Archives for July 11, 2011

Pandora: A Tragicomic Greek Romp features Pandora, the Greek gods’ gift to mankind and Nikodemos, a prolific but not always successful inventor in ancient Greece.  What a shame that he never got around to inventing scissors or an editor’s blue pencil because a funny premise is weakened by the length and repetitiveness of the script.

Black folded programs held together with waxen blood drops greet our hands as we enter the theater. A glowing crown made of Christmas lights hang on the edge of a pale pink antique armchair. At first glance Insurgent Sonata by Timothy J. Guillot looks like something out of a child’s imagination, a magical play place. […]

Zero complaints about the dance technique in DC Aerial Collective’s UPheaval. The women of the Collective are clearly well trained, strong, and fearless performers, capable of feats at which most mere mortals can only wonder.

Vijai Nathan takes her namesake very seriously. If you choose to see this show (and you should), you will discover why. To offer a hint, Vijai steers comedic puns and paints characterizations with the wrath of Athena.

David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross is a top notch play. Saturday’s performance at the Warehouse was a quality one, but it did not exceed expectations. Call me jaded, but this production of Glengarry Glen Ross needed something more than what was there.

They had me at “$800 for supplies”. FLASHBACK to elementary school. A much shorter version of your critic has just received excellent news. Recess has been cancelled due to rain! For the fifth time this week! 

Before the show began, the theatre was almost completely full of audience members sitting in their seats with big smiles, a few dance moves, and perhaps a beer in their hand. It must have been because they knew they were about to see a great show (in my humble opinion, the best Fringe production I’ve seen this year).

Experimental theatre can be a tricky thing. There was a time when even now-famous works like Waiting for Godot were considered off-the-wall, but their themes have resonated with generations of audience members.

The term “Boston marriage” refers to a relationship between two women considered both emotionally and physically intimate. After watching David Mamet’s silver-tongued play of the same title, one would infer the term “Boston marriage” to mean an agreement between two women with too much time and no soul.  Deliciously witty.  Historically scandalous.  Tiresomely shallow.

With Ann Noble’s energetic, solo performance in Stanley Ann: The Unlikely Story of Barack Obama’s Mother, we come to learn the life of Stanley Ann Dunham, the mother of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, Jr. and get introduced to a brave, adventurous woman whose tests of moral survival ran thick.

With the cadence of a Pentecostal pastor, Tommy Nugent hardly comes up for air in Preacherman, the one-man performance which opened yesterday afternoon at the Capital Fringe Festival.