NEIGHBORHOOD 3: REQUISITION OF DOOM | "In an upscale subdivision with identical houses, parents find their teenagers addicted to an on-line horror video game. The game setting? A subdivision with identical houses. The goal? Smash through an army of zombies to escape the neighborhood for good. But as the line blurs between virtual and reality, both parents and players realize that fear has a life of its own." Apollinaire Theatre Company presents this 2008 work by the Los Angeles–based Jennifer Haley, with ATC artistic director Danielle Fauteux Jacques helming the production and also joining the cast, alongside Carolyn Charpie, Erez Rose, and Brian Quint. | Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St, Chelsea | 617.887.2336 | February 12–March 14 | Curtain 8 pm Fri-Sat [plus midnight show March 6] | 3 pm Sun [March 14] | $25 advance; $30 doors; $15 student rush
NOT ENOUGH AIR | The Nora Theatre Company presents the East Coast premiere of this work by local playwright Masha Obolensky about how journalist Sophie Treadwell came to write her 1928 play Machinal, which is a fictionalized version of the life, trial, and execution of Queens housewife Ruth Snyder, who was convicted of murdering her husband. Melia Bensussen directs; the cast includes Anne Gottlieb (as Treadwell), Ruby Rose Fox, Marianna Bassham, Grant MacDermott, Craig Mathers, and Billy Meleady. | Central Square Theater, 450 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 866.811.4111 orwww.centralsquaretheater.org| February 11–March 14 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 8 pm Fri-Sat | 2 + 7 pm [evening February 14] Sun | $35; $25 seniors; $20 students
ONE FLEA SPARE | Naomi Wallace's 1995 drama about an unlikely quartet of humans thrown together in a 1665 London laid low by the bubonic plague had its local premiere from New Repertory Theatre in 2001; now it gets an outing from Whistler in the Dark. The play (which takes its name from John Donne's poem "The Flea") is the recollection of a precocious, disarmingly fearless child named Morse, who escapes the plague nightmare by tumbling through a broken window into the home of quarantined bureaucrat William Snelgrave and his clenched wife, Darcy. They are about to be sprung when Morse and a "common sailor" named Bunce break in, subjecting the Snelgraves to another month's entrapment. So for 28 strained days, the odd foursome are thrown together, their only outside contact a scabrous watchman named Kabe, who offers, between scurrilous ditties, regular updates of the death toll and "sugar nuts" for sexual favors. Meg Taintor directs; Ben Chase, Jeff Gill, Curt Klump, Lorna Nogueira, and Jennifer O'Connor make up the cast. | Factory Theatre, 791 Tremont St, Boston | 800.838.3006 | February 5-21 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 8 pm Fri-Sat | 3 pm Sun | $20; $10 students; pay-what-you-can Wed
