The first of two world premieres by women from Flashpoint Theatre Company this season, Megan Mostyn-Brown’s darkly comic The Bends features Janice Rowland as bestselling author Gemma, visiting college friends for the first time in years. The reunion goes awry in a wine-soaked night of past and present colliding in a play that artistic director — and set and lighting designer — Thom Weaver calls “exciting, brutal and honest.” Barrymore nominee Kathryn MacMillan directs, introducing Philadelphia to a playwright gaining national notice. In June, popular local actress Aimé Donna Kelly’s first play, Planta me en la Tierra, will debut. Flashpoint, quiet since last spring’s Barrymore-winning Slip/Shot (except for its holiday shows), is back.
Through March 31, $15-$22, Off-Broad Street Theater, 1636 Sansom St., 215-665-9720, flashpointtheatre.org.
