Marisol

March 17, 2009 by Debbie Jackson  
Filed under Our Reviews

marisolMarisol is reminiscent of old school, vintage dark comics, only without the Super hero.  Its darkness permeates everything, from the tattered wall hangings to the graffiti filled floor and lacerated and junk yard furnishings piled up for the set design. Read more

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Last Days of Judas Iscariot Revisited

December 17, 2008 by Tim Treanor  
Filed under Our Reviews

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
By Stephen Adly Guirgis
Directed by John Vreeke
Produced by Forum Theatre
Reviewed by Tim Treanor

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot was the winner of DCTS’s Audience Choice Award for Best Play last season, Forum Theatre’s remounting of the production has its original cast with one exception - Heather Haney now plays the role of Mother Theresa, originally played by Maggie Glauber. Here is a reprise of  our review of the original production.

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I’ve taken more time than I usually do to write this review because I wanted to be sure you understood how good this play is. I wanted to tell you in plain and direct language the nature of the thing that you have before you. Read more

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Forum Opens Next Season with Angels in America

December 16, 2008 by lorraine treanor  
Filed under News and Views

Dec 15, 2008 - Forum Theatre will produce Tony Kushner’s epic drama, Angels in America, with Parts 1 & 2 - Millennium Approaches and Perestroika - running in rep. Jeremy Skidmore and Forum Artistic Director Michael Dove and Jeremy Skidmore will direct. The company will produced the “pared-down style of presentation” that Kushner originally intended, according to the press release. “Many people only know the story from the special effects-heavy HBO version,” Dove said. “We want to remind audiences why Angels is so quintessentially theatrical and influential.”

Angels in America will be Forum’s Fall 2009 production at H Street Theatre, Washington, DC

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Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?

October 12, 2008 by Tim Treanor  
Filed under Our Reviews, Uncategorized

Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?
by Caryl Churchill
directed by John Vreeke
produced by Forum Theatre
reviewed by Tim Treanor

This is a horrible little play, alternately turgid and incomprehensible. It is a waste of a fine director and two good actors, and should you chose to go, it will be a waste of your time and money as well.

The ostensible business of the play is the relationship between two figures - Sam (Adam Jonas Segaller), who Churchill identifies as a country and who obviously represents the U.S., and Guy (Peter Stray) who Churchill says is, well, a guy, an Englishman who is seduced by the dynamic Sam into leaving his wife and children and coming to America. Read more

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Marat Sade

July 23, 2008 by Rosalind Lacy  
Filed under Our Reviews

  • Marat/Sade
  • by Peter Weiss
  • Directed by Michael Dove
  • Produced by Forum Theatre Company
  • Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

Walk through a paranoia-inducing, chain-link, floor-to-ceiling fenced cage to be seated next to a thrust stage where actors scream, writhe on the floor, stand and stare and circle a bathtub. Suddenly, one of the keepers padlocks the door behind us. We can’t get out. Read more

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Judas Iscariot Revealed

April 26, 2008 by Tim Treanor  
Filed under Our Podcasts

judaspodcast.jpg

  • A conversation with actors Patrick Bussink, Jason McCool and dramaturg Hannah Hessel
  • Interviewed by Tim Treanor

What’s the hottest show in town? It could well be Forum Theatre’s The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Read more

 
icon for podpress  The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (851)

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The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

April 14, 2008 by Tim Treanor  
Filed under Our Reviews

  • judas.jpg The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
  • By Stephen Adly Guirgis
  • Directed by John Vreeke
  • Produced by Forum Theatre
  • Reviewed by Tim Treanor

I’ve taken more time than I usually do to write this review because I wanted to be sure you understood how good this play is. I wanted to tell you in plain and direct language the nature of the thing that you have before you.

It’s not that it’s simply good theater, with a tight dramatic arc and developments which are both outrageously funny and absolutely credible within the parameters of the story…although it is all of that. Nor is it simply that some of our best actors - Hemmingsen, McCormick, del Cerro, Jorgensen - do some of their best work ever, although they do. It is that The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a moral act, which can bring grace to the stricken heart. It will both entertain you and make you think. It could save your life. Read more

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Antigone

December 11, 2007 by Debbie Jackson  
Filed under Our Reviews

  • Antigone
  • By Jean Anouilh
  • Produced by Forum Theatre and Dance
  • Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

Antigone.  The very name conjures up wailing, morose women dressed in long white togas, inescapable tragedy, reminders of the whole Oedipus mother-son mishap, and enough long sour faces to fill a Debbie Downer SNL sketch.  Well, feast your eyes on the likes of this rather upbeat production, where death is treated just like any other inescable aspect of life - it’s going to happen to all of us, so may as well make the most of it.  Putting death in its rightful place as rather comfortable, even sometimes humorous helps to free it from the dreary baggage associated with it.

Who knew that death could be liberating, while hope - now, that’s an emotion that will weigh you down with expectation, dread, misery.  Read more

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Valparaiso

July 3, 2007 by lorraine treanor  
Filed under Our Reviews

By Don DeLillo

Directed by Michael Dove

Produced by Forum Theatre & Dance

Reviewed by Janice Cane

During the intermission of Valparaiso at the H Street Playhouse a few nights ago, my companion turned to me and asked, “So, what do you think?” My response: “I like it, but it’s a little strange.” If I had only known what was in store for me! Act One was very good with a little bit of weird mixed in, but Act Two was very weird with a woefully small bit of good mixed in. Read more

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Memorandum: Important Must See!

July 3, 2006 by Ronnie Ruff  
Filed under Our Reviews

By: Ronnie Ruff

The Memorandum — Forum Theatre and Dance

The Memorandum, a biting commentary on bureaucracy and the silliness that can be its result, is Forum Theatre and Dance’s final production of its 2005-2006 season. The production is directed by artistic director Michael Dove and written by Vaclav Havel who is one of the twentieth century’s best and most respected playwrights. His association with the intellectual opposition to Stalinism in Czechoslovakia and subsequent imprisonment were followed by being elected to the presidency of the Independent Czech Republic. The Memorandum is his most accomplished work and a play that is a perfect example that theatre is always about politics.

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