The world is a nasty place in Mac Wellman’s strange play A Murder of Crows, making its Houston premiere. The story takes place in an America where the toxic air is “mustardy” and the ocean so polluted it looks like custard. In this land gone grotesque, a young woman, Susannah, suffers after the death of her father, who was killed under a pile of radioactive chicken droppings. Her brother is turning into a statue in the garden, and so Susannah decides to follow her dead father’s advice — she sets out to live with the crows. The Village Voice said Wellman’s vision is “like opening a wristwatch box and finding one of Dali’s melted jobs inside.” Just the sort of avant-garde thing the folks at Mildred’s Umbrella do so well. See A Murder of Crows at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and Mondays. Through September 13. Midtown Arts Center, 3414 LaBranch. For information call 832-418-0585 or visit www.mildredsumbrella.com. $6 to $13.

Mondays, Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Starts: Aug. 28. Continues through Sept. 13, 2008

This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2008.