The Common Air

The chameleonic Alex Lyras plays six travelers marooned at JFK by a mysterious terrorist threat. The men—including an Iraqi cabdriver and a Texan philosopher—tell their stories in a linked chain of monologues. The script (cowritten by Lyras and director Robert McCaskill) displays wit and insight, but tends toward facile moralizing, with the occasional pat life lesson or political message.—Pamela Newton