“OUT ON THE EDGE” | On the bill for the Theater Offensive’s “18th Annual Festival of Queer Theater”: the world premiere of Come As You Are: Celebrate Queer Sex! (at Club Café); Joey Arias and Sherry Vine in the New England premiere of SINsation; Lenelle Moïse in the Boston premiere of Womb-Words, Thirsting; “queer solo performance legend” Tim Miller in Lay of the Land; Slanty Eyed Mama in Birth of a nAsian; “legend of queer theater” Kate Bornstein in On Men, Women and the Rest of Us; and former porn star Annie Sprinkle and her partner, Elizabeth Stephens, in Dirty Sex-ecology, or How To Make Love with the Earth. Plus the usual performance workshops, panel discussions, and open rehearsals, not to mention Annie and Elizabeth giving a “sex-ecological” tour of the Public Garden. | Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Pavilion [most events], 527 Tremont St, Boston |www.thetheateroffensive.org| October 25–November 15 | Various curtain times | Various ticket prices
THE OVERWHELMING | Company One presents this thriller from J.T. Rogers (Madagascar, White People), in which Jack Exley, who’s looking to research his new book, moves his family to Rwanda. The year just happens to be 1994, so he, his wife, and his teenage son soon begin “to unearth unexpected truths about this tiny, troubled nation . . . and about themselves.” Shawn LaCount directs.| Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre, 539 Tremont St, Boston | 617.933.8600 | October 30–November 21 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 8 pm Fri-Sat | 2 pm Sun | $30-$38; $30 seniors; $15 students; $18 Wed
THE SPARROW | This Stoneham Theatre entry from Nathan Allen, Chris Mathews, and Jake Minton is not another Edith Piaf bio-drama but rather a story of teens and telekinesis, with orphan Emily Book returning to the town she grew up in for her final year of high school — only it seems she’s not the same girl she was when she left. Allen himself directs. | Stoneham Theatre, 395 Main St, Boston | 617.279.2200 | October 22–November 8 | Curtain 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 4 + 8 pm Sat | 2 pm Sun | $38-$44; $34-$40 seniors; $20 students
A TALE OF TWO CITIES | Wheelock Family Theatre stages this Dwayne Hartford adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic about the French Revolution and the “far, far better thing” than Sydney Carton had ever done before. Susan Kosoff directs. | Wheelock Family Theatre, 200 the Riverway, Boston | 617.879.2300 | October 30–November 29 | Curtain 7:30 pm Fri | 3 pm Sat-Sun | $15-$25
VALET OF THE DOLLS | Ryan Landry’s Gold Dust Orphans pan Jacqueline Susann territory with this spoof starring Afrodite as Anne Welles, Penny Champayne as Jennifer North, Liza Lott as Neely O’Hara, “and introducing Ryan Landry as Miss Helen Lawson.” Ryan needs an introduction? Anyway, “only one will win that special parking space . . . that space reserved only for the STAR! . . . And guarded by . . . the ‘Valet of the Dolls.’ ” | Machine, 1254 Boylston St, Boston |www.brownpapertickets.com| October 23–November 22 | Curtain 8 pm Fri-Sat [7 pm October 31] | 5 pm Sun | $35
