Photo: Michael Litchfield

RECOMMENDED

Sometimes all you need is a simple premise and a flexible, talented cast. Writer and producer Laura Jacqmin’s “Dental Society Midwinter Meeting” is a deceptively light-on-its-feet satire that succeeds in finding humanity in small episodes between characters you may only meet once or twice.

Scandal has rocked the North Shore Regional Dental Society: President Morris J. Morris, Jr., has been found to have been sleeping with his hygienist and letting her, unlicensed, perform advanced dental procedures. The members of the society have convened for the midyear meeting with the single goal of rectifying this mess.

The exceedingly clever script by Jacqmin pokes loving fun at its dentist characters without condescending to them. Words can’t express briefly the merits of the six-member ensemble cast, who are largely responsible for the aforementioned humanity. Late in the play there’s a scene in a karaoke bar, and it’s the saddest, funniest, most heartbreaking scene about dentists you’ve ever seen. (Neal Ryan Shaw)

At Play Productions at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 West Chicago, (773)828-4331.  Through August 7.