Blue/Orange The adventurous Runcible Theatre Company, which specializes in offbeat English fare rarely tackled by larger troupes here, delivers a crisp and compelling rendition of Joe Penhall’s chilling yet hilarious dark comedy, a 2000 hit for the National Theatre of Great Britain. It concerns a power struggle between two white doctors in the hidebound National Health Service over the fate of a black psychiatric patient, Christopher (Nathaniel Andrew), who claims to be the son of Idi Amin Dada, the brutal dictator of 1970s Uganda. Christopher—having used up his 28 NHS-allotted days of treatment and observation—is set to be released from the hospital. The passionate, sometimes rash young Dr. Flaherty (Owen Hickle Edwards) believes Christopher is schizophrenic and wants to keep him for further care. But his complacent, status-conscious mentor, Dr. Smith (Stephen Fedo), insists Christopher should be sent back to his impoverished Afro-Caribbean community to live among “people who think just like him”—something Christopher both desires and dreads. Penhall’s peek down the rabbit hole of the government-subsidized health system tackles issues ranging from the mysteries of mental illness to white privilege, racism, and career-conscious power games. The actors in Andrew Root’s intimate staging in the Royal George Theatre’s tiny Gallery studio deliver Penhall’s sardonically sharp-edged dialogue with impeccable precision. —Albert Williams
Foxfinder Creating a truly loathsome villain takes special craft, and the well-mannered, pious one at the center of Dawn King’s 2011 one-act paranoiac drama is a real doozy. A 19-year-old inspector (chillingly played by Jack Olin) arrives at the farm of a married couple (Alexandra Fisher, David Anthony Marshall) for a government-mandated stay to look for signs of foxes, the supposed cause of suffering all across Britain. In the vein of The Crucible and the more conspiratorial works of Harold Pinter, Interrobang Theatre Project’s production, directed by Margarett Knapp, gets the blood boiling and taps into grand societal-scale themes without ever zooming out of the heroes’ domestic and claustrophobic story of grief and survival. —Dan Jakes
Rigoletto You can’t sweat the details in Rigoletto. The plot requires suspension of disbelief, especially in its critical scenes of abduction and murder. What’s made this mid-19th-century opera by Verdi (based on a Victor Hugo play) an enduring favorite is the complexity of its bitter and passionate title character, the pathos of his predicament, and the composer’s magnificently soaring music. Since his days at the Ryan Opera Center, baritone Quinn Kelsey has made this heartbreaking role his own; his performance in this not-to-be-missed Lyric Opera production is bolstered by superb soprano Rosa Feola as his self-sacrificing daughter, Gilda, and dashing tenor Matthew Polenzani as the libertine who seduces her. The drama’s heightened by Michael Yeargan’s surrealistic sets (designed for San Francisco Opera and inspired by de Chirico paintings), featuring sharp shadows, deserted arcades, and blood-red interiors on an ominously raked stage. Marco Armiliato conducts the Lyric Opera orchestra and chorus. —Deanna Isaacs
