Common Ground, Revisited offers a sharp, clear-eyed perspective of a challenging part of Boston’s history and in doing so gives insight into the city’s present problems.

What are we willing to give up to help others in need? What is our responsibility to future generations? …How do we – as Rose puts it – “learn to live with less”?

Director Kimberly Senior masterfully builds, suspends, and expands the tension throughout the play with moments of stillness and breathlessness followed by rapid action and rampant activity.

Set on the coast of Iceland, Fresh Ink Theatre’s production of Last Catastrophist offers a chilling glimpse into a not-so-distant future in which climatologists are being threatened into silence while the world and its inhabitants are suffering from the disastrous effects of global climate change.

It takes an actor of Karen MacDonald’s caliber to add complexity and depth to an often insufferable protagonist. MacDonald’s performance is filled with such warmth, humor, and tenderness that you cannot help but sympathize with Della’s internal struggle.

Steve Shack’s lighting design plays with the emotional effects of light and dark, spreading shadows of branches and staircases and cell bars throughout the space, emphasizing the mystery and suspense at the core of the play.

With the help of librettist Greg Pierce, Spears’ intuitive storytelling continues with Fuller’s Act II solo, “Our Very Own Home,” which starts with a single, repeated melody on the piano, emphasizing Fuller’s new lonely state, having cast off his friends and betrayed the man he loves.

Dazzling audiences with their powerhouse vocals are Lovely Hoffman as Sister Rosetta and Pier Lamia Porter as Marie. Hoffman’s energy is infectious, bringing a natural vitality to the bigger-than-life character of Sister Rosetta, and Hoffman’s singing is positively scintillating.