After Ashley, Stage Left Theatre, through Nov. 15. Brian Plocharczyk steals the show as the snarky son taking on his father's revisionist commercialization of his mother's brutal rape and murder. Stage Left serves up a snappy Chicago premiere of Gina Gionfriddo's smart and dark comedy. SCM
Drip, eta Creative Arts, through Nov. 9. This Gloria Bond Clunie world premiere follows Cora and Charlie through 25 years of marriage. The idea isn't new, but the characters have warmth and charm, and the choral poetry of the local townsfolk falls fresh on the ear. JA
Frankenstein In Love, Will Act For Food Productions, through Nov. 1. The violence and romance swarms around us with all the bloody fury we expect of out author Clive Barker, but what follows us home is Lawrence Garner's icy performance as the pedo-creepy Dr. F himself. MSB
Margaret Garner, Auditorium Theatre, through Nov. 9. The story is both true and brutally unsettling: After killing her children to save them from a lifetime of slavery, runaway slave Margaret Garner spurs a national debate whether she should be tried for murder or 'destruction of property.' Denyce Graves and Tracie Luck star in the title role.
—By Abarbanel, Barnidge, Morgan
and Sullivan