Theater Minis

OPENING

• Accidental Death of an Anarchist — Rorschach Theatre. Nobel Prize laureate Dario Fo’s satire probes the mysterious death of an anarchist who falls from a window while being interrogated by officials. Opens Sunday at Calvary Methodist Church. 800/494-TIXS.

• La Lechuga (The Lettuce) — Teatro de la Luna. An eccentric comedy that follows a dysfunctional family deciding what to do with their dear old bedridden dad. Opens tomorrow at the Gunston Arts Center. 703/548-3092.

• Private Eyes — Journeymen Theater Ensemble. A married couple star in a play together, but soon the couple have a hard time distinguishing what is real life and what is rehearsal. Opens Tuesday at the Church Street Theatre. 202/669-7229.

NOW PLAYING

• Anna in the Tropics — Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage — ****. The catalyst of Nilo Cruz’s voluptuous, Pulitzer Prize-winning play, about the startling effect words have on a group of Cuban-American cigar factory workers in Florida in the 1920s, is Juan Julian (the princely Jason Manuel Olazabal). The plant’s new “lector,” who reads aloud to the workers as they bunch tobacco and roll cigars, he chooses the bodice-ripper “Anna Karenina” as his first effort, unaware of how this book will ignite passions both grand and violent in the men and women. The play is an orgy of language, with metaphors that accrete like the finest silk lingerie. The actors capture the tone perfectly. Sometimes the prose gets purplish, but for the most part, you just lie back and think of Cuba. Through Nov. 21. 202/488-3300. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Bunnicula — Imagination Stage — ***. Bunnicula is the fearsome “vampire bunny” that arrives in the Monroe household to the consternation of the family dog and cat. With cape-like black markings on his back, with beady, burning eyes and teeth more Bela than Bugs, the rabbit springs open the doors of his cage at night and preys on innocent salad fixings. The erudite and thoughtful resident animals’ comic attempts to warn the family provide much of the fun of this nicely scary play, a Halloween treat. Jon Klein’s adaptation of the literate and wry children’s book by Deborah and James Howe reaches a wide range of ages without dumbing down the sophistication of the original text. Through Nov. 7. 301/280-1660. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• M. Butterfly — Arena Stage’s Fichandler Stage — ***1/2. David Henry Hwang’s Tony-winning play is based on a true-life scandal, the affair between a French diplomat in China and a Chinese opera singer who was not just a man, but a spy. Mr. Hwang’s deft deconstruction of the stereotypes Westerners hold about Eastern culture remains powerful and wrenching. However, the play is on its firmest footing when dealing with the blurred edges of sexuality, male fantasies and domination versus submission. Stephen Bogardus gives a gentle, restrained portrayal of the hapless protagonist, while newcomer J. Hiroyuki Liao as the spy holds a viewer spellbound with stylized gestures and graceful bows that are almost absurdly feminine. Through Sunday. 202/488-3300. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Macbeth — The Shakespeare Theatre — **. “Macbeth” charts the trajectory of the former “brave knight” (Patrick Page) who quickly goes from hailed loyal nobleman to reviled psychopathic tyrant after he is seized by a “vaulting ambition” — the result of the weird sisters’ prophecy and some shrewd goading by his wife (Kelly McGillis). Sets, shadow play and costumes make this a dazzling production. Beyond the purely visual, it’s respectable but not greatly involving. With its cool, modern Danish sensibilities, this staging presents a portrait of ruthless ambition that attracts the eye but gives emotions the brush-off. Through Oct. 24. 202/547-1122. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• The Matchmaker — Ford’s Theatre — **. Embracers of modernism might find Thornton Wilder’s play — set in the 1880s, written in 1954 and the basis for the hit musical and movie “Hello, Dolly!” — redolent of mothballs. It’s sweet and well-intentioned, but full of drab spots that make the show gently narcotic. The widow Dolly Levi (Andrea Martin), an amiable but entrepreneurial busybody and matchmaker, sets up the lively milliner Irene Molloy (Sarah Zimmerman) with Horace Vandergelder (Jonathan Hadary), a miserly dry-goods scion from Yonkers, then decides she wants Horace for herself. Miss Martin is a gifted comedian; her Dolly is bossy and outsized, with a love of life. As Horace, Mr. Hadary has the bluster down pat but appears more uncertain in expressing the character’s vulnerabilities. There are some winning parts but few creative, unexpected moments. The play is sturdily nostalgic but hardly transcendent. Through Oct. 24. 202/347-4833. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• The Russian National Postal Service — Studio Theatre —***. This 85-minute play by Oleg Bogaev, 34, a black-humored playwright from the “new Russia,” bracingly kicks off Studio Theatre’s season-long salute to Russian playwrights and authors. It’s a bleak look at a lonely widower who has no vital place in post-Soviet Russia and spends his days writing letters to world figures such as Queen Elizabeth II, Lenin and Stalin. Floyd King, a master of physical comedy, does a bravura turn as the retiree, imbuing the role with gentle comedic shadings and a dexterous touch of melancholy. His pen pals, who crowd his apartment as he drifts in and out of sleep, are deftly drawn. Through Sunday. 202/332-3300. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Tabletop — Round House Theatre — **. Rob Ackerman’s fitfully funny play portrays the insular world of the “tabletop” ad technicians — those camera tricksters who make “ice cream” out of mashed potatoes — with hectic, almost bruising comedy. The play does give us a glimpse into a world to which most of us are not privy, but its one-note extremism is wearing. Even the rhythms become predictable — hissy fit, recovery, hissy fit, recovery. For a play lambasting our culture’s preference for image over substance, “Tabletop” comes off as oddly shallow, as pea-brained as the people and the industry it portrays. Through Oct. 31. 240/644-1100. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.