As You Like It, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, through March 6. Director Gary Griffin takes a page from Georgette Heyer for Shakespeare’s romantic comedy. What could be more romantic, after all, than cross-dressing lovers in regency garb gamboling in a countryside of immaculate forests and courtly shepherds? MSB
Carmilla, WildClaw Theatre at the Storefront, through Feb. 20. Forget Bram Stoker and his masculine posturing—the vampire legend as we know it began with its women, and WildClaw delves its romanticist roots with this erotic no-giggles prototype starring cult divas-in-training Michaela Petro and Brittany Burch. MSB
In Darfur, TimeLine Theatre, through March 20. This compelling drama about the recent genocide in Sudan masterfully shows the different agendas of people who are trying their utmost to help out in an impossible and deadly situation. SCM
Madagascar, Next Theatre, through Feb. 20. A spider’s web of intricate and sinister character relationships that eventually dooms a family, told in three elegant intertwined monologues in J. T. Rogers’ beautifully written play, beautifully acted at Next. JA
—By Abarbanel, Barnidge
and Morgan