Theater

Zodiacally speaking, most people born in May are Geminis. It so happens that the two new plays I am most excited to see this summer both open on May 29. Call them the Gemini Twins of drama.

Justin Tanner says “Coyote Woman” has more laughs than any play he’s ever written. It’s about Janet (Laurel Green), who’s engaged to Cliff (Jon Palmer), a kind of a park ranger who deals in animal regulation. When Janet “has an encounter” with a coyote in Griffith Park, she discovers the animal within. At the Cast Theatre, the terrific cast also includes Dana Schwartz, Gill Gayle, Andy Daley, Thea Constantine, Ellen Ratner and Carol Ann Susi.

In Costa Mesa, South Coast Repertory offers Richard Greenberg’s “Hurrah at Last.” Peter Frechette plays Laurie, a novelist who gets critical respect but remains broke while most everyone around him is raking it in. During a Christmas Eve extended-family gathering, he becomes seriously ill and has to be hospitalized, floating in and out of consciousness. This one also features an animal, a dog named Thunder played by a Great Dane. David Warren directs on the main stage.

For a more sobering, European view of humanity, check out the Royal National Theatre’s acclaimed production of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People.” Sir Ian McKellen stars as a Norwegian medical officer whose attempt to expose the pollution in the local baths gets him denounced as an enemy of the people. Directed by Trevor Nunn, adapted by Christopher Hampton, the play opens at the Ahmanson on July 22 in its only U.S. engagement.