Many years ago I remember asking my dad what he did in his war; his answer was silence. Sean Huze went away to war and has returned with something powerful and disturbing to tell us. A line from the 10,000 Maniacs song Gun Shy says it best; the Army “is good at making soldiers but […]
Review: The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Washington Shakespeare Company
Religion, greed and truth all play an important role in Peter Shaffer’s saga about Spain’s conquest of Peru and its riches. Director Steven Scott Mazzola never loses sight of Washington Shakespeare Company’s mission to emphasize a provocative, bold, intimate approach within its productions. Soaring goals sometimes are never fully realized but for Mazzola and WSC, […]
Review: Save the Leopard, Spooky Action Theater
Spooky Action Theater, a new company performing its first season in the Mead Theatre Lab, sets forth on a mission to “resonate with the audience so that a connection is felt long after leaving the theatre”. The question is, in order to feel that connection do I need to care about the characters, even one […]
Review: It’s a home run for Arena Stage’s Damn Yankees
It would be easy to say Damn Yankees is a timeless musical — it would be easy to say it is “pulled from the headlines” and lastly it would be easy to call it an old fashioned, feel good, crowd pleaser. To be honest it is all of those things and more. This show reminds […]
Review: Tennessee Williams: Portrait of a Madonna and Suddenly Last Summer
The Keegan Theatre has mounted not one, but two, Tennessee Williams one act plays at the Gunston Arts Center in Arlington. I will discuss them in tandem here because they share much of same cast. The first play performed is Portrait of a Madonna. Lucretia Collins (Sheri Herren) is the character that ultimately becomes Blanche in […]
Review: A Little Rebellion Now. 2005 play asks What if DC citizens said “Enough!”
Sometimes a smaller theatre company can mount a production that has so much enthusiasm and heart that one looks past technical issues and the company’s shoestring budget and just says “Who Cares! The show just rocks”. Venus Theatre has mounted A Little Rebellion Now at The Warehouse Theatre and it has that feel of true theatre excitement that is hard […]
Review: As Bees in Honey Drown struggles to please
Alexa Vere de Vere, a femme fatale any man would melt for, has her sights set on any ‘hot’ commodity she can draw into her sticky, sweet trap. Douglas Carter Beane’s As Bees in Honey Drown, currently mounted at Theatre On The Run by Trumpet Vine Theatre, tries to be something it ultimately is not, […]
Review: No Exit from Scena
Mirrors. We use them every day, find them in all sort of obvious locations. One could almost say that we even take mirrors for granted, simply assuming that they will always be there when we need them. But what if you were never to see a mirror again – could never glance at a reflective […]
Review: Edgar Allan Poe meets Meat and Potato Theatre in Poe 2000
Meat and Potato Theater’s production of Poe 2000, a collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s works mounted at the Playbill Café is just in time for Halloween. Playwright-director-actor Tobin Atkinson has succeeded in bringing something different and exciting to the stage while preserving the aberrant and ghoulish nature of Poe’s poems and writings. Previously Atkinson wrote, […]
Review: Bright Ideas, a child-rearing comedy from Didactic Theatre
Every generation reinvents child rearing, thinking they have new insights the previous generation did not, almost as if their generation was the first to raise brilliant scientists, authors, painters, inventors and statesmen. The current breeding class puts an immense amount of pressure on themselves to find the BEST preschool, getting put onto waiting lists and […]
Review: For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, “an adoring memoir”
Quite a few years ago I lost my mother to cancer and to this day I wonder what it might be like to see her one last time. What would I say? What would she say? What would I feel? All these thoughts came to mind after seeing Michel Tremblay’s play For the Pleasure of […]
Review: Vpstart Crow’s Bell, Book and Candle
It’s a classic story of supernatural love and crafty trickery. Bell, Book and Candle is a wonderful play, originally brought to the stage in 1950 and to film eight years later. Vpstart Crow has mounted a fantastic production of this off beat love story for the Halloween season. John William Van Druten’s play is pleasantly nostalgic […]