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Henry IV, Part 1
by William Shakespeare
directed by Paul Mason Barnes
produced by Folger Theatre
reviewed by Tim Treanor

Oh, what a wonderful story this is, the apparently fictional but well believed and beloved account of England’s greatest King, when he was but a drunken sot, the scourge and embarrassment of his father. And what a magnificently powerful job Folger does with it, thrusting us through four-hundred-year-old dialogue into a world almost two hundred years older than that. (more…)

• 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…)

• Macbeth
• By William Shakespeare
• Directed & conceived by Teller and Aaron Posner
• Produced by Folger Theatre
• Reviewed by Steven McKnight

In the spirit of an advertising campaign that once claimed “this is not your father’s Oldsmobile,” Folger Theatre’s new production is not your English teacher’s Macbeth (and you should be glad of it!).  This dark, violent thrill-ride of a production is a revelation, one that uses modern staging techniques to return to the play’s core.  Shakespeare himself would heartily approve of a production that emphasizes the bloodshed, supernatural elements, and the madness that give the play timeless appeal to audiences ranging from his lower-class groundlings and to sophisticated modern fans. (more…)

• The Second Shepherd’s Play
• By an Unknown Author
• Directed and Adapted by Mary Hall Surface
• Produced by Folger Consort
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

The key to understanding The Second Shepherd’s Play is to realize that the customary penalty for stealing a sheep is death. It seems somewhat counterintuitive to we who can buy a nice package of lamb chops for $5.99. But in a society whose economy was as close to the bone as was that of the shepherds Coll (Bob McDonald), Gib (Aaron Cromie), and Daw (Chris Wilson), stealing a sheep was an act of terrorism.  When, at the height of the Christmas season, the buffoonish Mak (Andy Brownstein) and his shrewish wife and accomplice Gill (Holly Twyford) hit upon the astonishing scheme to disguise a stolen sheep (a Cromie creation, expertly manipulated by Paige Hernandez) as their own infant, they signed their death warrant. (more…)

• As You Like It
• By William Shakespeare
• Directed by Derek Goldman
• Produced by Folger Theatre
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

As You Like It is kind of a crazy play, and the Folger Theatre’s pleasant production of it does not add to coherence.   In a nutshell:  Orlando (Noel Vélez), youngest son of the late Roland du Bois, goes to the house of his father’s sworn enemy, the usurper Duke Frederick (Conrad Feininger), in order to take on the house wrestler (Scott McCormick).  Why?  Likes wrestling, I guess. 

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By William Shakespeare

Produced by Folger Shakespeare Theatre

Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Aaron Posner is one of the best directors at work in Washington. He is an unparalleled interpreter of Shakespeare who justly won two Helen Hayes Awards in three years for his direction of Shakespeare plays.  This time around, he has made a decision so wrongheaded that it has sucked most of the comedy out of Shakespeare’s last comedy.

Posner forgot Trinculo and Stephano.

When I say “forgot”, of course, I don’t mean it literally.  Trinculo and Stephano are there, after a fashion.  Stephano is Caliban’s hand.  Trinculo is a bottle from which Caliban has drunk.  And their riotous, rustic, half-drunken dialogue has been transformed into a babble which Caliban hears, and translates, as voices in his head. (more…)

King Lear by William Shakespeare

Co-Produced by the Folger Theatre and the Classical Theatre of Harlem

Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Shakespeare Theatre Artistic Director Michael Kahn has called Shakespeare "a playwright for our town" and in no play is it more evident than in King Lear.  In Lear, power is acquired through lies and flattery, maintained through blood violence, and surrendered, kicking and screaming, in abject humiliation.  The Classical Theatre of Harlem (clearly the lead partner in this production, at least on the artistic side) readily identifies the surreal, hallucinatory intensity of the play, and delivers the goods with the physicality for which it has become justly celebrated.  The cast is stuffed with award-winners, including Emmy awardee and Tony nominee Dr. André De Shields as Lear, and the Director, Alfred Preisser, is a co-founding member of Classical Theatre of Harlem. (more…)

by William Shakespeare

Produced by Folger Theatre

Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Let’s take a look at the record - or, more specifically, the program.

 ”I can’t say for sure when I first imagined setting A Midsummer Night’s Dream during the 1930s,” Joe Banno says in his amusing and cogent Director’s notes.  “It might have been while watching an especially purgatorial production of the play, after having spent a week at a Busby Berkeley film festival, wishing that even an ounce of Berkeley’s loopy imagination had been lavished on the plain-jane staging in front of me.” (more…)

By Juliet Moser

The Game of Love and Chance  –  Folger Shakespeare Theatre 

Peppered with verbal bon-bons, Steven Wadsworth’s new translations of Pierre de Marivaux’s The Game of Love and Chance at the Folger Theatre leaves audiences with a slight stomachache from ingesting too may linguistic sweets. Game begins with the same culprits as every other love farce from the 18th century: a witty and eloquent Silvia (Tymberlee Chanel) deigns to accept her father’s spousal choice for her only if she is allowed to swap places with her maid Lisette (Tonya Beckman Ross) in order to better observe her potential mate during his initial visit to the household. However, little to the women’s knowledge, Silvia’s suitor (Matthew Montelongo) enacts the same plan, trading outfits and titles with his valet. Silvia’s father Orgon (Timmy Ray James) reveals these simultaneous plots only to his son (James O. Dunn) - and the audience - and giggles his way through the young couples’ follies.

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by Juliet Moser

A high backed chair, all straight lines and black, beetle-shiny surface, is topped with a blood-red cushion. Standing at attention center stage and highlighted by a single overhead light, the chair solemnly greets patrons of the Folger Theatre. Thick black columns etched with arching whorls frame the stage. The title of Folger’s latest offering, Measure for Measure, is projected on a panel above the stage. As soon as the lights go down, Matthew 7:12 – commonly known as the Golden Rule – appears: “Judge not, that ye be judged. For what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete , it shall be measured to you again.” Foreshadowing the mistreatment about to ensue, director Aaron Posner, winner of the 2005 Helen Hayes award for Outstanding Director for last season’s The Two Gentleman of Verona, opens the show reminding audiences how they are supposed to behave. Yet the main characters of his production ignore this biblical advice, using and abusing one another as pawns in a games played for personal gain.

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