A Long Way From Chicago, Lifeline Theatre, through Dec. 12. Chicago theatergoers will welcome back Melinda Moonahan, playing the feisty matriarch for this richly nostalgia-filled look at rural culture in downstate Illinois at the beginning of the 20th century. MSB
Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, Side Studio, extended through Dec. 19. Director Jimmy McDermott, working with an astonishing ensemble, gives Adam Webster’s evocative, smart adaptation of Stephen Crane’s bowery-set novel a brilliant staging. Don’t miss it! RR
Playboy of the Western World, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, through Dec. 12. Ireland’s National Theatre, The Abbey, comes to town to present J.M. Synge’s poetic drama, which begins with the arrival of a stranger, claiming to have killed his father. RR