What’s a little ‘Harm’ among friends?
A year after San Francisco Playhouse premiered its commission “You Mean to Do Me Harm” as part of the company’s second-stage Sandbox Series of new works, Bay Area playwright Christopher Chen’s tense and tangled drama is back in a bigger production. An offhand comment made at a friendly dinner between two couples — each pair made up of one Chinese-American and one white American — sparks paranoia that feeds on itself and escalates to surreal proportions until it’s hard even for the audience to tell what’s real and what’s imagined. In the process issues of race, nationality, gender roles and trust are dragged out into the open. Details: Through Nov. 3; San Francisco Playhouse; $35-$125; 415-677-9596, www.sfplayhouse.org
With Sorkin’s blessing, a few good women
A lot of people know Aaron Sorkin’s 1989 play “A Few Good Men” primarily through the star-studded 1992 movie adaptation, just as Sorkin himself is best known for his later gigs as a TV showrunner for “The West Wing” and other talky dramas.
When Joel Roster, artistic director of the Other Other Theatre Company, chose the courtroom drama to be the second production of his new Contra Costa County company, he decided to update the 1980s-set story a little bit with the playwright’s permission.
His production casts women as defense attorney Lt. j.g. Daniel Kaffee (the lead role played by Tom Cruise in the movie, portrayed here by Maris Cozart), the judge and one of the Marines accused of murder, and actors of color as the high-ranking Marine officers the defense butts up against in trying to uncover the truth.
Can Kaffee, in fact, handle the truth? You’ll have to head over to Walnut Creek to find out.
Details: Sunday through Oct. 29; Ballet School Performing Arts Studio, 1357 N. Main St., Walnut Creek; $15-$20; www.otherothertheatre.com.