Based on interviews, evidence, and court testimony, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's chilling, intimate one-act details the wrongful convictions and subsequent exonerations of six death row survivors. Cases examined include those of Gary Gauger, an Illinois farmer falsely accused of murdering his parents, and David Keaton, an aspiring minister coerced into confessing to a robbery and murder he knew nothing about. But the most compelling vignette belongs to Sunny Jacobs (played by understudy Kelly Pfeifer at the performance I saw), who--after 17 years of imprisonment and the execution of her husband Jesse Tafero for murders they didn’t commit--lives her life as a "memorial." With minimalist staging and a sympathetic cast, Sonia Alexandria's production for La Costa Theatre Company challenges the inviolability of the criminal justice system. --Marissa Oberlander

Price: $15