The week’s other openings

Killer Joe
Profiles Theatre, Chicago
(773) 549-1815
Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts had his first hit with this “perversely pulpy” tale of a trailer-bound family plotting to murder their mother, said the Chicago Tribune. Director Rick Snyder has shifted the play’s focus from “slick sensationalism” to social commentary, but retained the script’s “visceral force.”

Lear
Soho Rep, New York
(212) 941-8632
Young Jean Lee’s play presents a “bug’s eye view” of the supporting characters in King Lear, said Variety. It starts out as a retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy, minus the title character, but becomes more bizarre as the actors re-enact an episode of Sesame Street. Lee, however, ties everything together.

I Am My Own Wife
Signature Theatre, Arlington, Va.
(703) 573-7328
Doug Wright’s “psychological study” of an East German transvestite (and Stasi informer) named Charlotte is full of “messy, murky truths,” said The Washington Post. Actor Andrew Long fights through the “academic mustiness” of Wright’s script, capturing Charlotte’s “elusive essence.”