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Produced by Arena Stage
Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson
Lynnie Godfrey as Aunt Ester (Photo: Scott Suchman)
Gem of the Ocean reminds us why August Wilson is considered by some to be the Shakespeare of our time. Beautifully mounted at Arena Stage, it is nothing short of an epic. Issues involving Honesty, Redemption, Forgiveness, Self-love, Faith, Life, and Death — all spin around in an oceanic swirl, commanding attention and are sure to leave a gut-wrenching impact. [Read more...]
Produced by Signature
Reviewed by Ronnie Ruff
(l to r) John Lescault, Kathleen Coons, Deborah Hazlett, Joe Isenberg (Photo: Carol Pratt)
It just may be that Crave is the most unusual production I have seen in the entire history of DC Theatre Reviews. Those keeping notes should scribble in their notepads now that this is not necessarily a bad thing at all – in fact if I were to judge my evening with little golden stars it would get three of five. This is not a play for everyone and if you like a show that fits within lines Crave may not be for you. [Read more...]
Produced by Round House Theatre
Reviewed by Tim Treanor
Kathryn Kelley and Wilbur Edwin Henry (Photo: Stan Barouh)
Imagine Noises Off, Michael Frayn’s comedy about a grade-Z theater company’s attempt to put on a farce (or read about Arena’s production of it here). Now, substitute theater icons Orson Welles (Wilbur Edwin Henry), Joan Plowright (Connan Morrissey) and Sir Lawrence Olivier (Anthony Newfield) for Frayn’s misbegotten company. Next, instead of the smarmy farce, substitute Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros. Finally, instead of the trivial and banal considerations which drove the action in Frayn’s play, substitute core questions about duty, ego and the nature of the theater itself. You would have something very much like Austin Pendleton’s Orson’s Shadow, now playing at Round House Theatre. [Read more...]
(l to r) Cynthia Benjamin, Carlos Castillo and Manuel Cabrera-Santos (Photo: Daniel Troconis)
Argentine playwright Griselda Gambaro took an enormous risk because she couldn’t keep silent about “the disappeared.” When she wrote The Walls (Las Paredes) in 1964, she was ahead of her time. She held up a mirror to the reality of never-ending military state terrorism, which started in the 1960s and peaked in 1983 during the Dirty War, a period of kidnappings, Nazi-like tortures and executions by security police. [Read more...]
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