Despite its breezy title, “Becky Nurse of Salem” is a full-blown tempest of irony and righteous anger. It ponders the witch as both a powerful being and an object of scorn. Here, witches can be genuine or kooky – sometimes all in the same witch.

Shattered Globe Theatre’s vividly acted and deeply disturbing revival of the Arthur Miller classic “A View From the Bridge” could not have been revived at a more ideally timely moment.

Because Chicago is the storefront theater capital of this country, it’s worth looking at the situation now facing some of these small companies and how they are trying to deal with the global pandemic.

Playwright Deborah Zoe Laufer, whose play “Be Here Now” is receiving its Chicago premiere in a bravura production by Shattered Globe Theatre, has an exceptional gift for being at once sharp-witted and compassionate.

In a joint production by Shattered Globe Theatre and Theater Wit, director Jeremy Wechsler and his cast have tapped into the deftly conjured, fragmented, offbeat rhythms of Will Eno’s characters with impressive skill.

The haunting dramatization of “Crime and Punishment” now on stage attacks the work with the same fire and attention to moral argument as the master writer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, himself. 

Among its several honors, Will Snider’s “How to Use a Knife” was named a finalist for a PEN Center USA Literary Award. Based on this exceptional Shattered Globe production alone, it should have won the prize.