Jessica of Venice at Boston Playwrights' Theatre

Set in the present day but steeped in Early Modern echoes, Jessica of Venice follows a group of Orthodox Jewish schoolgirls who discover a banned copy of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and become fascinated by its rebellious runaway daughter. For one restless teen caught between her tight-knit community and a budding crush outside it, the discovery starts to blur the line between the story on the page and the life she's beginning to imagine for herself. Written by Rachel Beth Greene and directed by Josh Glenn-Kayden, the cast includes Ella Blumenthal, Margo Segal, and Lindsey Wildstein.