“Other Desert Cities,” a play by Jon Robin Baitz, is opening at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts this weekend.

A finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for drama, the show will open on Feb. 13 and run through Feb. 28.

Shows will be at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and at 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets cost $22 for adults, $18 for seniors, $15 for youth and $15 for everyone during Sunday matinees.

It tells the story of a family with differing political views and a long-hidden secret, according to the release, which adds that Baitz contended the work is more about humility than politics.

Brooke Wyeth, played by Deana Duncan, is the troubled daughter of a wealthy California family who comes home for the holidays after being away for six years. Upon her homecoming, Wyeth presents her family with a memoir she penned which exposes a tragic family secret, “a wound they don’t want reopened,” according to the release.

“This play for me is about the cost of telling the truth and then realizing I (Brooke) didn’t know the truth,” Duncan said, according to the release. “It’s about the courage and strength it takes to finally stop trying to please everyone and finally just say what needs to be said.”

Baitz once commented that he wrote the play to explore the consequences of a writer using his or her life as the basis for a work. Wyeth gets much of it wrong, he said according to the release, and has to deal with the fact that there is an “absolute un-knowableness of things,” including her family and parents.

The play contains drama, comedy and engaging repartee, according to the release.

Andy Grenier will be directing and acting in the production. The cast also includes Deana Duncan, Shelley Hartle, Heather Oglivy and David Mayer.