Last Chance

Safe in Hell: The stodgy connotations of “Safe” shouldn’t deter anyone from seeing “Safe in Hell.” Stodgy it’s not. Instead, it’s a breezy yet provocative riff on the Salem witch trials. Amy Freed’s primary target is Cotton Mather, the influential Boston minister who greased the wheels of the witch trials. She conceives Mather as a profoundly insecure young man who has lived in the intimidating shadow of his father, Increase Mather. The play is rife with references to contemporary American culture. Freed clearly wants her audience to think about parallel events in our own time.

-- Don Shirley

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Ends Sunday at South Coast Repertory, Segerstrom Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. (714) 708-5555.