In the first act of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, a cycle, now playing at Arena’s Kreeger Theatre, a roguish character offers to show villagers “the scaffolds that bring men up; the machinery that brings men down.” While this merchant may be offering only to demonstrate how his flying contraption hoists a poor fool into the […]
Upshot from Forum Theatre, Take 2
Publisher’s note — This is our second review of this play. Spotlight center stage — a Man atop a stone, gun in hand, as music reminiscent of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odessey plays about. It is a gloomy beginning, creating a mystique about the stage which does not rise; we are entranced, seduced by a […]
Review: Synetic Theater’s first Dracula, 2005
Synetic Theater’s unique performance style is a composite of the arts, blending drama, movement, dance, mime, and music — it is no wonder then that its production of Dracula is swarming with erotic imagery and sensual choreography. It is unfortunate though that this show never defines itself as either an erotic tale of terror or […]
Reiew: Kafka’s The Trial from Scena Theatre
A steady gloom settles casually to our shoulders, and suddenly twelve step upon the stage. As the white of the overhead artificial sun sets, we feel as though this dozen has stepped up to the gallows, awaiting their demise, as though before us played an annotated “Crucible”. It is The Trial, written by Franz Kafka, […]
Review: The Boys Next Door from Journeyman Theater
The Boys Next Door by Tom Griffin is the kind of play that makes you laugh in an uneasy way. One question this wonderfully acted production asks is pointed and direct — can a play about four mentally challenged men living together in a small apartment be humorous without the focus of the joke being […]
Alexa’s Necklace: the Trick is Context
Suffering can be humorous; this the Three Stooges understood. The trick is context. Generally, being involved in a car wreck is not funny. Curly, sprinting from a knife-wielding gorilla, is. Natural Theatrical’s latest presentation, Alexa’s Necklace, an original work by Paula Alprin (of Natural Theatricals) and directed by Susan Alison Keady, is a classical example […]
Review: It Had To Be You – American Century Theater
Do you ever just want to see a good comedy, one where the laughs come easy and the characters are like people you know or wish you did? I suggest you get on the phone and buy a pair of tickets to It Had To Be You currently being staged by American Century Theatre. Written […]
Fountainhead turns in top performances for Top Girls
Margaret Thatcher’s England of the 80s has a lot in common with George Bush’s America of 2005. It is those similarities that make Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls a play that is relevant today and quite possibly into the foreseeable future because, while times have changed, the basic human desire to be successful at all costs […]
Review: An Evening With Herakles by Archibald MacLeish
Natural Theatricals is the theatre company in residence at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, VA and a wonderful residence it is. This setting is perfect for the classical Greek productions that are it’s mission. Herakles is based on Archibald MacLeish’s verse-play, an artistic statement on the 60’s cold war and its effects […]
Godspell by NobleHeart
Way back in 1970 John Michael Tebelak, Godspell’s writer, attended Easter Sunday church services and left feeling depressed. He was quoted at the time as “feeling the stone was being rolled to close the tomb instead of opening it.” On the way home, the police stopped him and searched for drugs because of his long […]
Agnes Of God – Omaemoda Productions
John Pielmeier’s Agnes of God is a sensitive disturbing and electrifying play being revived in a new production at The DC Arts Center by Omaemoda Productions over twenty years after its original Broadway run. A new born baby has been found dead, umbilical cord wrapped about its neck, in a trash can in the room […]
The Intelligent Design of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow
Did you read the title? Gosh, I’m almost too clever for my own good. Speaking of cleverness (I do the very best segue ways, too), there really is something remarkably intelligent about The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow. And while a person ought to expect a thoroughly synapse-popping experience during an evening of live theatre, […]