Recommended by Paul Donnelly

Tautly plotted and populated with complex and vivid characters, Misfit America grabbed hold of me at the top and didn’t let go. Its depiction of the collapse of the Western-mythos resonated on both the narrative and cultural planes (as well as the literal plains). The play is also full of wit and both playful and terrifying use of theatrical devices. Drumbeats and shadow are deployed to dazzling effect. And all of this supports a moving exploration of the struggle to define family and identity for ourselves in a world loathe to allow either.

This poignant and sneakily powerful play offers an unsettlingly pragmatic look at the fragility of dreams and the desolation of a hard-scrabble life lived without them. And, lest that sounds too high-falutin', Fin and Euba are cleanly drawn characters whose responses to their lives and to each other will utterly break your heart.

This play explores the terrible dilemma faced by two black South African actors who are asked, cajoled and ultimately threatened with dire retribution to force them to cancel a planned American performance in order to comply with a boycott of the apartheid regime. Complex and distressing arguments about artistic integrity, racial dynamics in both the U.S. and South Africa, and social responsibility are presented with clarity, urgency and bracing humor. While bringing an historical conflict to stirring life, this play illuminates dilemmas that resonate with equal urgency today.