Almost Whole

By: Tim Treanor
Whole Against the Sky, at Trumpet Vine Theatre

Paul Donnelly’s new play, Whole Against the Sky, has much going for it. The dialogue is witty, the characterizations are sharp, and there are scenes of enormous emotional authenticity and power. The play is still a few rewrites away from being the strong theater it could [...]

The Autumn Garden — The American Century Theater

By Tim Treanor
The Autumn Garden by Lillian Hellmen at The American Century Theater

Imagine, if you will, a roomful of morose men and women of late middle years. They are too old for optimism or other forms of self-deception, and so pass their time in reading, heavy drinking, and aiming barbed witticisms at each other. It [...]

In children’s theater, anything goes!

By: Tim Treanor and Valeria Lamarra
Haroun and the Sea of Stories   Theater Alliance
 
L to R: Ian leValley and Carlos Bustamante     Credit: Colin Hovde
Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a children’s play, adapted from a children’s novel by the great Salman Rushdie. I am a 55-year old lawyer. Should I be reviewing this play?
I don’t [...]

We Needed The Rain

By: Debbie Minter Jackson
The Rainmaker        Arena Stage                                  Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 

The Rainmaker feels so contemporary; it’s hard to believe it’s been around for fifty years. Packed with themes of love and yearning, laced with messages about self-worth, confidence, and the redemptive power of truth, there’s a reason why it was so successful on Broadway, as a movie–who can forget [...]

The Mai

By: Ronnie Ruff
The Mai — Solas Nua 

Irish playwright Marina Carr offers many observations of importance in The Mai currently mounted at The Josephine Butler Arts Center in Columbia Heights. One of note is “Everyone is deranged — Some people just hide it better”, another and the central theme of the play is “There are two kinds of people [...]

Sex Habits starts rehearsals (UPDATE)

From the Signature Blog

Hello cyber-Signature fans! Welcome to a preview of the fabulous world of Julie Marie Myatt’s hysterical and powerful new play, The Sex Habits of American Women. My name’s Michael Baron and I’m the director. Based on the conversations the cast and I’ve had during the first week of rehearsals, this promises to [...]

Fanny’s First Play: All It Needs Is Love

By: Tim Treanor   Fanny’s First Play – WSG

The stage can be a forum for ideas. A socially conscious playwright, if he is clever and sensitive, can use his art to present his solutions to the great social dilemmas of his day. Throughout his lengthy career, George Bernard Shaw exploited that theatrical potential as well as [...]

Stars, Stripes and Heifers

By: Ronnie Ruff   God Of Hell – Didactic Theatre 

Adrienne Nelson and Colby Codding, photograph taken by Elish Healy
Sam Sheppard’s latest play is a sarcastic look at the nationalistic* themes promoted by the current administration or to quote the playwright “a takeoff on Republican fascism.” A comedy in three scenes, the play uses more red, white [...]

VVhat’s Going On?

By: Tim Treanor          Jvlivs Caesar at Caesar’s Palace, presented by Vpstart Crow
There are a thousand things wrong with this misconceived and poorly-executed production, beginning with the theme. There is no imaginable reason to place Julius Caesar in Caesar’s Palace, except as a play on words. But where does this lead us? Hamlet in a [...]