Off Broadway Plays Take a Dark Look at Suburbia

Two new plays that opened recently Off Broadway offer studies in divergent reactions to the stresses of contemporary life. At Playwrights Horizons, Maple and Vine by Jordan Harrison offers a dark fantasy about a young urban couple seeking a novel way of escaping from their harried lives. And Alan Ayckbourn’s latest comedy, Neighbourhood Watch, at the 59 East 59 Theaters, tells the story of gentle middle-class Britons turned into vigilantes. New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood shares his views.