The romance of Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but a community theater group’s latest production is proving that sometimes, love is right under your nose.

Ames Community Theatre of Recreation Services (ACTORS) is presenting their latest production, “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers.” The comedy was written by Neil Simon, a playwright known for his satirical and punchy writing style. The production was set to open its curtains on Valentine’s Day night — however,the performance was canceled due to inclement weather. Upcoming performances scheduled for Friday through Sunday will still be held.

Lynn Lloyd, ACTORS vice president, says the canceled show was a disappointment, but a sold-out crowd made Saturday’s show a huge success.

“The Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” which is set in the late ’60s, is one in a long line of Simon plays that has also been made into a film, including “The Out-of-Towners,” “Plaza Suite” and “The Goodbye Girl.” In this particular play, Simon tells the story of Barney Cashman, played by Tony Hammons, a man coming to terms with a mid-life crisis.

“The [play] concerns a middle-aged man who’s always led a ‘nice life,’ ” says Susan Rapp, ACTORS studio director. “He’s finally realizing his mortality, so he tries to have an affair.”

The three acts of the play each surround his extramarital attempts with three different women.

The first of them is Elaine Navazio, played by Lloyd, an older, smoking, drinking woman Barney picks up in his restaurant. The other two women are Bobbi Michele, played by Andrea Reedy, who is a hippie Barney meets in a cab, and Jeanette Fisher, Barney’s best friend’s wife, who is depressed because her husband is cheating on her.

Rapp says the lessons Barney learns in his unsuccessful attempts at infidelity are ones that everyone can relate to.

“A lot of it is about a search for how you feel about your morals,” Rapp says. “The problem with Barney is he’s looking for someone decent and caring, but in these women he gets something different.”

Lloyd says the part of Barney isn’t just difficult to play on an acting level, but on a purely logistic level as well.

“It’s an extremely demanding job for a male lead because he has to be in all the acts,” Lloyd says. “There are only four actors — three women and one man.”

Each of the women make him realize something different about himself, Lloyd says.

With Elaine, Barney wants to get to know her, while she just wants to have the affair. It’s not until he attempts an affair with his best friend’s wife, Jeanette, that Barney realizes he already has what he’s looking for, Rapp says.

“He’s not comfortable just jumping in,” Rapp says. “[Jeanette] makes him take a look at the kind of person he is.”

Rapp says the true-life situations of Simon’s play have made it a great piece to perform during ACTORS 50th anniversary year.

“We had fun putting on this show based around the middle-aged horror of mortality,” Rapp says. “Neil approaches everything with a nice amount of humor, but they are always real situations.”

What: The Last of the Red Hot Lovers

Where: ACTORS Studio, 120 Abraham Drive

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday

Cost: $9 students, $12 public