Dirty Words Allowed

School’s out for summer, and since the rule is “No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks,” we’re looking forward to the arts in forms that are a little easier to swallow. Monosyllabic beach reads and action-heavy blockbusters: It’s not “dumbing down” — our brains are just taking a little vacay. We’re ready for City Theatre’s UnderShorts series, a late-night collection of eight one-act plays based on provocative yet hilarious topics and ideas that will make you cringe, blush, and giggle.

These works could be called decidedly easy with an edge, but we like to call them cotton candy with a razorblade hidden inside. Take, for instance, Alex Dremann’s On the Porch. The mother/daughter relationship around which the action revolves could have gone all Lifetime movie on us, but the fact that both characters are secret agents and contract killers makes everything a bit more interesting. Lazy summer days and spontaneous sprinkler sprints might belong to the kids, but these plays don’t. Patrons younger than age 17 should stay home. Everyone else should get to the Arsht Center. The show begins at 10:30 p.m., and tickets cost $27.
Fri., June 20, 2008