Stage Capsule Reviews

Iron KissesOn one level, Iron Kissesis another dash through two of the most common — and self-involved — ideas that you'd see in a young playwrights' workshop: a coming-out tale, with a detour into how a character got the hell out of a small town. Playwright (and native Kansan) James Still's innovation is to give us this story from the parents' perspective before giving it to us from the kids' point of view — and to have his actors play both generations. Nathan Darrow and Karen Errington are up to the task, playing adult kids fucked up by their parents and the parents fucked up by their kids. When Darrow, playing the father of outed son Billy, describes the moment he knew that his son would someday grow up and leave their town, I enjoyed a gush of feeling far richer than anything I've felt at the theater this year. Through May 20 at the Unicorn Theatre, 3828 Main, 816-531-7529, ext.10. Reviewed in our May 3 issue.(Alan Scherstuhl)

A Streetcar Named DesireThe craftspeople at the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre have muscled a drafty, gorgeous garage into something resembling a theater. Watching a show there, in the shadows of Power & Light, is to experience true culture taking root, talented locals creating something unique in the places that big money has abandoned. MET's last show, QED, suffered from a sloggy script, but the production impressed on every level under local control. Now, MET tackles something a little more solid: Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, source of one of the most parodied lines in Hollywood history: Stella!, which, like Squeal like a pig, is usually quoted by people who haven't bothered to see the original show. Come fill in a cultural gap, kids. Through May 20 at Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, 1824 Walnut, 816-536-9464. (Alan Scherstuhl)