The week’s other openings

In DarfurTimeLine Theatre Co., Chicago(773) 281-8463Telling the story of an African tragedy from a Westerner’s perspective is a “familiar convention,” said Time Out Chicago. Winter Miller’s play would be better if it focused less on a white journalist in Sudan and more on the “heartbreaking experiences” of Hawa, a refugee “movingly” portrayed here by Mildred Marie Langford.

Adding Machine: A MusicalOdyssey Theatre, Los Angeles(310) 477-2055Even before Elmer Rice’s 1923 play was turned into a musical, it required “a mind-boggling balance between existentialism and slapstick,” said the Los Angeles Times. This creative staging of the accountant-turned-murderer tale has its shortcomings, but Clifford Morts’ “wrenching” lead performance certainly isn’t one of them.

The Arabian NightsArena Stage, Washington, D.C.(202) 488-3300Mary Zimmerman directs this adaptation of a “centuries-old classic” with a “sure, imaginative touch,” said The Baltimore Sun. Scheherezade’s stories of “love, lust, and loyalty” retain their power to captivate, while our knowledge of the current reality in Baghdad lends the show a provocative “undercurrent.”