THEATER

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A Raisin in the Sun. Lorraine Hansberry’s wounding, healing drama concerns a 1950s Chicago family divided and united by economic pressures, racial tensions, and aspirational dilemmas. The Muhlenberg College production is supervised by guest artist Jeffrey Page, a dancer, opera director, and choreographer whose credits include Beyonce specials and the original Broadway production of “Fela!” the hit South African musical. He also launched a nonprofit that celebrates traditional and contemporary African movement. (Baker Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance, 2440 W. Chew St., Allentown, Feb. 20-23)

Heddatron. A pregnant, bored domestic engineer escapes her robotic existence when robots kidnap her and force her to perform Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler,” in, of all places, a rain forest. Playwright Elizabeth Meriwether aggravates the absurdity by making Ibsen struggle to write “Hedda,” a revolutionary play about a revolutionary woman, while being taunted by a shrewish spouse and his rival, August “Miss Julie” Strindberg.. (Buck Theater, Lafayette College, 219 N. 3rd St., Easton, Feb. 21-23, 27-29)

The Humans. A Manhattan apartment becomes a Thanksgiving hothouse as Scranton relatives endure dementia, bowel problems, and 9/11 trauma, all compounded by normal holiday and urban stresses. Playwright Stephen Karam grew up in Scranton, won a 2016 best-play Tony, and authored the screenplay for the 2018 film “The Seagull.” (Civic Theatre of Allentown, 527 N. 19th St., Feb. 7-9, 13-16, 20-23)

Biloxi Blues. The middle play in Neil Simon’s autobiographical trilogy showcases a World War II tug of war between a sadistic sergeant and a sensitive soldier during basic training in Mississippi. (Pennsylvania Playhouse, 390 Illick’s Mill Rd., Bethlehem, Feb. 7-9, 14-16)

Lombardi. A magazine reporter is frustrated, fascinated, and rewarded while profiling fabled coach/motivator Vince Lombardi as he prepares the Green Bay Packers for a 1965 game. (Lipkin Theatre, Kopacek Hall, Northampton Community College, 3835 Green Pond Rd., Bethlehem, Feb. 10-16)

Into the Woods. Rapunzel, Beanstalk Jack, and other Grimm characters help a baker and his wife reverse a witch’s barren-womb curse in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s dazzlingly warped fairy-tale pilgrimage. (Samuels Theatre, Tompkins College Center, Cedar Crest College, 100 College Drive, Allentown, Feb. 20-24)

Tartuffe. Moliere’s delightfully devilish title character is a spiritual con man who nearly ruins a wealthy family until a canny matriarch exposes his snakeoil tomfoolery. (Act1 Productions, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, Feb. 20-23, 26-March 1)

Blithe Spirit. Noel Coward’s wickedly witty work features an occult-researching novelist and his second wife tormented by his first spouse, who is resurrected from the dead by a wacky séance. Fun footnote: Coward played the novelist during a World War II tour. (Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, Feb. 21-23, 26-29)

Edith Piaf: Hymn to Love. Touchstone Theatre and Teatro Potlach, an Italian ensemble, reboot a solo show about the larger-than-life, legendary chanteuse. The 2015 version, which visited Touchstone, starred Potlach member Nathalie Mentha, a Swiss-born Italian, portraying Piaf, her boxer-lover Marcel Cerdan, and Paris-invading Nazis with the mesmerizing flair of an acrobat and a silentfilm femme fatale. Jason Hedrington, Touchstone’s musical director, provides accompaniment. (Touchstone, 321 E. 4th St., Bethlehem, March 5-8)

Fool for Love. The late, great playwright, author, actor, and cowboy Sam Shepard’s 1984 Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Obie Award for Best New American Play is a crushing look at two volatile, highly sexual past lovers attacking each other like rabid cheetahs out for blood. And it’s hilarious. Brenna Geffers directs. (EgoPo Classic Theater at the Latvian Society, 531 N. 7th Street, February 5-23)

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Playwright Rajiv Joseph’s witty, 2018 Obie Award-winning dramedy explores “the blurred lines between lies, history and conspiracy theories, as it tracks back and forth across 90 years of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia.” The Wilma’s co-founder and artistic director, Blanka Zizka, takes on Joseph’s Tom Stoppardesque tale of foreign intrigue and lying ire. (The Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad Street, Through February 16)

The Vertical Hour. Wordy and dry British playwright David Hare gets wordier and dryer when tackling the after-effects of President Bush’s Iraq War on a whip-smart American war correspondent-turned-professor and the dysfunctional-ly conflicted British family she’s marrying into. Lots of secrets and lots of sadness. (Lantern Theater Company at St. Stephen’s Theater, 923 Ludlow St., Through February 16)

The Bald Soprano. Maybe the now-defunct Brat Theatre Company brought Eugene Ionesco’s circularly repetitious avant-absurdist tragic-comedy back into theatrical vogue and advancing its tense oddity by performing it continuously for 24 hours in a loop. This unforgettable production set the stage, however, not only for The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium’s 2017 wooly execution of Ionesco’s first play but the IRC’s presentation of Ionesco plays such as Rhinoceros, Exit the King and The Chairs. Then again, it’s not as if the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium needed help being weird or genderbending. The IRC 2020 production will feature the same cast as its 2017 version: Sonja Robson and John Zak as the Smiths; Tomas Dura as Mary, the Maid; and Tina Brock and Bob Schmidt as The Martins; with Carlos Forbes as The Fireman. (The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium at the Bethany Mission Gallery, 1527 Brandywine Street, February 6–16)

The Government Inspector. Russian-Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol penned an uproariously funny satire where corrupt government officials in a provincial tiny township freak out when they discover they’re about to be investigated. How will the town’s fathers make the inspector look away? (Penn Theatre Arts Program at the Bruce Montgomery Theatre at the Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut Street, February 13-16)

Osceola. Hella Fresh Theater, an independent company, based in the Papermill Theater, presents playwright John Rosenberg’s tale of a housewife and mother of three, her simple-minded brother-in-law (who was kicked in the head by a horse), and a creepy hunting trip they take near the ghost town of Osceola on the Nevada / Utah border. What could go wrong? https://hellafreshtheater.com/ (Papermill Theater, 2825 Ormes St, Philadelphia, February 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29 and March 1)

My General Tubman Playwright Lorene Cary and actor, playwright, and (in this case) director James Ijames continue the topical aesthetic trend (see the Oscar-nominated film Harriet) of looking at Black civil rights freedom fighter Harriet Tubman with a world premiere play. (Arcadia Stage at Arden Theatre Company, 40 N. 2nd Street, Through Mar.1)