Blood and Gifts, TimeLine Theatre, through July 28. We got into the Afghani hell of Islamic politics and blood revenge by doing to the USSR in the 1980s what they did to us in Vietnam: backing their enemy, who became the Taliban. It’s a sad story written and acted with passion. JA
Tartuffe, Court Theatre, through July 21. Molière’s centuries-old comedy of religious hucksterism receives a fun and vibrant updating in Charles Newell’s production that is re-set in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. SCM
The Three Musketeers, Lifeline Theatre, through July 21. Robert Kauzlaric’s adaptation offers audiences a Graphic Novel version of the familiar Dumas action-adventure yarn, replete with dark deeds, unrepentant villains and rogue heroes delivering plenty of bloodless swashbuckling noir. MSB
Uncle Bob, Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company at Angel Island, through July 21. A grumpy old man and a likewise grumpy young one deliberately court suicide in order to rage against the injustice of their death sentence, but Richard Cotovsky and Rudy Galvan make their existential dilemma almost bromantic. MSB
—By Abarbanel, Barnidge
and Morgan