Burn: The Nowhere Hotshots vs. the Brain-Plant From Beyond the Moon Writer and director Peter Storey taps into his personal experience fighting forest fires for this experimental sci-fi poetry thriller. An elite squad of first responders dubbed “hotshots” are called to action when a sinister sentient plant wreaks havoc across the world by hooking humans on a smokable drug called Queen. There doesn’t seem to be a consensus among the cast of what the drug does, exactly, and the 15 actors, often blocked to be onstage simultaneously, understandably appear preoccupied with the task of finding space on Gorilla Tango’s cabaret-size stage. The inherent Starship Troopers camp factor of the premise goes unaccounted for; instead, it’s treated as deadly serious, and grunted, sometimes flat-out inaudible readings don’t help matters. —Dan Jakes
Prelude to a Kiss Craig Lucas’s 1990 meditation on love and mortality needs a cast of strong, subtle performers to reveal its deeper tones; otherwise it comes off as a sitcom about two quirky lovers who fall into the kookiest mess at their wedding when the bride switches souls with a strange old man. Sadly, director Derek Bertelsen fills his revival with a bunch of loud, laugh-hungry actors who rip the heart out of the play (but still fail to get laughs). Only Bethany Hart seems at home as the possessed bride—and her finesse makes everyone else seem that much more cloddish. —Jack Helbig
What of the Night? The title comes from Isaiah, but it’s Maria Irene Fornés who does the prophecying in this collection of four one-acts. A sordid family saga, Fornés’s tale starts in 1938, with mama Nadine scraping through the Depression by turning tricks while Charlie, her simple-minded eldest, steals for a brutal, Fagin-like fence. Skip next to 1958 and Nadine’s sweet, needy daughter Rainbow, who finds herself in mom’s line of work despite America’s postwar boom. Then it’s on to the years between 1968 and 1983, when wised-up Ray, whom Nadine gave up for adoption, is happy to get (literally) fucked in the ass for entry into the upper classes. Finally, Fornés offers us a peek into the dystopian future following a societal meltdown. Through it all, the enduring values are cruelty, scarcity, exploitation, and weaponized love. Carlos Murillo’s staging for Stage Left and Cor theaters features some solid performances (especially by Miguel Nuñez as the Fagin), striking images, and pacing that makes the three-hour running time move well. But when the action drops below a certain height—characters sitting on the floor, say—only the first row can see. —Tony Adler
