Long-held family secrets and resentments surface in Rajiv Joseph’s “The Lake Effect,” presented by TheatreWorks.

Anyone who has spent a winter east or southeast of a Great Lake knows about the lake effect. It’s heavy snowfall resulting from cold wind blowing over the warmer water and picking up moisture, which becomes snow. In the play, lake effect also has an allegorical meaning, which becomes clear near the end.

The action takes place during the winter in a dingy, now-closed Indian restaurant in Cleveland, along the Lake Erie  shoreline. Because its longtime immigrant owner is ailing, his estranged son, Vijay (Adam Poss), goes there for the first time in 15 years.

While Vijay reviews his father’s financial records, Bernard (Jason Bowen), a black man, comes in. He says that he always has lunch there and that the father, Vinnie (not seen), is his good friend. That’s when the first secret comes to light. The ever-frugal Vinnie has taken to betting on pro football. As his bookie (Bernard denies that status, says he just place bets for Vinnie), Bernard wants to give him his latest winnings.

Vijay is dismayed when Bernard tells him that Vinnie never mentioned a son but that he often talked about his daughter. Soon Vijay’s younger sister, Priya (Nilanjana Bose), arrives. Sibling rivalry is evident. Even more conflicts arise after Vinnie’s death.

All three characters have their own issues and problems, but Bernard copes more effectively in part because of his optimism. That attitude gradually affects the siblings and allows the three to form a quasi-family.

Set designer Wilson Chin (with lighting by Matthew Johns) recreates the lake effect with several inches of snow piled on a car parked outside the restaurant as more snow falls. Sound by Brendan Aanes evokes the cold, blustery weather every time the door opens and a bundled-up character enters (costumes by Jill Bowers).

Although the emotions can run high, the tension is often leavened with humor. Sensitive direction by Giovanna Sardelli capitalizes on this ebb and flow.

All three actors do well, but Bowen as Bernard has perhaps the deepest role and mines it well.

This intriguing play runs just under 90 minutes without intermission.

“The Lake Effect” will continue through March 29 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. For tickets and information, call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

As the audience files into Dragon Theatre for the opening of its 15th season, a recording of Ethel Merman singing this line, “There’s no people like show people,” can be heard.

It’s an apt way to settle into “Show People,” Paul Weitz’s often funny salute to the people who bring plays and musicals to life.

As the play opens, two actors, Marnie (Monica Cappuccini) and Jerry (Bill Davidovich), who have been married to each other for a long time, are arriving at a beach house owned by Tom (Casey Robbins). He has hired them for the weekend to impersonate his parents in order to impress his live-in girlfriend, Natalie (Sara Renée Morris).

She in turn tries to impress them. For example, she bakes blueberry muffins, but she adds some horseradish, rendering them almost inedible, but everyone else is too polite to say so.

To say much more about the plot as it twists and turns would be to spoil the surprises except to say that little is as it seems on the surface. However, one thing is clear: Despite all the trials and tribulations Marnie and Jerry have gone through over the years, they still love each other and the theater.

Astutely directed by Austin Edgington, all four actors fully inhabit their characters and their shifting relationships while mining both the humorous and the serious moments of the play.

Cappuccini’s performance as Marnie is especially noteworthy. In addition to impeccable comic timing, she relays volumes with her unspoken reactions to various situations and the other characters.

The tall, deep-voiced Davidovich allows Jerry to be something of a ham most of the time, but he can also tone him down to become serious and sincere when necessary. Robbins as Tom and Morris as Natalie are believable.

Kirsten Royston’s two-level set, with lighting by Leonardo Hidalgo, works well in Dragon’s intimate space. The character-appropriate costumes are by Jeff Hamby, the sound by Jesse Scarborough.

This 2006, two-act play runs just over two hours with one intermission. It’s an enjoyable production for the audience and a great way for the company to begin its new season.

“Show People” will continue through March 22 at Dragon Theatre, 2120 Broadway St., Redwood City, through March 22. For tickets and information, call (650) 493-2006 or visit www.dragonproductions.net.

