Stephanie Timm writes grim comedies that happen somewhere between the world we live in and the one we remember from fairy tales. In Crumbs, a snowy small town is our setting, the local crazy is our narrator, a sexually precocious little girl is Little Red Riding Hood, a menacing stranger is the Big, Bad Wolf—and that’s just one of a dozen subplots. Plus: pet murders, little old ladies, fishing, an ice pick, and enough sexual tension to power all of Nebraska. (Washington Ensemble Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 800-838-3006. 8 pm, $15—$18.)

Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua....