Language in the Driver’s Seat in ‘Racecar Racecar Racecar’

AMERICAN THEATRE: A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same backward and forward: “Was it a cat I saw?” or “Dammit, I’m mad” or, my nerdy favorite, “A man, a plan, a canal: Panama.” In Kallan Dana’s new play Racecar Racecar Racecar, which starts performances at A.R.T./New York on Friday (and runs through Dec. 22), a father and daughter on a road trip occasionally play a game of palindromes to pass the time, though they stick to one-word examples: noon, bib, sis, rotator, deified, and, of course, racecar and Dad.