Elizabeth Peterson-Vita

In a holiday season crowded with just about every version of Dickens' classic imaginable, you can count on Trustus Theatre to stage a production that is totally fresh, modern, and compelling. Running at Trustus' main stage through December 20, this adaptation is penned by Patrick Barlow, who famously created the stage version of THE 39 STEPS, an astonishing piece requiring a few actors to play myriad characters in a sly, deft script that is overtly theatrical and physical. Barlow's touch is clearly apparent in his treatment of Dickens, as here we see one actor (Stann Gwynn) playing Ebenezer Scrooge, while four other actors (Scott Herr, Catherine Hunsinger, Avery Bateman, and Kendrick Marion) play all the other roles.

A startling and compelling play about journeys, literal and metaphorical, THE OTHER PLACE by Sharr White, is currently running at Trustus' Stage Door Theatre through November 1. This intelligent production, insightfully directed by Jim O'Connor, yields a mixture of mystery, pathos, and dark humor in its exploration of serious illness as manifested by behavioral aberrations. In order to preserve the revelatory nature of the work, no spoiler alert will be offered here, but suffice it to say that there are many layers, some rooted in biology, others in experience, that are unpeeled to yield answers and poignant resolution.

Almost all children (and not a few adults) have a fascination with all things piratical, and the musical HOW I BECAME A PIRATE, currently in production at Columbia Children's Theatre through September 28, yields plenty of material to indulge that fascination. This fun offering, written by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman, based on the popular children's book of the same name by Melinda Long, has plenty to engage children and also keep their parents smiling broadly throughout the approximate one-hour running time. Young children will take this fantastic journey into the world of (not-so-scary) pirates at face value, perhaps even responding directly to the actors, while their older siblings and adults will appreciate the sly humor and send-up of buccaneer lore.

Acclaimed American playwright Christopher Durang is well known for his absurd and often outrageous humor, and his VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, winner of a Tony Award in 2013 for Best Play, is no exception. An engaging farce with a somewhat surprising degree of sentiment at its core, this darkish comedy sends up the classic work of Anton Chekhov while also countering it with a kind of cock-eyed optimism. This Trustus Theatre's production, in the capable hands of director Jim O'Connor and well-modulated cast, just completed its first week's run and happily will be playing for another two weeks. There are plenty of in-jokes for theatre majors and the cognoscenti, but the uninitiated can also enjoy the modern comedy and unexpected charm that infuses Durang's take on a very idiosyncratic family whose caricatured members are yet familiar to us.

The final, 70th episode in the dramatization of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories, CURTAIN, starring David Suchet in his definitive portrayal of the Belgian detective, is now being streamed by AcornTV. This long-awaited episode, a career-capping achievement for Suchet, does not disappoint; it is among the best of the more recent Poirot episodes, and is relatively faithful to Christie's novel, written in the 1940's and published in 1975. While multiple suspicious characters and blind alleyways abound in this 90 minute adaptation, the plot does not rely as heavily on familiar Christie parlor tricks such as unbelievable double identities. Instead, it explores a much more psychological landscape, particularly in terms of Poirot himself, his longtime friend Hastings (Hugh Fraser), and a diabolical psychopath who revels in provocation rather than personal bloodletting.

The penultimate episode in the dramatization of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories, THE LABOURS OF HERCULES, starring David Suchet, is now being streamed by AcornTV. This version is indeed an ambitious undertaking, as it attempts to steer her 1947 collection of twelve short stories, united with some effort under the themed umbrella of the mythological trials of Hercules, into one tale.

Fans of Agatha Christie's brilliant Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, can content themselves with the remaining three new episodes of David Suchet's career-capping portrayal, now being streamed by AcornTV. ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER, the 90 minute reworking of Christie's 1972 novel (here more successfully set in 1938), features Poirot and his irritating friend, crime write Ariadne Oliver (Zoe Wanamaker) in an adaptation that remains long on incredible plot (the chestnut of twins and unrecognized identity) but finds its success in nuanced, layered performances. This episode includes sufficient red herrings to divert the casual Christie viewer, but there are fewer superfluous characters. This tighter core of suspects renders the still-complex intersecting plotlines easier to follow and savor than some previous outings. SPOILER ALERT: Pay attention to Dr. Willoughby's research on twins as a key to the original murder, and to secretary Marie McDermott's bland disregard for St. Patrick in solving the second.

While not accompanied by his mainstay companions of many episodes (Capt. Hastings, Inspector Japp, Miss Lemon), this plot intertwines Poirot's likewise eccentric and charmingly maddening friend, crime writer Ariadne Oliver (Zoe Wanamaker). They inhabit a complex plot beset by double meanings and double identities, aided by strong production values including superb period costumes and a fabulous location: Christie's own Greenway Estate. Viewers familiar with Christie plot elements and ruses will probably catch on quickly to suspicious behaviors that scream: 'look at me, I'm a clue', but they are likely to catch novices unawares. Identifying the villain is probably easier than identifying the Motive here, and folly, whether of character or architecture, is an important theme. SPOILER ALERT: Eyes should be fixed on Sir George Stubbs (Sean Pertwee), whose hail-fellow-well-met demeanor is a thin veneer over a core of wickedness.

PBS' Masterpiece Mystery raises the curtain on the final episodes of their adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot adventures, starring David Suchet, with their 90 minute version of THE BIG FOUR, based on a novel originally penned by Christie in 1927. However, anyone familiar with the novel should be prepared for significant plot changes and a sentimentally-tinged (but underused) cast of characters in this production, which is indeed theatrically over the top. And for one key SPOILER ALERT: despite the episode's initial framing, Poirot does not die, though anyone worth their Christie salt should be able to see through this from the outset.

Race, David Mamet's incendiary exploration of truth and lies provoked by racial identity and expectation, has just completed its first week at Trustus Side Door Theatre, in collaboration with the NiA Company. Happily for Columbia audiences, it runs for another week, allowing continued opportunity for this production to provoke and bestir. Staged here in the small, spare environment of a black box theatre, Race is a decidedly adult drama underscored by barbed wit and suspense, and its enforced intimate setting creates a hothouse urgency that literally does not allow one to look away. Attention, as has been famously said in other theatre contexts, must be paid.

Puss in Boots is currently playing at the Columbia Children's Theatre and is sure to delight the small fry, with plenty to amuse older children and their parents as well. It certainly held the attention of a rapt young audience at a recent matinee, a difficult task that speaks for itself. A delightful and imaginative retelling of the Perrault classic, this is not 'your father's Puss in Boots'. Set in the Old South with plenty of references to Puss' trickster patrimony, this production preserves the classic fairy tale overlaid with generous parody of regional identity. Not to mention the sheer comic value of outsized, spectacular red boots that no similarly outsized character can do without.

Planet Hopping - An Intergalactic Puppet Musical has just finished its initial two performances at Midlands Technical College's Harbison Theatre, but be on the lookout for this charming production for children to land at tour destinations sometime soon. This is a lovely, fun, original work that is suitable for young children and will delight the grown-ups in the audience as well.