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The article reviews the play "The History of Valentyne and Orson," directed by Ralph Lee and performed by Ian Lassiter and Tom Marion at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in Morningside Heights, New York City through Sunday.

In the finale of ''Wintuk'' the audience disappears in a nor'easter of crepe-paper snowflakes. Until then, though, the wonderment of Cirque du Soleil's fourth (and final) holiday visit to the cavernous Theater at Madison Square Garden occurs despite, not because of, the seasonal trappings. The title of this family-friendly show refers to the ice kingdom that ultimately greets a wide-eyed boy, his wider-eyed female companion and a singing shaman in search of snow. Once there, a milquetoast clown in a trash can clangs around before taking on two ice giants; a hoop-twirling temptress brings a dog back to life; and a pair of baby storks turn out to be dancing pickpockets. Or maybe the dog gets resurrected after that. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

''Haggadah (or the Passover Show),'' Witness Relocation's new production at La MaMa E.T.C., stands as a noisy rebuke to that too-familiar creature: the interminable family Seder. A whirl of speedy activity, with projections, music, dancing and short skits, ''Haggadah,'' directed and choreographed by the troupe's leader, Dan Safer, is theater for the short-attention-span, when-do-we-eat? crowd. Conceived collaboratively -- the program calls the eight performers co-creators and co-choreographers -- the show is more a series of riffs than a retelling of the Passover story, in which Moses leads the Jews out of captivity in Egypt. There's a hit-or-miss quality to those riffs, which run from silly (Moses, encouraged to have a jelly bean, opens a can and a paper snake pops out) to sober (a Holocaust-like story about a hut full of dead bodies). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I think I can confidently say I've now witnessed the most unprepossessing opening to a theater production it is possible to imagine. As the ushers retreated up the aisles at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater on Tuesday night, the audience's attention came to focus on the man who'd been wandering around onstage as we took our seats. What was he up to? He was rubbing the calluses off his feet, carefully collecting the skin shavings on a paper towel. The pedicure as entertainment -- yikes. The image became a metaphor, eventually, for the callused soul of the character onstage. ''Sunken Red,'' which kicked off the theatrical portion of the Next Wave Festival, is an adaptation of an autobiographical novel by the Dutch writer Jeroen Brouwers. He was interned in a prison camp in what is now Indonesia as a child, along with thousands of other Europeans rounded up when the Japanese took control of the area during World War II. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]