By far the most important and most powerful play is Kennedy’s “Funnyhouse of a Negro,” the program’s topper. It is provocatively written, provocatively acted and creatively envisioned under the direction of Lila Neugebauer, who has also staged “The Sandbox” and “Drowning.”

“Funnyhouse” takes place in the turbulent mind of Negro –Sarah (the character designation in the cast listing), a young woman living on New York’s Upper West Side and whose psyche is ravaged by conflicted feelings about her racial identity. She is the product of a black father and light-skinned mother, and she longs to be white. Her mental anguish becomes a symbol of struggling to come to terms with identity, in some cases marked by the self-hatred that Sarah feels. Crystal Dickinson gives a remarkable performance as the tormented Sarah, in effect a stand-in for all those of her race who have had similar identity issues.

The cauldron of Sarah’s mind is revealed in the bizarre collections of ghost-like characters. We see Queen Victoria Regina (April Matthis in whiteface), the Duchess of Hapsburg (January LaVoy, also in whiteface.) The mental landscape also contains the murdered Congolese martyr Patrice Lumumba (Sahr Ngaujah) and Jesus (Mikéah Ernest Jennings.) Also hauntingly present are Sarah’s mother (Pia Glenn), Sarah’s husband Raymond (Nicholas Bruder) and the landlady (Alison Fraser).

The viewer is challenged to sort out the mélange and the author’s meanings, but all adds up to a funnyhouse of the mind revealing torment and racial conflicts, expressed by free-wheeling interactions, costumes, props and settings (scenic design by Mimi Lien). The overall visual impression helps give voice to Sarah’s imagination and the internal drama sets the stage for tragedy.

Kennedy’s play stirred comment at the time and continues to be studied. Its revival now is most welcome, both for the issues that surface and its enduring theatricality.

Albee’s “The Sandbox” comes across as minor league Beckett, but is striking visually and makes a point about callous treatment of the elderly. The sunny surrounding of a beach setting (with a bright yellow background) contrasts with the dark nature of the play, even though one finds much to laugh at. Ryan-James Hatanaka appears as a well-built, ever smiling young man doing non-stop calisthenics. Then we meet Alsion Fraser, called Mommy by Daddy (Frank Wood), who soon carries in Grandma (Phyllis Somerville).

There are three beach chairs and a sandbox. What to do with Grandma? Daddy desposits her in the sandbox, where she bitterly gripes about her being parked there. Interestingly, Grandma is not as out of it as one might expect. Albee gives her some good lines. But what is to come is soon clear as the young man, who amusingly has envisioned a Hollywood career for himself, reveals to Grandma that he is really an angel of death. Incidentally Melody Giron sits at a side of the stage sometimes playing the cello. Albee’s style here mixes reality with theater of the absurd.

The weakest of the three is “Drowning,” presented after Albee’s one-acter, with a sign of a nine-minute interval seen on the curtain. We listen to music coming to us via a radio played by Jared Oberholtzer as Assistant Stage Manager. The time is presumably needed for the set change.