Last call: Seven Spots on the Sun and The Kid Thing

Not quite ready for the holiday barrage? Here are two provocative pieces that must close this weekend.

Seven Spots on the Sun, InnerMission Productions An old saying goes, “out of the mud grows the lotus.” Martin Zimmerman‘s 90-minute drama has that quality. Civil war ravages San Ysidro, a small village in an unnamed Central American country. Each side sweeps through in waves.

When Moises, the local doctor, loses his wife to the war, he refuses to practice medicine. Enter the lotus — actually, it's Moises’s unique ability to heal children from a plague with the touch of his hand. It’s a miraculous gift, but will the lotus heal the infant of the man who murdered his wife?

Seven Spots goes for magic realism, à la Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and sometimes strains too far. There are times, however, when everyday events become almost magical, as when Moises and his wife eat a pineapple, as if for the first time in history, and when the townspeople hear the radio after an 18-month power outage, also as if for the first time and cause for an ecstatic celebration.

The production, presented as story theater with actors seated on the sides and making sounds and singing songs, boasts fine performances by Jorge Rodriguez as Moises and Jennifer Paredes as Monica, whose child may live or die, depending on the doctor’s decision.

Playing through Saturday, December 10

The Kid Thing, Moxie Theatre. For heterosexual couples the matter of having children has all the basic complications. Sarah Gubbins’s drama adds more, as a lesbian couple decides to have a child. The announcement at a casual get-together evokes four different reactions. Along with how to choose a donor (the “bio-dad”), they range from “people breed all the time” to defiant Darcy’s fear of a child stigmatized by her “butch” clothing and short-cropped hair, of choice.

The debates also probe how much people can — or care to — know about each other: how much gets taken for granted in a relationship or friendship; how much lies interred, beyond heart-to-heart discussion or lower-the-lamp interrogation?

Led by JoAnn Glover’s complex-plus Darcy, a talented ensemble cast (Katie Harroff, Sarah Karpicus, Anna Rebek, and Connor Sullivan) perform on Sarah Mouyal’s nicely detailed set, Darcy and Leigh’s living room with sleek lines, subtle shades, and Chicago’s Sears Tower across the way — one of Moxie’s best designs in some time.

Playing through Sunday, December 11