Opening Nights: Domestic Comedy, Domestic Tragedy, and the Iraq War in Dance

Some of pro re nata works better as concept than as theater—the curtain that separates the two "worlds" reflects the stagelight into our eyes at random moments, and the video feed from the other side of the divide can be as frustratingly hard to watch as real-time video-phone calls. But for those of us who experience wartime from far away (that is to say, most of us), that frustration mirrors our own. SANDRA KURTZ

Rabbit Hole

Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave., 364-3283,www.reacttheatre.org. $6–$15. 8 p.m. Fri.–Sat., 2 & 7 p.m. Sun. Ends May 31.

Becca and Howie Corbett, a couple whose 4-year-old son was hit and killed by a car four months earlier, are forced into self-examination when the driver of the car asks to meet them. Becca's kooky, irresponsible sister Izzy gets pregnant, and Becca's tipsy mother gets into the act too, apparently for the purpose of having another character to supply family backstory. The Seattle premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire's 2007 Pulitzer-winning "kitchen-sink drama" is enlivened by salty dialogue and Ellen Dessler's spunky performance as Izzy, yet still feels heavy due to the atmosphere of extended grief-turned-depression and conservative directorial choices by ReAct's artistic director David Hsieh. The script registers as safe compared to Lindsay-Abaire's darkly absurd Fuddy Meers and zany, madcap Wonder of the World, while reprising the playwright's wonted subject of a married woman recalibrating herself for a changed life. As the contrite 17-year-old driver Jason, Alex Adisorn's sincere, naturalistic optimism refreshes like a gust of oxygen in a still room. MARGARET FRIEDMAN