Angels in America, Part II – Perestroika

perestroila3“How are we to proceed without Theory?” asks the world’s oldest living Bolshevik (Jennifer Mendenhall),. “Only show me…the book of the next Beautiful Theory, and I promise you that these blind eyes will see again, just to read it….” [Read more...]

Angels in America, Part I – Millennium Approaches

angels1Those who hold that Angels in America is merely a political play – an extended skewer of the Reagan Administration – are mistaken. It is made of sturdier stuff. Two years from now, no one will stage Son of a Bush, [Read more...]

dark play, or stories for boys

darkplayIn the famous Peter Steiner cartoon, the family pooch has climbed onto a chair and is hovering over the keyboard of a computer. “On the Internet,” he explains to his canine buddy, “nobody knows you’re a dog.”

In Carlos Murillo’s dark play, nobody knows what the hell anybody else is, but they are willing to believe, [Read more...]

Marisol

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...]

Last Days of Judas Iscariot Revisited

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...]

Forum Opens Next Season with Angels in America

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

Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?

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...]

Marat Sade

  • 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...]

Judas Iscariot Revealed

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...]

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

  • 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...]