A lot has been said about Christi Stewart-Brown's 1996 play, The Gene Pool. It premiered at Washington, DC's Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in 1998; it's been heralded as "the best sitcom ever written," praised for having "nailed the humor and poignancy of real-life family values," and adored for its "sincerity and heart." The play has been addressed extensively, and fawned over. more ›

Eclectic Theatre Co.'s production of Henrik Ibsen's (@ Odd Duck Studio, 1214 10th Ave., Thurs.-Sun. until Dec. 20; tickets $20) is at best a mixed affair, not terrible but deeply flawed, and depressingly so since it fails in exactly the ways you expect a small theatre to succeed. Without money for big sets, fancy digs, and all that stuff, small "fringe" theatre companies are supposed to be about the acting and the story, but in this case the adaptation of a great play makes it just a bit too melodramatic, and the acting just isn't what it should be. more ›