OTHER DESERT CITIES

Over the holidays with her parents, a writer announces that her new memoir revisits a very grim chapter in their family history. Blood relations, indeed. Jon Robin Baitz’s play features superb performances by Anne Gottlieb as the anxious but determined author and Karen MacDonald as her formidable mother. An engrossing display of familial fireworks. Through Feb. 9. SpeakEasy Stage Company. At Wimberly Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-933-8600, www.speakeasystage.com