Bedbound Breaks Barriers

Bed Bound — Solas Nua

By: Ronnie Ruff

Photo Credit - Agala Peszko

Edna Walsh has yet to achieve the popularity in America that Conor McPherson has but he is, none the less, one of the most important new playwrights in contemporary Irish theatre. Solas Nua, one of the most exciting local theatre companies around has mounted Bedbound, Walsh’s 2000 play at the DCAC in Adams Morgan. As the lights go down in the small DCAC space a large box that fills the stage collapses, three sides fall to the stage floor to reveal a single bed containing two adults. A physically imposing large man fully dressed in a rumpled business suit and a crippled young lady, her legs bent behind her, lay partially covered by a sheet. What follows is a play of incredibly strong emotional monologues that tell a complex story of the symbiotic relationship between these two crippled people. A young woman with polio (Linda Murray) and her psychotic father Maxie (Brian Hemmingsen) offer anger filled descriptions of their lives and explain how circumstances have brought them to this place of suffering.

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New World Order

By: Ronnie Ruff

The New World Order and Other Plays — Scena Theatre

 Pinter’s The New World Order and Other Plays currently mounted at Warehouse Theatre by Scena Theatre is a cluster of angry one act plays that speak to the oppressive governments that abuse the citizenry of the third world.  Mainly aimed at the west, the three one acts depict the atrocities against the Kurds in Turkey, the people of Nicaragua and the citizens of Iraq. All three of the plays are generic in nature describing only the most vague situations of abuse. Details are minimal, we do not know anything really about the victims or the abusers, only that the victims are shaking with fear and the torturers are giddy with anticipation of bloodletting. It is the impending physical torture that provides the buildup to an anticipated ending that never happens.

David Bryan Jackson is able to bring a serpent like quality to his character in “One For The Road“.  He slithers across the set with an almost evil quality that shakes you and has you feeling all the more sorry for the victims. Michael McDonnell shakes uncontrollably in terror, his fear though, may be a bit over the top. His role as the officer in ‘Mountain Language” is far better.  Artistic Director Robert McNamara’s skillful direction brings out the undercurrents of fear that Pinter soaks these one acts in.  [Read more...]

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The Lunch Launch

Bouncing Ball Productions got started with a bang Sunday evening at the Black Cat Club on 14th St. NW with scenes from three of writer Shawn Northrip and director Shirley Serotsky’s projects including  Titus The Musical, Cautionary Tales For Adults and Lunch (which is being performed at the CapFringe Festival). The wonderful Tracy Lynn Olivera (why don’t we see more of her?)along with Cassie Platt, Michael John Casy and Alex Zavistovich and a host of other fine folks were on hand to help Shawn and Shirley take on the stigma of the “showtune” with post punk energy and excitement that signals something new in musical theatre. This is some highly charged, funny stuff.

The band Lemonface (Richard Wynne, Brendan McCusker, Dana Wilentz) finished up the show with a high energy set of original music that is part of Northrip’s inspiration for Lunch.  The band members who have yet to reach their sixteenth birthdays wowed the audience with blistering guitar work and a rock solid rhythm section.

Bouncing Ball Productions, a collaboration of Shawn Northrip and Shirley Serotsky are a team to watch in DC’s theatre future.

http://bouncingballtheatre.com/

Ronnie Ruff

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The Children’s Hour

By: Ronnie Ruff

The Childrens Hour at WSC

The Childrens Hour

The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman starts on a slow path to it’s conclusion but as the plot thickens this melodrama of blackmail and lies in a 1930s girls school comes to life with a riveting but predictable ending. WSC’s H Lee Gable directs and casts Christopher Henley and Jay Hardee in traditional female roles that are open to experimentation. In today’s world of politicized gender issues Gable very successfully twists screws that at first seem frozen but as the play progresses they eventually loosen, freeing  Henley to give us a performance of steady, but frail brilliance. Hardy succeeds wonderfully as well in a performance that he nails. The show touches on sensitive topics with thoughtful consideration, keeping us involved in the characters to the very end. One can argue the merits of cross gender casting but in the end it has little to do with the performance’s success, instead the show stands on its performances and a strong script that is extremely engaging.

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100th Review ~ Our Mission

Hi everyone, Ronnie here, just wanted to thank everyone for all the support that has been given over the last 11 months that it has taken to get to the 100 Review mark.  It is important for me to point out that the most important things to DC Theatre Reviews are our readers and the talented theatre companies. Long ago I worked for a super boss, his name was Erol Onaran. Erol had a saying, My customers come first, my employees second, my suppliers 3rd, then me. At DCTR our readers come first, DC area theatres come second, then us. It will always be that way because that is where our priorities are. We know that without readers and the wonderful artists there would be no DC Theatre Reviews. Our single goal is to promote live theatre in Washington, DC and provide a place theatre fans can come to read about shows and discuss them.

