"The Real Inspector Hound" is a play about a play. Sort of. It opens with one critic, Birdboot, entering the theater and greeting a fellow critic, Moon. Moon, it turns out, is the second-string reviewer for his newspaper, and has an obsession about Higgs, the first stringer, and Puckeridge, who is Moon’s stand-in. Birdboot, on the other hand, appears to be involved in a fling with one of the actresses.

In the meantime, the play within the play has begun. Moon and Birdboot, when not prattling on about their various obsessions, make critical remarks about the cast and production.

The Players executed this funny and twisted play well. Especially keep an eye on Tim Sweeney, who does an excellent job as Moon.

I didn’t enjoy "Adaptation" as much. This play is about a game show of the same name that puts a player through a lifetime; the player wins by finding the "security square." Unfortunately, the show is a bit long, slow-paced, and written for a generation or two before—cultural references include draft deferments and the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. There are several comical moments, though, and the four-person cast gives a solid perfomance.

The best piece of the night, though, was "The Scheme of the Driftless Shifter." This show is another example of the play-within-a-play genre, and is done quite well. The play within "Shifter" is in its opening night, and everything’s going wrong. The piano player doesn’t know the music and has a mind of his own, the custodian interrupts the show to clean up, and the actors keep forgetting lines and missing cues. On top of that, the play within has a cheesy, silent-film-esque plot complete with a mustachioed villain in a top hat and cape.

"Shifter" is clever, and the cast pulls off the faux incompetence without forcing it. Though the whole cast is good, the smaller parts are definitely the ones to watch for here, particularly the scrubwoman and stage manager.