Theater openings

Strawdog Theatre opens its 20th season with "Aristocrats," the Chekhov-inspired drama by Brian Friel ("Faith Healer") about a once upper-class Irish family reuniting for the wedding of one of the siblings. Steppenwolf's Rick Snyder directs. The last preview is today. "Aristocrats" opens Sunday at 3829 N. Broadway Ave., Chicago. (773) 528-9696.

The swashbuckling Babes With Blades begin their 10th year with the seasonally appropriate "Horror Academy," three one-act plays about vampires, cannibals and zombies. The last preview is today. The show opens Saturday at the North Lakeside Cultural Center, 6219 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago. (773) 880-0016.

The second installment of Oracle Productions' adults-only, scare-fest "Disturbed," a multimedia, Grand Guignol-style show containing violence, explicit imagery and sexual content, runs every 30 minutes from 8 to 11:30 p.m. Fridays through Sundays through Oct. 28. (773) 244-2980.

-- Barbara Vitello

Other Openings:

Griffin Theatre Company reprises its emotional "Letters Home," adapted by artistic director Bill Massolia from letters written by U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq for a brief run before the company takes the show to Florida. Performances run Sunday through Oct. 24 at the Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. (773) 327-5252.

Raven Theatre's production of Tennessee Williams' "The Night of the Iguana," about a defrocked minister seeking sanctuary at a rundown Mexican hotel, opens Sunday at 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago. (773) 338-2177.

"The Rocky Horror Show," the stage version of the cult film "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," begins previews today at the Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport Ave., Chicago. The musical opens Wednesday. (773) 325-1700.

InFusion Theatre Company presents the world premiere of "Creole," local playwright M.E.H. Lewis' play with music about a slave involved in a love triangle with another slave and the plantation owner. Previews begin Tuesday at the Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph St., Chicago. The play opens Oct. 19. (312) 742-8497.

New Leaf Theatre's "The Dining Room," A.R. Gurney's mosaic about an upper middle-class family, opened this week at the Lincoln Park Cultural Center, 2045 N. Lincoln Park West, Chicago. (312) 516-3546.