Synetic Theater, Washington’s revolutionary movement-based theater company, has announced a schedule of all-movement shows for 2016/17 in which there will be no dialogue. At all. Ever..
The Synetic season opens with a wordless version of Dante’s Inferno, a theme they handled with great success in 2009 (according to me, anyway). This production will explore the nine circles of Hell through movement, original music and vivid sets. For 16 and up (partial nudity alert!) Dante’s Inferno will run from September 20 to October 30, 2016.
Next up for Synetic is Sleeping Beauty, also performed without words. This family-friendly production will run from December 7 of this year until January 15 of the next. Synetic recommends this show for those 7 and up, as younger children might find it frightening. (It is a story about someone going into a coma after a drug overdose, after all.)
Synetic returns to its silent Shakespeare specialty with The Taming of the Shrew, the Bard’s controversial portrayal of one man’s Gitmo-type strategy to subdue a tempestuous woman. Petruchio and Kate’s nasty verbal battles are here transformed to acrobatic physical gestures. Recommended for those 14 and over, also because of partial nudity. From February 1 to March 26, 2017.
The company closes down the wordless portion of its schedule with The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo’s story about the rivalry between a physically challenged bell-ringer and his adoptive father for the heart of a beautiful dancer, and the catastrophic consequence for the whole community. From May 10 to June 18 of next year. Because of the ultra-violence, Synetic recommends this show for those 13 and older.
Synetic brings back Carmen, a huge success for it in 2008, for its summer show. Bizet’s opera about a wild gypsy girl with a penchant toward violence and her doomed straight-laced soldier lover has received a lot of attention from area companies recently (with productions at Olney, In Series and Washington Ballet, Center Stage in Baltimore, and Washington National Opera in 2015), but only Synetic can do a speechless opera. From July 19 to August 13; for 13 and up.
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