A riveting production of a little-known work by Tennessee Williams can be found at Oakland Theater Project (OTP) through Sunday. “Orpheus Descending” written early in Williams’ career, has undergone many revisions, appeared on Broadway briefly in 1957 starring Maureen Stapleton and Cliff Robertson, then enjoyed a longer run with Vanessa Redgrave and Kevin Anderson in 1987.

While “Orpheus Descending” includes the sensuality and violence associated with such Williams’ dramas as “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” this drama features elements not usually associated with the award-winning playwright including a narrator and other-worldly visions.

Called a problematic play by Tallulah Bankhead when Williams offered her the lead in his 1940 version of the play, “Orpheus Descending” retells the ancient Greek myth as a modern Southern Gothic story exploring themes of artistic freedom, bigotry, misogyny and sexual passion.

Set in a small town dry-goods store in the Deep South, the captivating drama chronicles the growing passion of two outcasts — Lady Torrance (Lisa Ramirez), the storekeeper’s wife and daughter of a murdered Sicilian bootlegger, and Val (Hunter Bryant), a charismatic wandering guitar player.

Vee (Susannah Martin), a Cassandra-like character who paints and sees visions, serves as narrator as well as the fearful wife of Sheriff Talbott (Robert Parsons). In fact, married women in the play seem little more than frightened chattel to their husbands.

OTP Director Will Detlefsen added the use of microphones for Vee and the gossips (Zolboo Namkhaidorj and Lizzie Izyumin). While adding attention to their words, it’s also jarring as they transition to speaking without microphones and then back again, grabbing for the mics as a lifeline.

Into this inhibited small town in the Deep South, Val wanders. Bryant exudes sexuality that acts like cat nip to the repressed women in the town. While his attentions first fall on the inebriated, nearly insane Carol Cutrere (finely tuned by Natalie Pasquinelli), they eventually settle on Lady, condemning them both to a violent end.

In his director’s notes, Detlefsen wrote he cast Val as a Black actor “honoring what some scholars believe was Williams’ original intention.” His casting choice immediately places Val in jeopardy as he enters the racist, morally corrupt town.

Bringing her own intense sexuality to the mix, Ramirez creates a complex, simmering portrayal of a woman trapped in a loveless marriage.

Robert Parsons creates three distinct, intimidating portraits of Lady’s husband Jabe Torrance, Vee’s husband Sherriff Talbott and Carol’s domineering brother David Cutrere.

Also doing a fine job creating different characters, Namkhaidorj adds a surreal clown to her role as gossip Dolly Hamma while Izyumin as gossip Beulah Binnings takes on Jabe Torrance’s strict Nurse Porter.

Martin adds much texture to her role as the narrator and the vision-seeing painter Vee as she layers joy, vulnerability and fear.

“Orpheus Descending” plays at OTP on 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland. For tickets, go to oaklandtheaterproject.org/orpheus.

Danville: Marking the 50th anniversary of Eugene O’Neill’s home becoming a National Historic Site, the Eugene O’Neill Foundation presents a classic work by the Nobel Prize winner and a contemporary work by an Irish playwright — both plays explore the complicated bonds of family, parental love and a young person’s coming of age.

O’Neill’s “Ah, Wilderness!” features the Millers celebrating the Fourth of July in 1906 with a lobster dinner, fireworks and an act of adolescent rebellion. “Teddy,” the second work by Wexford County playwright Sheila Forsey focuses on a woman’s difficult Christmas trip from America to Ireland and her reunion with the troubled teen she left for her parents to raise.

For tickets, go to eugeneoneill.org.

S.F.: “The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot,” which marks the uprising that sparked the trans rights movement, honors the 60th anniversary of the historic event at the Tenderloin Museum with a special performance Friday, featuring a cameo by Peaches Christ. With August being California Transgender History Month, the performance has even more significance.

“As we mark the 60th anniversary of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, we honor both that defining moment and the broader movement for trans rights it helped spark,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie. “I’m proud that the Tenderloin Museum is bringing this history to life this August, during Transgender History Month, giving audiences the chance to experience this legacy in the very neighborhood where it unfolded.”

For more information and tickets, go to comptonscafeteriariot.com.

Around the East Bay: Celebrating Bay Area Theatre Week, Sept. 10-20, many local theaters present unique offers. Events include free and discounted theater tickets, open rehearsals, discounted classes and various special events.

East Bay theaters include Alameda’s Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Walnut Creek’s Center Rep, Orinda Starlight Village Players and Lafayette’s Town Hall Theatre.

You can buy tickets directly from the theater company with most discounts available using the code BATW2026. For more information, go to theatrebayarea.org/batw26/#list.

Reach Sally Hogarty at sallyhogarty@gmail.com, and read more of her reviews online at eastbaytimes.com/author/sally-hogarty.