When I Come to Die

A death-row criminal survives lethal injection in Nathan Louis Jackson's sympathetic, expertly crafted character study, which finds both despair and grim humor in the condemned man's reprieve. Chris Chalk delivers a magnificently layered central performance, and David Patrick Kelly is no less moving as his older, childlike jailmate; both are aided by director Thomas Kail’s sober and austere staging.—David Cote