Ciara Elizabeth Smyth’s new play, Irishtown, is packed with tension. The plot? A scrappy Dublin theater company gets its big break when invited to bring their latest production to Broadway. The actors aren’t completely on board, however. They’re worried that the play, a sexual-assault courtroom drama set in England, is too bleak and not Irish enough for a U.S. debut. What will they do? “It’s quite a trip watching talented actors frantically portraying desperate actors acting,” writes Roma Torre of the New York Stage Review. Nicola Murphy Dubey directs the show, which stars Kate Burton (Grey’s Anatomy) and Saoirse-Monica Jackson (Derry Girls). —Jeanne Malle