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When Eli Browning signed on to direct the Auxiliary Dog Theater's production of "The Curious Savage," he didn't realize his toughest job would be directing traffic.

"There are 11 characters, and when you get them all on stage, it's like wrangling cats to get everybody where they need to be," Browning, 26, said.

You just about need a cop to keep track of the traffic on Albuquerque stages this week. A sackful of plays ranging from warm-hearted humor to dark comedy and from the exotically mysterious to the sexually candid are opening.

"The Curious Savage," by John Patrick, sounds like a hybrid of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Harvey." It's a sweet-hearted comedy about Ethel Savage, who finds good, although somewhat eccentric, friends after being put in a mental institution by her children.

"It's just a funny, tenderhearted show," Browning said.

Much different in tone is the mystifying "Madagascar," a J.T. Rogers play that the Fusion Theater Company is performing at the Cell Theater.

You see only three characters on stage. But there are four if you count Paul, who disappeared from a hotel room overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome.

It is their connection to Paul that draws each of the other characters, at different times, to that room. There, secrets are revealed slowly and tantalizingly — both to the audience and to the characters themselves.

Director John Hardman was drawn to the dark humor of Nicky Silver's "Raised in Captivity," which opens tonight at the Vortex.

The play starts when Sebastian meets his sister graveside during their mother's funeral, and it spirals into weird nuttiness from there. Characters include a desperate therapist, who is more unstable than her patients, and a pen pal who is doing time in prison for murder.

"It's about getting away from the way we have been raised and dealt with as we grew up," Hardman said. "I talked to Silver on the phone, and he said it was about people punishing themselves to get beyond their hang-ups, but the punishment doesn't work.

"It sounds like a lot of whining, but it's not."

Two of the plays opening this week are revivals.

The Desert Rose Playhouse is bringing back Eve Ensler's pioneering show "The Vagina Monologues," which the company last performed in December 2005.

Shiela Freed returns as director, and four of the original cast members are back. Three new actresses join the cast.

Ensler's play, a collection of episodic monologues, deals frankly with the vagina and how it relates to women through sex, love, rape, menstruation, mutilation, birth, orgasm and more.

"When we last did this, it was the most amazing experience, because these women were able to go places that were almost taboo," Freed said. "I think it is even better this time, because we have all grown and bring new experiences to the stage."

She said men, as well as women, like the show.

"I think it gives men an insight into women," Freed said. "It's a touchy subject, but it is tastefully done."

Teatro Nuevo México performed Ray Bradbury's "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit" at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in August 2006 and is bringing the comedy back for three performances at the center this weekend.

It's the story of six Hispanic men in a barrio who each chip in $10 to buy a beautiful, white suit they hope will help them realize their dreams. During one evening, each man takes a turn wearing it.

Michael Blum, who directed the 2006 show, is again at the helm and this time also has a role in the play.

"We brought the show back to fulfill a National Endowment for the Arts grant," Blum said. "Next week we are going to Raton and Clovis, where we will perform it free to the public."

Blum said the actors playing the six main roles are all back, but the overall cast has been trimmed and the set reduced to make the show more travel friendly.

"And the play is more slapstick this time around," he said. "That just came out of the rehearsal process.

"Everyone knew their part. Everyone knew what they were doing, so they all decided to outdo themselves being funny. It's great fun."