Three new plays about parenting — including yet another ‘Frankenstein’

To look at the current and imminent movies “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” “Jay Kelly,” “Sentimental Value,” “Train Dreams,” “Hamnet” and even Guillermo Del Toro’s new “Frankenstein” is to conclude that absent, neglectful or abusive dads are the defining theme of awards season. Similarly, a trio of DMV plays are exploring the pains and perils of parenthood: “A Case For the Existence of God” is about a pair of first-year baby daddies, Synetic’s “Frankenstein” (the fourth local version of the tale in six months) has Prometheus creating a monster, and “The Mother Play” takes a hard look at how the obligations between parents and children shift as the decades pile up.