Time Out New York: THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS

A daring Fringe cast, led by director Jon Levin, takes on three science- fiction stories in this quirky, excellent trio of plays. In the first, by Stanislaw Lem, two large puppets with lightbulbs for heads argue over a machine that can create everything that starts with the letter n: neutrons, negligees, even nothing! (As might be expected, this last item gets them into some trouble.) The puppets emote and gesticulate with heartwarming authenticity and the allegory of creating one's own destruction is timely.

The second play, performed by one actor with the help of a sheet and projection, enacts Bill Pronzini's chilling story about a boy and his father, stuck in an endless loop of interchangeable identities.

But it’s the final play, Ray Bradbury's titular postapocalyptic story, that really takes your breath away. Set in 2026, "There Will Come Soft Rains" is about a house that continues to function in all its high-tech robotic glory, well after its inhabitants have died. Performed with ingenious simplicity—the stage holds nothing more than three women in white, three white plastic squares and a bucket of water—this poetic enactment of Bradbury's existentially spine-tingling tale is stunning.