Courage
June 14, 2010 By 7 Comments
Somewhat like the poetry of e.e. cummings—whose lower-case, typographically bizarre verse forms promised to shake up literary convention but actually built upon it—the lower-case “dog & pony dc” ensemble aims to take accepted canonical texts and re-scramble them. Case in point: their current production of Courage: A Political Theatre Revival. [Read more...]
Suburban Motel
June 14, 2010 By 2 Comments
“When I think about things I don’t understand, I get depressed,” says dimbulb R.J. (Ryan Tumulty) in Risk Everything, the better of the two George F. Walker one-acts now being produced by 1st Stage. R.J. gets depressed a lot. But for the rest of us, in a context where truth is as elusive as quicksilver, the primary sensation is elation. [Read more...]
Source Festival – Group A
June 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Ten minute plays can always be relied on to hit their marks, be short and sweet, and if one doesn’t work for you, just a wait a few minutes and something else more satisfying will probably come along. That’s the case with the Group A selections of the Source Festival’s 10-Minute series. Especially if you have the patience to wait until after intermission, you won’t be disappointed and will easily find yourself eager to come back for more. [Read more...]
The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
June 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment
How magnificent is Bruce R. Nelson’s performance as Martin in Edward Albee’s The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia? at Rep Stage? He makes you believe in the transcendental power of falling in love with a goat.
His bewilderment at finding himself at the age of 50, at the pinnacle of his career as an architect and happily ensconced in a functional and sexually fulfilling marriage, helplessly in love with a farm animal named Sylvia is almost celestial. [Read more...]
The Glass Menagerie
June 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I’m sorry to say I neglected this Roundabout revival of Tennessee Williams’ first success earlier, because it is closing in several days, and you should know about it. It opened in very late April at the off Broadway Laura Pels Theatre and its notices were smashing. Now I add my small voice to those glowing reviews. [Read more...]
DCTS columnists reveal their Tony favorites
June 9, 2010 By 1 Comment
Richard Seff and Joel Markowitz on the NYC Theatre Season and the Tony Awards
In what has become an annual tradition on DC Theatre Scene, DCTS columnists Richard Seff and Joel Markowitz met in Richard’s penthouse on the Upper East Side of NYC to share their thoughts with you on the current NYC theatre season. [Read more...]
Richard Seff and Joel Markowitz talk about the 2010 Tony Awards [ 38:13 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (732)Shakespeare drops Enrico IV for Pinter Play
June 9, 2010 By 2 Comments
The Shakespeare Theatre Company today announced that it will be producing Harold Pinter’s Old Times at the Landsburgh Theatre May 17 – July 3, 2011. The Pinter play, which will feature Holly Twyford, will replace a previously-scheduled production of Luigi Pirandello’s Enrico IV. [Read more...]
Othello
June 8, 2010 By 3 Comments
Synetic Theater’s hyperkinetic new production of Shakespeare’s Othello is like no Othello you’ve ever seen before. While it takes some liberties with one of the Bard’s most compelling tragedies, the company’s entirely wordless Othello remains weirdly in tune with the essence of the original play that inspired it. [Read more...]
El Bola – Cuba’s King of Song
June 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
A projection of El Bola’s round face with infectious smile greets you from a circular screen. Then Marcelino Valdes, in elegant white and black tux, steps through the Omega-shaped portal and impersonates Cuba’s King of Song by sing-speaking the riff: “All of us black folk drink coffee, you know!” from Ay, Mama Ines, (by Eliseo Grenet) and the fireworks begin. [Read more...]
Another Part of the Forest
June 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
This play by Lillian Hellman is rarely revived, and it’s worth making some effort to see this production of it, if Hellman is one of your favorites. It’s not her best play, but it is full of the good story telling for which she was famous, for its craft, for its awareness of what keeps an audience interested for, in this case, almost three hours with intermission. [Read more...]
