DC Theatre Scene . Washington’s liveliest theatre web site

Glengarry Glen Ross
By David Mamet
Directed by Jeremy Skidmore
Produced by Keegan Theatre
Reviewed by Steven McKnight

Keegan Theatre’s Glengarry Glen Ross is an example of how the stars can occasionally align to produce a truly memorable experience.  This top-notch production of David Mamet’s profane yet literate play about desperate real estate salesmen would be a treat under any circumstance.  When you add in the special resonance that results from the current economic climate, the result ranks among the finest theatrical events of the year. (more…)

• Stones In His Pockets
• By Marie Jones
• Directed by Kerry Waters Lucas
• Produced by Keegan Theatre’s New Island Project
• Reviewed by Steven McKnight

Can hopes and dreams be dangerous?  Stones in His Pockets starts as a witty little satire about a small Irish village used as backdrop for a Hollywood film then evolves into a darker and richer story. (more…)

• Closing Time
• by Owen McCafferty
• Produced by Keegan Theatre New Island Project
• Directed by Eric Lucas and Kerry Waters Lucas
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Ireland’s recent successes - it is among the most prosperous nations in Europe, now, and there is peace in the Occupied Counties for the first time in more than a generation - may prove a curse to a particularly glorious class of Irishmen: Irish playwrights.

(more…)

• 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.

(more…)

• Last Days of the Killone Players
• By Eric Lucas
• Directed by Leslie A. Kobylinski
• Produced by Keegan Theatre’s New Island Project
• Reviewed by Steven McKnight

The stereotypical image of Ireland, arising in part from a wealth of literary and theatrical works, involves a poor agricultural nation rich in tradition and slow to change.  In fact, Ireland has undergone a rapid period of booming economic growth and transformation over the last twenty years, a phenomenon known as the Celtic Tiger.  Keegan Theatre’s New Island Project attempts to explore the impact of this phenomenon through the microcosm of a small amateur theatre company holding the first reading of its final production in The Last Days of the Killone Players. 

(more…)

• The Hostage
• By Brendan Behan
• Directed by Mark Rhea
• Produced by The Keegan Theatre
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

The thing to understand about this wonderful production of The Hostage is that it begins as a comedy and ends as a tragedy. This same thing might be said about Irish theater as a whole, or life in general.

(more…)

Mojo Mickybo by Owen McCafferty

Produced by the new island project of Keegan Theatre at Theatre on the Run

Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Podcast with the cast and director follows the review.

Who are those guys?

Hey, if you like good theater, delivered explosively by excellent actors, do yourself a favor and go to the Theatre on the Run in Arlington.  Buy yourself a ticket to Owen McCafferty’s Mojo Mickybo, plunk yourself down in one of the comfortable seats, and just watch.

Mojo Mickybo, set in 1970 Belfast, is the story of the friendship between two boys, the diffident Mojo (Christopher Dinolfo) and querulous, aggrieved Mickybo (Michael Innocenti).  The lads are just at the cusp of pubescence, where they glory in the ecstatic violation of parental authority and of minor ordinances. They steal cigarettes, piss on walls and shout out profanity with the purposefulness of monks singing a hymn.  They are full of grand plans, but they are still kids.  When Mickybo’s stewbum father (Dinolfo again) offers to take the kids to Australia, Mojo enthusiastically signs on - as soon as he gets his mother’s permission. ( “Just be back in time for tea,” his distracted ma (Innocenti again) says.}

Like kids of this age all over the globe, they live in a world which is half fantasy and half real.  The fantasy part is informed by the great William Goldman movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Mojo and Mickybo imagine themselves to be the immortal cowboys, hard-riding gun-toting friends to the end.  (”All men are cowboys,” a Greek chorus of neighborhood women, all played by Innocenti, tells Mojo, and they carry that truth with them throughout the play.)  They talk a friendly local bus driver (Dinolfo) into giving them a ride to the next county, which will serve for Bolivia in the absence of the real thing. (more…)

 

 Mojo Mickeybo : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Picasso at the Lapin Agile, by Steve Martin 

Produced by Keegan Theatre at the Gunston Arts Center

Reviewed by Tim Treanor

I saw the world premiere of this play fourteen years ago - a somewhat lackluster performance at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. At the time, I remember wondering how good Picasso would be if it was staged by people who really understood it; who knew how to draw out the concerto of wit that Steve Martin stuffed the play with, and who could underscore the heartbreaking truths that were at its core.

I have seen Picasso staged by Keegan Theatre and directed by Scott Pafumi, and I’ve found my answer.

It’s good. It’s damn good.

(more…)