Apartment 3A Talk about your sweet nothings! Written by Jeff Daniels (best known lately for his turn as TV news anchor Will McAvoy on HBO’s The Newsroom), this romantic comedy wouldn’t amount to much even if director Ron OJ Parson could make it work. As things stand, though, it’s a silly absence with a spooky twist, about a woman named Annie who’s been rubbed raw by a bad breakup and a frustrating job as director of fund-raising for a public-television channel. Of course, love is standing right in front of her in the form of coworker Elliot—but the question of whether she’ll see it is secondary here. The real mystery is why Elliot doesn’t give up after the millionth indication that she’s not just wrong for him but downright nasty. Parson doesn’t seem to believe in the situation anymore than I do, since he gives up on any semblance of verisimilitude: one scene finds the couple shouting across a restaurant in a way that nobody ever shouts across restaurants. It’s a waste inasmuch as Eleni Pappageorge (Annie) and José “Tony” Garcia (Elliot) can definitely do charm. —Tony Adler
Dying City Anybody who appreciates technical refinement onstage will want to catch this Comrades’ production, now in the middle of a four-week run at the Heartland Studio Theatre. Set during the Iraq War, Christopher Shinn’s drama had its initial run in 2006, when the first round of exit dates from the conflict had come and gone and people had started to wonder whether U.S. forces would ever be able to extricate themselves. Mickey O’Sullivan, last seen in Strawdog Theatre’s DOA, has powerful gifts as an actor, and they’re on display here as he plays identical twins, one of whom, Craig, has died in Baghdad, leaving his Harvard PhD thesis on Faulkner half finished and his brother, Peter, a gay actor, self-destructively struggling through his grief. Craig’s widow, Kelly, brilliantly portrayed by Laura Matthews, is a therapist who confused Craig and now confuses Peter with her icy imperviousness in the face of conflict, whether global or domestic. When anger comes rippling out of her at the end, it’s as chilling as it is cathartic. Elizabeth Lovelady directed. —Max Maller
While Our Blood Is Still Young Amanda Dunne Acevedo and Lindsey Barlag Thornton are absolutely in it to win it. Granted, I have no idea what “it” is, and in this “devised duet,” they’re fairly open about that being a mystery to them as well. Like a blackbox studio exercise, the two use the concept of exhaustion as a jumping-off point for personal vignettes, endurance challenges, comedy bits, and absurdist snippets. Genesis isn’t kidding when it calls the project a “messy romp”—by the end, the floor is littered with confetti and spaghetti, and both a mattress and a Slip’N Slide have been pressed into service. Thornton and Acevedo are compelling storytellers, but here they’re kicking around ideas very much in development. —Dan Jakes
