There have been notable attempts to convey what the experience of autism is like in the arts lately. In the play “Max Understood” (at San Francisco’s Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center until April 26) the 7-year-old autistic boy of the title has constructed a world of objects and found sounds that the play’s authors, Nancy Carlin and U.Va. drama professor Michael Rasbury represent with noises, music, filmed projections (blowing leaves, rushing water) and a literally moving landscape (a sort of giant wooden turntable that rotates during the performance). How much any of...