Underground Railway Theater and Playwrights’ Theatre at Boston University bring the powerful folk parable, Ti-Jean & His Brothers, to Cambridge. A Caribbean family is in crisis: three brothers are pulled into a dangerous game with the Devil in this fanciful, dark, and ultimately hopeful story of battling despair through fierce humor and love. Ti-Jean & His Brothers celebrates resourcefulness over oppression, and of overcoming injustice through ingenuity and faith.

In commemoration of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and in celebration of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre’s 30th anniversary, and of its founder, Caribbean playwright Derek Walcott.

Three dream plays inspired by true events. An Israeli soldier meets a mysterious Palestinian woman in the Rafah Zoo. A Palestinian father reveals to a young Israeli their shared history. A bookish Iraqi bird collector tells of his conscription into Saddam’s army. Through magic realism and surprising humor, The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East reaches out like prophecy, challenging us to envision peace during the holiday season.

The Nora Theatre Company revives Eugene O’Neill’s enduring masterpiece, bringing together two of his most memorable characters: Josie Hogan, the tough-talking daughter of an Irish immigrant, and Jim Tyrone, first introduced in the autobiographical Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Uniquely funny and poignant, A Moon for the Misbegotten illuminates a search for redemption through an unlikely and magnificent love story.

Following sold-out runs in New York and San Francisco as well as a critically acclaimed run at Central Square Theater last year, Catalyst Collaborative@MIT welcomes back Gioia De Cari’s one-woman tour-de-force, Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through MIT’s Male Math Maze. Nominated for Best Solo Performance of 2009 by the Independent Reviewers of New England and for Outstanding Solo Show at the New York International Fringe Festival, Truth Values has been hailed by critics and audiences alike.

The game is afoot! Master sleuth Sherlock Holmes and trusty Dr. Watson unlock the mystery of The Hound of the Baskervilles this summer at Central Square Theater. Featuring three actors taking on more than a dozen roles, this laugh-out-loud farce by Steven Canny and John Nicholson was a hit in both London and Lenox (Shakespeare & Company).