Five great plays that adapt famous stories in surprising ways

Synopsis: 10 years after Abigail Williams, instigator of the witch trials, disappeared from Salem, she turns up at the tavern of her fellow ex witch-hunter, Mercy Lewis. About to leave the colonies forever, it's her last chance to understand the madness that overtook them. But with war threatening northern New England yet again, Mercy and her fellow townspeople are in no mood for Abigail's doubts, which suggest to them complicity with the devil. And just when everything is at its most dangerously tense—the devil himself shows up.

Why it's great: Liz Duffy Adams is one of the smartest writers we know. In plays such as Born With Teeth or The Salonnières, she's adept at taking historical details and fashioning them into new takes on stories we thought we knew. In Witch Hunt, we catch up with two of the girls who started the Salem witch hunts 10 years after the events of The Crucible and see what the repercussions have been for them.