signify a time, place, and most importantly a person, no longer around.

Suddenly, people tell you that you have a problem.

Local playwright Jan White presents, with Actors Ink Theatre Company, her comic drama “Stufferage” at The District Theatre, directed by Sandra Gay, who founded Actors Ink decades ago, and now dedicates it to providing performance opportunities for “People Of a Certain Age.”

As White notes in the program, roughly six percent of people have some sort of hoarding disorder. This gets further complicated by aging as well as other likely mental issues. In the play, inspired in part by actual people and events, Marty (Chad Pirowski) persuades his aunt Georgia (Sheila Wright), a therapist, to come out of retirement to aid his mission-oriented business, Stop Stuffering, in honor of his recently-deceased mother (Georgia’s sister), a lifelong serious hoarder. His idea is to help others with similar issues to declutter and organize their stuff to better deal with their lives.

To seek interest, they set up a “Help for the Overwhelmed” Facebook group and in-person meeting. They already have one client, Barbara (Melody Ware), who refuses to leave her overflowing home so is ordered by a judge to at least attend via Zoom.

Arriving in person: Sarah (Mary Hardin) let things accumulate during the Covid isolation period and is still nervous about venturing out. Married couple Jim and Donna (Rob Young and Tina Nehrling) see each other as the problem – her overflowing craft room, his overstuffed garage – but with additional endless piles of mail and magazines, their adult children let them know it’s both of them. Mimi (Stephanie Reinert) is obsessed with puppets, but the ever-growing accumulation of pieces, projects, and finished figures has ironically taken control of her life. Darrell (Brian Shobe) misses his late wife and, after several months, can’t bear letting go of any of her possessions.

Rick Northam is handy as various supporting roles, crew director, and the foley for an opening scene that, with awkward humor, gives us a sense of how bad things get for the “stuffering” and those who love them.

The narrative shows us the various ways these characters work through their issues, both the accumulated objects in their homes and learning to “clear the clutter from your heart.” There are varying degrees of success, with Barbara – “I have a right to my stuff!” – being the most difficult, her unsettled personality nearly as colorful as the exploded flea market of her front yard. The excellent scenic design, including piles and stacks capable of moving on and off stage as needed, is by Carlos Teeters.

We get compelling performances all around. Pirowski and Wright portray sincere empathy – hers more professionally, his with the sense of a son who wishes he had helped his mother more. Hardin and Shobe each pull our heartstrings. Young and Nehrling add more humor than rancor to their couple who seem to have arguing as a love language. Reinert is endearing and an inspiration to crafters everywhere as Mimi strives to actually make some puppets! Ware takes on the most complex role with appropriate gusto while keeping Barbara’s mental issues true to life.

A light-hearted and hopeful look at a serious problem, experience “Stufferage” Thursday through Sunday at The District Theatre, 627 Massachusetts Ave., downtown Indianapolis. Get tickets at indydistricttheatre.org.