The Best of Times vs. The Worst of Times As you file in off Halsted, through the noisy main floor of the Haymarket Pub and Brewery, you see a quote by Brecht printed on the wall: “A theater without beer is just a museum.” This is the principle that governs the little performance space on the other side of the black felt curtain, home to Drinking and Writing Theater, which continues its “vs.” series with The Best of Times vs. The Worst of Times. The laid-back atmosphere of the room gives the fun, hip cast an ideal atmosphere for their zany original pieces. A randomly selected judge announces a “winner” in the end. Some of the segments were a little art-schooly, but there were plenty of belly laughs to be had, as well as some poignant moments. Best enjoyed with a beer, which you may order before the show. —Max Maller

Generals Hosted by Antoine McKay and Christy Bonstell, this one-hour set is a uniquely theatrical Annoyance production featuring improv inspired by special guest stage actors. Three-time Jeff Award winner Aaron Todd Douglas (Congo Square Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre) kicked things off with an Othello monologue on the night I attended, which “’twas passing strange” and cleverly turned on its head in McKay and Bonstell’s successive bits as a dimwitted monk and progressive nun. The duo’s most interesting talent, made clear after Douglas’s second monologue, from August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, is their ability to blend comedy and drama on the fly. One minute a doomed southern couple mourns their relationship that never was; the next, a seedy man in tight pants places a blackjack bet with Pringles. —Marissa Oberlander

Tribulation: The Musical As it’s applied in Molly Miller and Brad Kemp’s musical comedy, tribulation is a term out of Christian eschatology, denoting a period after the Rapture but before the Second Coming when all hell is expected to break loose on earth. I mean literal Four Horsemen shit: famine, war, pestilence, and death. For the purposes of this review, though, I’m going to use the word more generally to refer to suffering—as in, “Around 85 percent of this show about office workers caught in the Tribulation was a tribulation to me.” The blessedly entertaining 15 percent comes in the second act, when our heroine, Genevieve, enrolls in a graduate poetry program; we get a great satirical song about the current collegiate notion of the “life of the mind” and a hilariously original Jesus. For the rest, at least the cast of this show at iO’s Mission Theater give it their all. —Tony Adler