Wrestling Jerusalem
Actor and writer Aaron Davidman brings this solo show to the Guthrie's Dowling Studio as part of the Singular Voices/Plural Perspectives program. Davidman was artistic director of Traveling Jewish Theatre in San Francisco from 2001-11. This play is one man's journey to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, raising questions of identity, history and social justice. Davidman voices 17 characters. Each performance is followed by a conversation. (Previews 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. Opens 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Thu. Ends Nov. 1; Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Mpls. $15-$35. 612-377-2224, guthrietheater.org.)
Graydon Royce
A Thousand Clowns
Herb Gardner's midcentury classic takes on the establishment in a gentle way, favoring reckless love over by-the-book formality. Mark Mattison, a consistently good actor on the small theater scene, plays Murray Burns, an eccentric New Yorker raising his nephew (played by Parker Miller). But Murray is unemployed after years as a TV gag writer, and the Bureau of Child Welfare does not like the situation. Party poopers. (8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Nov. 8. Theatre in the Round, 245 Cedar Av. S., Mpls. 612-333-3010, theatreintheround.org.)G.R.
The Twenty-Seventh Man
Kurt Schweickhardt directs this 2012 play by Nathan Englander. It uses the historical event of Stalin's 1952 purge of Yiddish writers as a backdrop for a story about the outsider. Crammed into a cell, famous literary types await their certain and grim fate. They eye with suspicion a newcomer who is unpublished and unknown. Englander based the play on his own short story. The cast includes Michael Kissin, Michael Torsch and Skyler Nowinski. See Sunday's Variety section for a profile of Kissin. (8 p.m. Sat., 1 & 7 p.m. Sun, 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Thu. Ends Nov. 8; Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company, 1978 Ford Pkwy., St. Paul. $20-$32. 651-647-4315, mnjewishtheatre.org.)G.R.
