Even if the only Chekhov you're familiar with is the crew member of the Starship Enterprise, you will likely still enjoy New Ground Theatre’s production of Uncle. Featuring characters created by Anton Chekhov, it's a clever look at the lives of people as they react to change, and before attending the April 29 production, I decided to study up on Chekhov (the writer) and Uncle Vanya, thinking I would need to be versed in this Russian play first performed in 1897. I consequently discovered it was unnecessary to have prepared to such an extent. One does not need to know anything about Chekhov or Uncle Vanya to be entertained by Tony-nominated playwright Lee Blessing's Uncle. Davenport's New Ground Theatre was chosen, by its author, for the comedy's world premiere, and the company capably delivered.

Jackson Green, Jordan Webster-Moore, and  Becca Brazel in Noises OffMichael Frayn’s 1982 comedy Noises Off, which will be performed by the St. Ambrose theatre department this weekend, is a fast-paced, riotously wacky farce full of witty lines and tremendous physical comedy, and I can’t believe that, prior to Tuesday night’s rehearsal, I had never seen it before. This has, indeed, been my loss.

St. Ambrose University's Commedia Dell'arte, which closed its one-weekend run on April 19 *, was like nothing I'd previously seen on a local stage. Director/writer Daniel Rairdin-Hale and composer Dillon Rairdin put together a production that felt like a sequence of sketch-comedy bits and musical numbers, but one linked by a story about a mistaken romance forbidden by two fathers. Servants step in to help the young lovers, and hilarity ensued by way of juggling, dancing, singing, the playing of instruments, and comical gags both aural and physical, with most of the actors performing in mask.

Originated in Italy in the 16th Century, the theatrical form commedia dell'arte traditionally finds a group of actors participating in a comedic scenario featuring slapstick conceits called mécanisme. And for his original commedia dell'arte presentation at St. Ambrose University, one fittingly titled Commedia Dell'arte, director Daniel Rairdin-Hale insists that he and his cast have come up with some mécanisme doozies.