Female protagonists in peril are the focus of one very silly and one very melancholy production running now on North Bay stages.

Sandra Ish, Angela Squire, Shannon Rider

Left Edge Theatre’s Women in Jeopardy! is a laugh-out-loud look at the changing dynamic among a group of single friends once one of them begins a relationship. That the friends are middle-aged women makes for a nice change of pace.

Mary (Shannon Rider) and Jo (Sandra Ish) are having a tough time adjusting to a new addition to their circle of friends. Their friend Liz (Angela Squire) has a new man in her life and Jackson (Richard Pallaziol) is not quite their cup of tea. He’s a dentist who makes Little Shop of Horrors’ Orin Scrivello, DDS look like a pussycat. His hygienist has gone missing and it doesn’t take long for Mary and Liz to leap to the conclusion that he’s the responsible party. What’s worse, he’s about to take Liz’s daughter off on a camping trip. What do you do when your best friend is dating a serial killer?

Director Carla Spindt deftly guides these wine-swilling ladies through their hijinks, with Ish’s frequently flabbergasted second-banana Jo garnering a lot of laughs with just a look. Pallaziol is hilariously creepy as Jackson and equally amusing as a Dudley Do-Right-ish police sergeant. Victoria Saitz as Mary’s daughter and Zane Walters as her cougar-hunting on again/off again boyfriend also contribute to the fun.

The show is a lot of fun with Wendy MacLeod’s script full of witty lines and amusing bits. What the show doesn’t have is an ending as things just sort of conclude with an abrupt wind-up that you shouldn’t think too hard about.

You really don’t have to expend many brain cells at all as there’s no great message to be found here, just a lot of laughs.

Rating (out of five): ★★★★

‘Women in Jeopardy!’ runs through May 27 at Left Edge Theatre. 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. Thu–Sat, 8pm; Sunday at 2pm. $25–$40. 707.546.3600.

Photo by Argo Thompson

If Greek mythology is more to your taste, then Main Stage West has a production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice running through June 2. Ruhl has flipped the focus of the classic tale of Orpheus (Taylor Diffenderfer) and his quest to bring his wife Eurydice (Brianna Rene Dinges) back from the dead to Eurydice’s time in the Underworld and her relationship with her father (John Craven).

John Craven, Brianna Rene Dinges

Director Chris Ginesi flips it even further with the non-traditional casting of Orpheus that while seeming to fit Ruhl’s alternative world of raining elevators, a tricycle-riding Lord of the Underworld (Neil Thollander), and a Greek Chorus of Talking Stones (mollie boice, Nick Christenson, Samantha Bolke-Slater), actually detracts from it.

It’s a visually arresting piece with inventive design elements that complement the script’s other-worldliness and the performances are good, but there’s a hole in the heart of this production.

Rating (out of five): ★★★

‘Eurydice’’ runs through June 2 at Main Stage West, 104 N. Main St., Sebastopol. Thu–Sat, 8pm; Sunday at 5pm. $15–$30. 707.823.0177

Photo by Eric Chazankin

These reviews originally appeared in an edited version in the North Bay Bohemian