Anthony Ellison's play is billed as a new dark comedy, and it has all the signs of being new, all right: long, inefficient scenes; unclear, unbelievable characters; flat, uninteresting dialogue. But is it really a comedy? There aren't many laughs in this sad tale of adultery and chemical dependency. Every once in a while a character will break into a poignant monologue. But most of the time The North Star just lays there like roadkill. The performances are similarly DOA, though I'd be hard pressed to say whether the acting stinks because the script is weak or vice versa. Though unconvincing as a 13-year-old—he looks to be in his late 20s—Volen Iliev manages to make us care for his character, Isaac, a lost soul trapped in a house full of stunted so-called adults. —Jack Helbig

Price: $15