Lisa Dillman’s new play is about half-right. The part that works resembles Barbara Ehrenreich’s classic report on middle-class insecurity, Fear of Falling, reimagined as domestic dramedy. Medical transcriptionist Holly and plant worker Marty are a childless couple tending to Marty’s senile dad and facing the threat of unemployment from outsourcing. Cheryl Graeff is remarkably down-to-earth as Holly, almost making the character work by gamely taking on both her Laura Petrie-esque pratfalls and increasing emotional stagnation. But things get old fast when Dillman introduces another couple, in charge of the neighborhood watch–the lazy playwright’s shorthand for creeping fascism and paranoia. Under William Payne’s slipshod direction, these two are played with nerve-shredding cartoonishness. –Kerry Reid a Through 5/27: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron, 773-929-1031. $30-$35.
