A multi-aged cast of actors will take on old roles and new in the traditional holiday classic, “The Old Peabody Pew,” new life Sunday in Buxton.

The play was first performed 100 years ago, and this year marks the 153rd performance, sponsored by the Dorcas Society of Buxton and Hollis. The two-act show packs the pews at Tory Hill Meetinghouse, the original setting of the romantic comedy.

Children’s author Kate Douglas Wiggin, who died in 1923, adapted the play from her book with the same name. Once produced twice annually, it’s now staged as a Christmas season production.  

Wiggin, who lived in her home named Quillcote in Hollis, founded the Dorcas Society, a charitable group, in 1897. Her home is a short distance from Tory Hill.

In the play, Brian McCarthy is Justin Peabody, a role he played in 2014. Peabody returns home to woo Nancy Wentworth, played by Samantha Komulainen-York, a TV reporter at WLBZ in Bangor.

Peabody years earlier had left town to seek his fortune, leaving the unwed Wentworth behind. When Peabody returns, he is nearly penniless.

Jane MCarthy directs the play for the third time and plays Mrs. Sargent. Sharon House, 75, who has been connected with the play for 40 years, played Mrs. Sargent last year as her “swan song,” she said. She agreed to return this year as Lobelia, also a role she has previously played.

For the 24th year, Carolyn Vail plays Miss Maria Sharp, a role she inherited from her mother. “I’ve got this down,” Vail said at dress rehearsal on Nov. 27.

Samantha Dery, 15, a Bonny Eagle High School freshman, returns as Sally Bixby. It’s her third year in the show, which she describes as “exciting.”

Bonny Eagle High School has a prominent connection to the play with four alumnus members in the cast and art teacher Margaret Maxwell as Mrs. Baxter.

Maxwell explained the attraction of appearing in the play year after year. It’s “the  camaraderie of all the women,”  she said. And, “the story is very sweet.”

Kelly Ellis is a new player this year, filling the part of the Widow Buzzell.

Other cast members are Karla Fossett as Mrs. Burbank, Ashleigh Higgins Morgan as Mrs. Miller; and Catherine Lamson as the reader.

Curtain time is 2 p.m. at the historic meetinghouse at the intersection of routes 112 and 202 in Buxton. Admission is $5, $2.50 for children under 12. Free cookies and cider will be served before the show, and boxes of cookies will be available for purchase.

Players rehearse for “The Old Peabody Pew.” They are, from left, Ashleigh Higgins Morgan, Karla Fossett, Jane McCarthy, Sharon House and Carolyn Vail.

Rehearsing for the “The Old Peabody Pew” are, from left, Margaret Maxwell (partially obscured), Karla Fossett, Jane McCarthy, Sharon House and Carolyn Vail. The annual performance is set for 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 4, in the Tory Hill Meetinghouse, intersection routes 202 and 112, in Buxton.

Samantha Dery, a Bonny Eagle High School freshman, plays Sally Bixby in the “The Old Peabody Pew,” produced by the Dorcas Society of Buxton and Hollis.