Recommended by Philip Middleton Williams

With all the elements of a farce -- plates of food, dishes of dip, pitchers of Diet Coke -- Stephen Kaplan sets the stage for what promises to be exactly that: non-stop laughter and rapid-fire dialogue offered by characters that seem to be over-the-top at a breathless pace. They do deliver so well as seen in the production at Island City Stage. But then, we discover that the Tracys have stories to share of tenderness and heart-strings tugs. Reminiscent of Beth Henley's vulnerable souls, we see beneath the splatter and tossed celery there are people we can love.

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis wrote "It Can't Happen Here" about the takeover of the United States by a home-grown Fascist regime. Scott Sickles gives us a contemporary take on the idea as seen through the lens of a same-sex couple with a trans son who is lost in their frantic escape and they spend years searching for him. It is intensely personal yet we don't know the names of anyone, which makes it universal -- and harrowing -- because it can happen here, and the tesseract -- the wrinkle in time -- could be at this moment.

There seem to be two universal constants at play in this piece by Tom Moran (which I remember from the Valdez Theatre Conference): opposites attract and matter and anti-matter annihilate each other. In this situation, done with a laconic but inspired touch of humor, Hannah and Brandon seem to be poles apart in their lives and loves. Both seek a way out of their endless causality loops, but how? You will love finding out.

This quick, witty, and on-the-nose short piece gave me flashbacks to my first meeting with my partner's family at Christmas: the table laden with strange foods, the games, the inside stories and misunderstood connections. It was only a little later that my partner had the same fish-out-of-water feelings when he met my family. Hilary Bluestein-Lyons gets it so right, and even though I know not-THAT Steve Martin, I think anyone will get the connection, banjo or not.

You have to hand it -- fur and all -- to John Busser for this brilliant bit of sketch comedy lampooning a classic horror tale and making it more horrifying: a time-share family with the requisite brats and high-end vacation expectations. And as a Floridian, I'd love to see this actually happen in the Magic Kingdom; take that, Ron!

If you go to the supermarket, you can find something called "cheese food" in the dairy case. But if you buy this particular brand, you are in for a whole other kind of cheese food. But I can pretty much guarantee that it's not kosher.

Well, that settles that. But who gets to catch the bouquet?

In "Travels with Charley," John Steinbeck wrote, "I wonder why we think the emotions of animals are simple." Greg Burdick takes that idea and runs wild -- literally -- with it, doing what we humans have done since the first gray wolf wandered into a campfire of humans and sold their souls to us. Anyone who has ever had a fur-bearing companion will see the truth here, played out beyond measure in hilarity. Even more, he makes a solid and devastating statement about our own human frailties in ways even a peacock could understand.

What would happen if Samuel Beckett met up with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello on line somewhere? Morey Norkin lets his imagination off the leash and this little two-hander is a gem.

These two damaged souls -- for that is what they truly are -- are not so different than their exteriors and their pasts would have us believe. In this riveting two-hander, DC Cathro gives us a setting and situation that counts on the audience holding certain fixed beliefs about the characters, and then reveals their truths. They each find something in themselves and make a connection. The most impressive element is that there is such a powerful moment told in the most honest and brutal -- in a good way -- moments.