By Helen Epstein

Rory Hammond and Christianna Nelson rehearsing ‘Ugly Lies the Bone.’ Photo: Ava G. Lindenmaier.

The theater season has started in the Berkshires, where Barrington Stage, Williamstown Theatre Company, Chester Theatre Company and the Berkshire Theater Festival and Shakespeare & Company all have packed summer programs.

If you’re interested in contemporary work, Ugly Lies the Bone by Lindsey Ferrentino, directed by Daniela Varon, is an absorbing, tough, and surprisingly funny drama about a female veteran of the war in Afghanistan returning to her coastal Florida town. NASA space flights are coming to an end, friends have moved away, there are few jobs to apply for. Jess herself struggles with treating her war wounds and PTSD, and reconnecting with the people she left behind. This is challenging theater and well worth seeing. The production runs through August 28 at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA.

You only have until July 9 to see the world premiere of Christopher Demos-Brown’s American Son. Directed by Julianne Boyd, this is another new play that creates deeply absorbing drama from a story in the headlines. American Son features an estranged, interracial couple forced together by the disappearance of their son, who had been stopped by the police ‘driving while black.’ At Barrington Stage, Pittsfield, MA.