There are a few people I would personally like to thank that have supported us in the beginning when we were just some guy with a blog.

My Friend and a woman with incredible love for theatre Lorraine Treanor, all of the wonderful folks that have read our site from the beginning (you know who you are), Tim, Debbie, Fiona, Juliette, Valeria, Delinda and Joel (The Theatre Posse),  Christopher Henley and Jay Hardee at WSC, Carolyn Griffin at MetroStage, Dan Brick and Linda Murray at Solas Nua, Deborah Kirby at Journeymen Theatre, Alex Zavistovich, Brian and Paula Alprin at Natural Theatricals, David Siegel at American Century Theater and all the other wonderful and talented theatre professionals in DC who work each day to promote theatre here in the nation’s capital.

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Hugh Will Love This Show + bonus interviews

Interviews with Aaron Posner and  SHERRI EDELEN

Review By: Ronnie Ruff – Interview By: Joel Markowitz

Our 100th Posted Review!

A Murder, A Mystery And A Marriage A Mark Twain Musical Melodrama  –  Round House Theatre  Bethesda

Check out Joel’s great interview with Director Aaron Posner above!

The Mysterious Stranger (Scott Greer) woos Mary Gray (Erin Weaver) in A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage at Round House Theatre Bethesda.

As I write this review I am a very happy reviewer for two reasons!  The first one is this is the 100th review to be posted on DC Theatre Reviews!  More about that later, the business at hand is a wonderful musical at Round House Bethesda based on a short story written quite a few years ago by a fellow you may have heard of. The author of that short story is Mark Twain and the musical is A Murder, A Mystery And A Marriage.  Now to be honest you should call the box office right now and order tickets to this show before you even finish my review, it will be that hot I assure you. So see you in a few minutes ……..

………………..Welcome back (and to all of you risk takers who never left, you may be sorry), let’s talk about this great show! This show has it all! First off, right out of the blocks it is funny as hell – the show starts off with a humorous musical ditty on turning off your cell and not rattling candy wrappers. From that point on you will be snagged with all the right hooks! Great hum along songs (composed by James Sugg) , a fantastic book and lyrics by by Aaron Posner that is laugh out loud funny, a rustic well designed set by Tony Cisek with lighting effects by James Leitner that suck you in to “Deer Lick, Missouri” like it was your home away from home. The fabulous costumes by Kate Turner-Walker are down home country from hats to boots. The excellent band of down home pickers heats up the place thanks to the fine musical direction by Jay Ansnill and sound design by Matthew M Nielson. This is just fine work all around.

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Assassins

By: Ronnie Ruff

Assassins at Signature Theatre

Assassins

There is so much to like about a new Signature show even one they have done before, so when one goes bad there is a mourning period. I saw the show last night, had a late dinner, a good night sleep and I am ready to move on. Well, not yet…. Let’s talk about this.

Assassins is a great show, it is funny, has great songs, and even has a message.. So what went wrong? Let’s face it, Signature has done this show before! Well, the show has problems in the staging. Why are these assassins chasing each other around? I like the idea of we, the audience facing ourselves and asking, “could it have been me?” but why all the movement out into the audience and even worse, many times the action is moved behind some of the audience. Imaginative staging is something that we love to see but there are times when the staging just gets in the way of the show as it does here.

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Mame

By: Tim Treanor

Mame, at the Kennedy Center

Mame

It’s easy to see who the hero is in Eric Schaeffer’s immensely likeable Mame, now playing at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. In case we had any doubt, the hero’s profile looms over the final scene – over Mame herself, over her nephew, Patrick Dennis, wiser but no sadder from his aunt’s example, over the loveable lush Vera Charles, over everyone. It is the City of New York, whose irrepressible, fun-loving, rule-breaking hipness reigns superior in every way to the bluebloods, bigots and blackguards of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Georgia.

So understood, Schaeffer’s smart production is less a play than a celebration. The opening-night Kennedy Center audience, correctly generalizing Mame’s New Yorkness to take in all that is urban and cool, guffawed in delight at every expertly-executed bon mot and putdown, even a few which were familiar or lame. Mame is a monument to New York-style urban values. Walt Spangler’s gorgeous set, which features the City’s signature skyscrapers in high relief, makes that clear.

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