In The New Deal, Jonathan Case sets some tricky-to-pull-off parameters: a graphic novel about income inequality, basically, with the jaunty style of a classic mystery—and succeeds. "Peeling back the façade of the American system to reveal corruption or deceit beneath isn't necessarily new, but what Case reveals in The New Deal is in service to solving a case, finding clues, and revealing whodunit," writes Joe Streckert in his review. "The moments when we find out that rich people are awful bastards who don't play by the rules aren't preachy or didactic. Instead, they're funny and grin-inducing." Case's artwork for The New Deal is currently also on display at Sequential Art Gallery.

"You know you're in for a unique experience the minute you walk into the theater and you're greeted by people wearing police uniforms who check your coat and give you a nametag." Jenna Lechner bravely attended performance group Liminal's latest. It's called Offending the Audience, and boy does it ever!

I saw Theatre Vertigo's The Drunken City, even though it's about bachelorette parties which are one of my ideas of hell*. I thought it would be like this:

Instead, it inhabits all the best and worst parts of being awake at 3 in the morning, from the joys of late-night snack attacks to the depths of been-up-too-long existential despair. It's also funny. The play runs through this weekend. You should go see it!

*The others are: the dentist; listening to a stranger mansplain the plot of a movie I have never seen before and never plan to see; when I'm in line somewhere and another customer, irrationally angry at the person whose thankless job it is to deal with them, tries to enlist me in some kind of group revolt through smug eye contact alone.