Buried Child, Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company, through Dec. 18. Christmas celebrates the dawn of rebirth and redemption, and if you look closely at this high-intensity production of Sam Shepard’s 1978 shocker, you’ll find the same theme lurking beneath the squalor. MSB
4.48 Psychosis, Hypocrites at Steppenwolf Garage, through Dec. 18. Playwright Sarah Kane penned this achingly poetic piece about the futility of life just before her suicide at 28. This production, an inspired marriage of form and function, will leave you reeling. RR
Mabou Mines Dollhouse, Court Theatre at MCA, through Dec. 18. For 35 years, Mabou Mines has created inventive re-interpretations of great theater literature. Their take on Ibsen utilizes dolls, miniatures and real actors to illuminate Nora’s proto-feminist plight. JA
A Man For All Seasons, Timeline Theatre, through Dec. 18. Religious conservative though Sir Thomas More was, actor David Parkes makes his civil disobedience in 1535 an act of personal conscience that even Descartes-thumping secularists can embrace. MSB
By Abarbanel, Barnidge and Reed