Intergenerational trauma can cripple, and many Holocaust survivors pass the scars of their wartime experiences on to their children, even inadvertently. Cary Gitter’s The Steel Man, inspired by a true story, identifies the underlying pain of a physically intact yet severely damaged man trapped in a destructive dance with his only child.   

Water can be a source of life, recreation, and freedom, but it can also carry painful histories of exclusion and struggle. In Christina Anderson’s the ripple, the wave that carried me home, water becomes the foundation of a family’s fight for racial equality and a daughter’s journey toward understanding her past. Directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene, the production brings together a talented ensemble and imaginative scenic design for an  intimate exploration of family relationships.

Clifford Odets’s Waiting for Lefty, the fiery one-act that launched his playwriting career in the depths of the Great Depression in 1935, moves through seven scenes, from a union hall to a desperate family trying to put food on the table. As critic Harold Clurman recalled in a 1963 appreciation of Odets, “though he had a thrilling gift for dialogue, he was no literary man.” Steven Pasquale’s production for Classic Stage Company, however, intersperses protest songs and dance sequences among the scenes. Although well performed, they dilute the raw intensity of the original.

With a title like The Unbelievers and a stage half filled with church pews, one might expect some discourse on religion from Nick Payne’s latest drama. Instead, the Manhattan Theatre Club production offers nearly two intermissionless hours of tedious conversation and few significant insights on any topic. A stellar performance by Lauren Ambrose is the U.K.-set play’s saving grace.

Tristan & Yseult, Emma Rice’s exuberant reimagining of the legendary medieval romance, transforms a tragic tale of forbidden love into a theatrically inventive blend of music, irreverent humor, and physical comedy. With a live band, imaginative staging, and a playful sensibility, Rice, who directs, creates a production that moves effortlessly between laughter and heartbreak, breathing fresh life into this timeless love story.

Since 2010’s That Hopey Changey Thing, Off-Broadway theatergoers have fretted over American politics alongside the Apple family, denizens of the Hudson Valley village of Rhinebeck. With We’ll See now at the Public Theater, playwright and director Richard Nelson presents the 13th  installment of his “Rhinebeck Panorama” and his eighth Apple play (counting three COVID live streams). Thanks to a familiar and remarkable ensemble, and Nelson’s signature fly-on-the-wall naturalism, We’ll See achieves its quiet, bittersweet power by placing larger political concerns alongside the hyper-specific and finely drawn relationships of its characters.