Harlequin's production of Israel Horovitz's Fighting Over Beverley costars one of my favorite local actors, David Wright, in yet another role for which he gets to growl around the stage and show off a convincing accent and physical infirmity. I'm not complaining - far from it! I'd pay good money to watch David Wright pick his nose for two hours. I'm also on record admiring the work of Ann Flannigan (End Days, The Last Schwartz) and Dennis Rolly (The Seafarer), two veteran performers deep in their wheelhouses here. Yet in this show at least, all three are shown up by Karen Nelsen, a talented actor I felt was miscast in director Scot Whitney's production of Horovitz's My Old Lady (as a 94-year-old, because she so wasn't). No such quibble this time around: Nelsen mesmerizes with a master class in character arc, plausibility, and emotional precision. I could happily recommend this show for her performance alone, though there's plenty more romance and enjoyment to be had.

Read Christian Carvajal's full review of Fighting Over Beverley in the Music & Culture section.

FIGHTING OVER BEVERLEY, 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through May 24, Harlequin Productions, 202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, $20-$31, 360.786.0151