According to Ensemble Theatre’s D. Lynn Meyers, playwright Conor McPherson is “one of the greatest storytellers alive today.” The Seafarer is the show that really elevated the young Irish playwright’s name recognition. Its production last season on Broadway earned a broad audience and a Tony Award nomination. Set on Christmas Eve in Ireland, The Seafarer is about a collection of misfits who come together to play cards. Their evening features a visit from a stranger who ups the stakes with a reminder that one of them made a bargain with him in prison. Suddenly they’re locked in a Faustian game with souls at stakes. Wednesday-Sunday at the Ensemble Theatre.

The sheer beauty of the work is reason enough to pay a visit to Illusion and Reality: Prints by Jiri Anderle, but the perceptive viewer will find much to think about beyond the skill of this Czechoslovakian artist. Turning adversity into a virtue is something artists are good at. The adversity of being an artist in a Communist society that forbade direct social criticism steered Anderle into a body of work well suited for comment on the human condition. So prints became Anderle’s dominant form of expression through much of his career. Now, without the strictures of Communist rule, Anderle is concentrating on painting. Illusion and Reality: Prints by Jiri Anderle is on view at the Cincinnati Art Museum Tuesday-Sunday through Jan. 3, 2009.

In Julia Cho’s new play Durango is getting its Midwestern premiere at the Cincinnati Playhouse. This fine play not only describes a road trip, but it will make everyone who sees it think about where they might be going. Tuesday-Sunday. Through Oct. 19.

It is astonishing that Maria Lassnig, whose work is presented in an impressive solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), is widely unknown in the United States. She is an influential force throughout Europe, working in Vienna for the past few decades. Closed Tuesdays. Through Jan. 11.

Flowers are in full bloom at the Krohn. Cincinnati Parks and Munich Parks have teamed up for the 15th year by giving each other gifts of gardens and sculptures. Celebrate the 850th anniversary of Munich with a stroll through the gardens. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Through Nov. 2.

It hasn’t yet been a year since Publico, the non-commercial, artist-run exhibition space on Clay Street, closed its doors. Nonetheless, the Weston Art Gallery has already pulled together the collaborators again for its current show, Since You’ve Been Gone. The exhibition sweeps Publico’s Over-the- Rhine vibe into the mainstream — the Weston is part of downtown’s Aronoff Center for the Arts — and infects it with an impulsive nostalgia. Tuesday-Sunday. Through Nov. 8.

Anyone interested in quirky, surreal or cynical art should drop by Sandra Small Gallery before Nov. 7 to see Insider/Outsider: Alternative Views of America. The show presents artists from as near as Cincinnati to as far away as Maine. Steve Geddes’ painted wood sculptures include dinosaurs aboard a kinetic Noah’s ark. Michael Ransdell’s wall-mounted wood constructions employ botanical forms to evoke human anatomical studies. Matthew Egan’s watercolors evoke strange worlds inhabited by nightmarish figures. And Scott Small’s meticulous works draw upon folk painting traditions to create modern day allegories. Other artists featured include Richard Fruth, Aaron Kent, Sandra Small and the late Raymond Thunder-Sky. Noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.