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• The School for Scandal
• by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
• Directed by Richard Clifford
• Produced by Folger Theatre
• Reviewed by Leslie Weisman

The Folger’s done it again: taken a classic from an earlier era and turned it into a contemporary cautionary tale of a situation so in-the-moment as to have been heralded, just four days into its run, by a Washington Post Style article dissecting the very phenomenon it portrays.  (more…)

• Crumble (lay me down Justin Timberlake)
• by Sheila Callaghan
• Directed by Shirley Serotsky
• Produced by Catalyst Theater Company
• Reviewed by Leslie Weisman

This may be the shortest, sharpest - and the most seemingly effortlessly poetic - play you’ll see outside of the Capital Fringe Festival.  Like some of those memorable mini- quasi- master sketches, “Crumble,” in a little more than an hour, draws an astute and affecting portrait of two sisters; the preteen daughter /niece whose mercurial moods and needs whet their differences; and the ways in which inanimate objects can serve as a silent sounding board for their, and by extension, our unarticulated fears and desires, and as a springboard to help us identify and at last, deal with them.  (more…)

• Antony and Cleopatra
• By William Shakespeare
• Produced by Shakespeare Theatre Company
• Directed by Michael Kahn
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Forget all you’ve heard about Antony and Cleopatra, the great romantics. Forget all that claptrap about Antony as a love-addled cat’s-paw for the seductive Cleo. Throw it in the ash heap of history. Instead, believe Bill Shakespeare and Michael Kahn. Antony (Andrew Long) and Cleopatra (Suzanne Bertish) are political allies who cement their bond with great sex. They are much too self-absorbed to love each other, or even to know what love means.

Seeing this play as a sequel to Julius Caesar (with which it is running in rep) clarifies it in startling ways. Antony here is a hard-drinking party boy who lies as easily as he breathes. (more…)

• The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
• By Edward Albee
• Produced by the Bay Theatre Company
• Directed by Lucinda Merry-Browne
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

This is a play about a man who has sex with a goat - enthusiastically, and frequently. He is in love. Although he has a sweet and intelligent wife, and his life is otherwise a fantastic success, he longs to go behind the barn in rustic Connecticut, and there swive his bovid beloved. Full of hillocky infatuation, he can barely function in modern society. He loses his shaving head, and the meaning of the business card in his pocket. (more…)

Volvió una Noche, She Returned One Night

• by Eduardo Rovner
• Directed by Mario Marcel                                     
• Produced by Teatro de la Luna
• Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy   

One reason I love to see plays at Washington D.C.’s Hispanic theaters is that I emerge renewed, as if I’ve traveled through a parallel universe.  Meet Eduardo Rovner, a multi-prize-winning Argentine playwright, whose 35 plays have been translated into many languages and produced internationally.  Thanks to Teatro de la Luna’s artistic director Mario Marcel we can experience the delicate balance between the real and the magical world of one of Rovner’s wonderful farces. Marcel’s passion for drawing out the best in his inspired and gifted performers has more than succeeded in bringing this comedy about a mother-son relationship to life.  She Returned One Night is so believable you’ll laugh your heart out and be filled with wonder.  (more…)

• Julius Caesar
• By William Shakespeare
• Produced by the Shakespeare Theatre Company
• Directed by David Muse
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Shakespeare Theatre’s sturdy and handsomely-mounted Julius Caesar leaves things… unresolved.

Are we helpless pawns to a hapless fate, as Director Muse works hard to imply by his staging? Or can a clever politician, such as the formidable Mark Antony (Andrew Long), engage his rhetoric in such a way as to twist both men and fate to his own design? (more…)

• Mad Breed
• By Jacqueline E. Lawton
• Directed by Juanita Rockwell
• Produced by Active Cultures Theatre
• Reviewed by Janice Cane

Mad Breed reminded me of the last time I greeted news of a brand-new play with a good deal of skepticism. I didn’t think one of my favorite books, a rich tapestry of complex characters and themes, would translate to the stage. Well, I was wrong-thank goodness, because Wicked is now one of my favorite musicals. (more…)

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• Intimate Apparel
• Written by Lynn Nottage
• Directed by Jennifer L. Nelson
• Produced by African Continuum Theatre Company
• Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

Set in New York City in 1905, Intimate Apparel showcases the power of the written word from an African American cultural perspective. Specifically, the impact of letters and letter-writing in an age of innocence.  Playwright Lynn Nottage gently and lovingly explores aspects of love and friendship, cultural identity, self- expression and survival.

Esther, the main character, beautifully rendered by Deidre LaWan Starnes, has all but given up on finding a soul mated kindred spirit, let alone a husband.  (more…)

• Anima
• By Christiaan Greer
• Directed by Patrick Torres
• Produced by Doorway Arts Ensemble
• Reviewed by Janice Cane

“You would never kill me, would you, Ella?” “You would never make me, would you, Vlad?” Ah, young love. Nothing like it. Certainly nothing quite like Ella’s and Vlad’s explosive relationship. Peacemaking after their violent fights consists of cutting themselves with knives, while bonding experiences usually involve hard drugs. All of this is conveyed in the first, quickly paced scene of Anima, the riveting debut production of the Doorway Arts Ensemble.

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• Translations
• by Brian Friel
• Directed by Mark A. Rhea
• Produced by Keegan Theatre 
• Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy   

A knock-out punch is hard to see coming, but you know when you’ve been hit. Brian Friel’s Translations has that kind of riveting power so that you leave the theater reeling from its quaintly developed revelations. Keegan Theatre’s beautiful  restaging is a chance not to be missed. It’s a mesmerizing revival of director Mark A. Rhea’s 1997 Helen Hayes Award-nominated production.

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