You can keep your bleak Beckettian tramps. For real existential terror I’ll take a bourgeois domestic drama like this one by British playwright William Nicholson. Alice is a demanding, insistent know-it-all who recites poetry, attends mass, and sees every conversation as a matter of her side vs. “rot.” Edward is a quiet, accommodating teacher with a fondness for crossword puzzles. Days before their 33rd anniversary, Edward rears up and tells Alice he’s leaving her for another woman. The rest is an engaging, disquieting look at an ostensibly good marriage that never should have happened. B.J. Jones’s production turns on Rondi Reed, who couldn’t be better as Alice: charming, boisterous, blunt–and emotionally tone-deaf. See this show with someone you’ve loved. Through 6/18: Tue 7:30 PM, Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2:30 PM, Northlight Theatre, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, 847-673-6300, $34-$54.