The Necronomicon

In Open Circle Theater’s annual tribute to the horror tales of H.P. Lovecraft, a handful of his stories are adapted as the troubling dreams of a contemporary young woman (Kaitie Warren as some sort of office administrative assistant, which might make you look twice at the woman in the next cubicle). The tension in the script, co-credited to John McKenna, Ron Sandahl, Dustin Engstrom, and Maggie Lee, mounts skillfully as the dreams encroach on her real life and reveal a gruesome truth about her ancestry. Once again the shoestring company does a lot with a little, aided hugely by McKenna’s sound design, an insinuating, near-constant earscape of drips and mutterings that provides not only creepiness but an almost musical continuity to the tale. GAVIN BORCHERT 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 4 p.m. Sun. Ends Nov. 15.
Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 4 p.m. Starts: Oct. 10. Continues through Nov. 15, 2008