Recommended by Larry Rinkel

"That time of year thou mayst in me behold . . . . ." "Oh, it's a long, long time from May to December / But the days grow short when you reach September . . . . " Or here August. It's a time-honored tradition to symbolize the stages of our lives as months of the year, and here Steve Martin contrasts two aging male lovers, one aware of his advancing years, the other living for the carpe diem moment. One is perhaps over-conscious, the other perhaps insufficiently conscious of time's wingéd chariot in this touching short play.

Terrorism (and I'm writing this just days after the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021) is such a fraught topic that it's a challenge to treat it satirically. Michael Tricca has done just that in his 10-minute farce, where the terrorists are treated as numbskulls at a loss with what to do with the rather cumbersome piece of equipment they've hijacked. Since in addition to the terrorists, the pilot and co-pilot are on-stage gagged and bound for the play's duration, it would be fun to see how a director handles these silent characters.

Funny. Skillfully builds from a seemingly innocuous opening to a rip-roaring conclusion that Kate Danley has cleverly thought out in her introductory note for practical performance. Nice tone of farce throughout, and should play in no more than ten minutes if that.

This could have turned into a heavy-handed anti-Trump didactic sort of thing, but McLindon's artful re-casting of some painful truths about immigration and homophobia into a fairy tale for our times gives the play a welcome comic edge. Very clever and well-done, with good theatrical use of a narrator and various suggested props.

What seems at first like an innocent story of a little girl seeking middle-of-the-night comfort from her parents turns into a macabre and horrific Halloween story in which more is left unexplained than revealed. Watch among many other clever touches how the water in that goldfish bowl turns red.

Not the first play about time travel, and for that matter meddling with time, but a droll and light treatment of said motif in the space of just ten minutes. Why a talking cat as a dissertation advisor? Who knows, but the sparkling dialogue, the historical setting, and the play of wit all make this a thoroughly charming short play.

Here Aurora's 100-year sleep becomes a metaphor for a young woman slowly breaking free from the bonds of a toxic relationship where the handsome Prince Charming is a sociopathic, even murderous brute below the surface. A clever mash-up of an old fairy tale with the incongruous demands of a contemporary self-supporting life, "Suspended Animation" ends with the realization that this inexperienced job seeker, who probably blew the interview by confessing all this personal stuff, will eventually find her way.

The play builds slowly, with teenage siblings Violet and Vince at first seeming high-spirited and playful, until their deeper sadism comes to the fore when Keith Liddell doesn't meet their unrealistic expectations. The ending is shocking; think how differently the play would seem if it weren't set in a snowy February, and on the top of a very high hill.

Other commenters have compared this deftly paced play to Albee's "Zoo Story," except that the Albee is altogether more sinister and the tone here reminds me more of Ionesco's "Bald Soprano." Jack Levine's two characters (who can be any age, but I hear them as elderly) are both charmingly clueless in the same way as the Martins in Ionesco's absurdist classic. Dick's preposterous "invention," designed to save people, is a sweet metaphor for how this encounter has the potential to save two lonely lives. The play is very accessible and easily staged.

Say it t'aint so! Scott has lived up to his name as the (sick)-est member of the NPX crowd! One fears for the stage crew and costume shop that would have to clean up the mess after each performance! But do not let that dissuade you from enjoying this terpsichorean-anal-fecal noir extravaganza. "Nothing human is alien," said the Roman poet (even a play about food poisoning and diarrhea). So stay away from the shrimp at the buffet, and as they say in the world of dance, "Merde!"