MEET ME AT DAWN • Upstream Theater

In Upstream Theater’s unflinching season closer, a simple platform standing in for a sandbank, clusters of grass, a window fragment and long rolling clouds greet audiences walking into The Marcelle’s black box. But what plays out onstage is a surreal confrontation with a looming heartache that hangs over anyone who’s ever loved.

After washing up on an island after a brutal boating accident, Robyn (Lizi Watt) is primarily concerned with her girlfriend, Helen (Michelle Hand), and if she’s okay. Both of them seem to be in shock. Helen is soaking wet and surging with adrenaline at their survival while Robyn is disoriented and nauseous. How did they get here? Through their attempts to try to figure out exactly where they are and how they’ll find a way home, we get the sense that the island they’re marooned on is not exactly temporal.

THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE • Albion Theatre

The hail and strong winds that moved through St. Louis Friday night were no match for the storm brewing on the Kranzberg stage in Albion Theatre’s terrific production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane. In the first of playwright Martin McDonagh’s, “The Leenane Trilogy”, The Beauty Queen’s premise sounds pretty ordinary; 40-year-old Maureen is trapped as primary caregiver to her ailing mother Mag, when chance brings Pato, an old acquaintance of Maureen’s into the fray, posing as a beacon of hope for Maureen and an existential threat to Mag. But McDonagh doesn’t really do ordinary. Maureen, Mag, and much of the town it seems, are mired in the isolation of the rugged countryside village of Leenane in County Galway, Ireland, nursing long-held grudges. Playing out in the Folan family’s claustrophobic kitchen (provided by Chuck Winning’s nicely appointed set and Majorie Williamson’s set painting), the bleak state of affairs that McDonagh’s characters are stuck in unfold with reversals that seem inevitable, but still unsettle and disarm you with gasp-inducing jolts alongside surprising fragments of warmth. Martin McDonagh typically doesn’t waste time on lengthy exposition, so I'll try not to go into too much detail here. The less you know, the better. But all in all, it’s really kind of fucked up, but in the best, most captivating way possible.

CLYDE’S • The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

In playwright Lynn Nottage’s 2021 comedy, the ex-cons aiming for a fresh start working at Clyde’s have found themselves out of the frying pan and into the fire, more like purgatory, of a dingy truck stop sandwich joint. Their boss, who shares a criminal past and the sandwich shop’s name, strikes fear into the hearts of her crew and could perhaps best be described as evil incarnate.