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Upcoming arts events around Boston

THE WEEK AHEAD

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

January 26, 2012

Fire dancers BOSTON BALLET SHOWS AND TELLS Boston Ballet artistic director… (Gene Schiavone )

THEATER

SUGAR Robbie McCauley’s solo show about diabetes and race is a lyrical and stirring journey through the world she found and the world she made, in the theater and elsewhere, while coping with a condition that sometimes sapped her energy but never her spirit. Through Jan. 29. Presented by ArtsEmerson in collaboration with the performing arts department at Emerson College. At Jackie Liebergott Black Box, Paramount Center, Boston. 617-824-8400, www.artsemerson.org

ART Despite its arch and stilted dialogue, Yasmina Reza’s drama, in a production directed by Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, absorbingly frames some knotty questions about how well we really know those people we call our friends. With taut performances by Robert Walsh, Robert Pemberton, and Doug Lockwood. Through Feb. 5. New Repertory Theatre, Arsenal Center for the Arts, Charles Mosesian Theater, Watertown. 617-923-8487, www.newrep.org

GREEN EYES As a play, this brief one-act work by Tennessee Williams amounts to not much more than a fragment of an idea. But as an experience, it is something special, largely due to a spellbinding performance by Erin Markey as a newlywed who engages in erotic and psychological combat with her husband (an intense Alan Brincks), a war-traumatized soldier convinced she cheated on him the night before. Through Feb. 12. Coproduction by Company One and the Kindness. At Ames Hotel, Boston. 800-838-3006, www.brownpapertickets.com

FEN Under the direction of Meg Taintor, this top-notch, well-acted, and timely production of Caryl Churchill’s 1983 play about the desperate lives of British farm workers, most of them women, powerfully dramatizes the human costs of a system that allows economic inequality to fester. Sound familiar? Through Feb. 4. Whistler in the Dark. At Factory Theatre, Boston. 800-838-3006, www.whistlerinthedark.com

THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW When you’re Ryan Landry, nothing succeeds like excess, which makes him just about perfect in the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter, the pansexual transvestite/mad scientist/alien who gleefully debauches a pair of young innocents. Through Jan. 27. Presented by Oberon and the Gold Dust Orphans. At Oberon, Cambridge.866-811-4111, www.cluboberon.com

DON AUCOIN

THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE John Van Druten’s unapologetic 1943 romance unfolds as a lovely antidote to cynicism. The era of the play is World War II, but universal themes and unpretentious performances make these sympathetic characters feel remarkably contemporary. Through Jan. 29. Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lowell. 978-654-4678, www.merrimackrep.org