Each holiday season offers an entertainment variety revealing that our culture's holiday spirit continues to thrive on area stages, despite Mother Nature's icy agenda.

"The difference between America and England? America has Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Stevie Wonder — England has no cash, no hope and with the Conservatives about to get back in, it's no fucking wonder."

In Sarah McEneaney paintings, she is so uniquely, even relentlessly — and sometimes literally — nakedly herself, that a rival's envy can't come into the picture. Empathy, yes; envy, no.

A violent showdown against Bottoms' bigger, stronger 16-year-old nemesis is written as if the author was distracted by "Return to Thunderdome," some of it osmotically absorbed into his subconscious.

If you've long suspected that most Web-trollers are either deviant miscreants or lonely dopes, this well-staged story from Theatre Exile will confirm your fears.

Curtis Opera Theatre double-casts its main-stage shows — so while I was glad to have caught the bracing Saturday night performance of Don Giovanni at

Schmucks allows Roy Smiles to examine his obsession with what he calls the "Jewishness" of most American comedy.

Morrison says the narrative moves like an engine, interspersed with deeply introspective reflections from a cast of characters living on a farm in Maryland.