Storytelling becomes a powerful survival tool in “Mr. Burns, a post-electric play,”  presented by American  Conservatory Theater in a co-production with the Guthrie Theater.

Playwright Anne Washburn sets the action in California after meltdowns at nuclear power plants across the country have knocked out the electrical grid, causing massive death and destruction.

As the play opens, a group of survivors is gathered around a campfire trying to reconstruct “Cape Feare,” an iconic episode of TV’s long-running “The Simpsons.” The approach of a stranger puts them in a defensive mode, guns drawn, but he’s just another survivor, and he brings news, none of it good.

The next scene fast-forwards seven years when the band of survivors has become a seven-member theater troupe. They’ve moved into an abandoned warehouse where they rehearse their performance of  “Cape Feare,” making due with limited resources. By now, lines from “The Simpsons” have become valuable currency for which the troupe must compete against others doing the same thing.

The second act is set 75 years later when a theater troupe is staging “Cape Feare,” complete with a mix of popular songs from the era of the Simpsons.

Although the play is filled with pop culture references that can evade some audience members, it’s still enjoyable for the strength of Washburn’s writing and her lyrics for the score by Michael Friedman.

It’s also enjoyable for the outstanding performances that director Mark Rucker elicits from the engaging ensemble cast: Nick Gabriel, Anna Ishida, Kelsey Venter, Ryan Williams French, Charity Jones, Jim Lichtscheidl, Tracey A. Leigh and Andrea Wollenberg. Wollenberg also works with musical director David Möschler as part of the two-person, offstage band.

The set by Ralph Funicello (with lighting by Alexander V. Nichols) becomes ever more fanciful, as do the costumes by Alex Jaeger. The sound is by Jake Rodriguez, the choreography by Amy Anders Corcoran.

Although the play stresses the importance of storytelling, it also honors humankind’s instinct for survival no matter how dire the circumstances.

After closing in San Francisco, the production will move to the Guthrie in Minneapolis.

Irony ultimately rules in “The Convert,” presented in its Bay Area premiere by Marin Theatre Company.

Danai Gurira sets her play in Salisbury, Rhodesia, (present day Harare, Zimbabwe), between 1895 and 1897. A young African woman, Jekesai (Katherine Renee Turner), is taken to the home of Chilford (Jabari Brisport) by her cousin, Tamba (JaBen Early).

Because Tamba’s mother, Mai Tamba (Elizabeth Carter), works there as a maid, Tamba hopes that Jekesai can find refuge from her uncle (L. Peter Callender) who would force her to marry a much older man, whom she despises.

Chilford is an African who has renounced his tribal heritage and become a lay Roman Catholic minister trying to convert other Africans. He changes Jekesai’s name to Ester.  She comes to embrace Catholicism and to join him in his missionary work.

Over time, however, the natives begin to rebel against the white English settlers who have repressed them. Violence follows on both sides.

Chancellor (Jefferson A. Russell) warns Chilford that their fellow Africans regard him and other converts as traitors. Chancellor’s fiancee, Prudence (Omoze Idehenre), urges Ester to be her own woman.

Although Ester is presumably the title character, Chilford, too, is a convert, and both become increasingly conflicted between their new faith and their tribal traditions. Tragedy ensues.

Playwright Gurira, who was born in the United States to Zimbabwean parents and reared in Zimbabwe, is a promising young playwright. However, this nearly three-hour play could benefit from judicious pruning to reduce it from three acts and two intermissions to two acts and one intermission.

MTC artistic director Jasson Minadakis directs the outstanding cast, eliciting strong performances from everyone. The simple set is by Nina Ball with lighting by Gabe Maxson. Fumiko Bielefeldt designed the mix of Western and African costumes. The music and sound are by Chris Houston.

Dialect coach Lynne Soffer deserves credit for the accents, which are usually understandable if one listens carefully. Julia Chigamba, a native Zimbabwean, served as cultural consultant and guest vocal artist.

Despite its length, “The Convert” makes for fascinating drama while shedding light on a part of African history that probably is unfamiliar to most Americans.

It will continue through March 15 at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. For tickets and information, call (415) 388-5208 or visit www.marintheatre.org.