Bootleg Shakespeare. A true story about a radium-poisoning scandal. A black comedy whose characters include a talking apartment and a ghostly Justin Timberlake. Those are some of the enticements that Richmond-area theaters will present in the 2009-10 season. Firehouse Theatre Project artistic director Carol Piersol might have been speaking for many company leaders when she said of her play-selection process, “I make a pile of plays that hit me in the gut - and then I try to get variety.“

If you can remember when a paperback spy novel cost $4.95 and when telephones had dials and long cords, you are the right vintage for Neil Simon’s 1977 play “Chapter Two.“ But you don’t have to be that well-seasoned to appreciate the reliable humor and stinging pain with which Simon infused this semi-autobiographical comedy. Standing in for the playwright is George Schneider, a successful New York-based writer who pens the aforementioned spy novels for money and the occasional serious novel for artistic satisfaction. In his mid-40s, he has just lost his perfect, beloved wife of 12 years and is bereft.

When: through April 4
  Where: Chamberlayne Actors Theatre, 319 N. Wilkinson Road
  Tickets: $15-$20
  Info: (804) 262-9760 or http://www.cattheatre.com

‘Mindgame’ balances fear, fun Some ads for the Chamberlayne Actors Theatre current production of Anthony Horowitz’s psychological thriller, “Mindgame,“ come with a PG-13 rating. Rest assured, the ads were much gorier than anything that actually transpired onstage. One scene featured a bit of very unrealistic fake blood that sent one theatergoer home before the second act, but it is the implied violence and the mounting anticipation that makes this play too intense for young audiences.

The close examination of morality in Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” makes the play an excellent choice for the 2009 Acts of Faith Festival. This was the play that made Miller famous in 1947 and won him a Tony Award in 1948, and Chamberlayne Actors Theatre’s straightforward and careful production comes close to doing it justice. In fact, the fine cast, directed by Sheryle Criswell and well supported by the design staff, is nearly perfect. Miller wrote no throwaway roles in this beautiful work, and each of the 10 actors gets a fully realized human to inhabit. And the detailed set by Lin Heath is just right, as are the period costumes by Charlotte Scharff and Betty Williams. Alan Armstrong’s lighting is well done except for the third act, which takes place after midnight and is sometimes just too dim.