The tumultuous personal lives and demons of Hemingway, Mailer, and many of our greatest writers can sometimes overshadow their indelible literary achievements. In American Lit, playwright James F. Bruns offers an entertaining, if uneven, series of vignettes that capture titans of literature as they might have been in the quiet moments behind closed doors and […]

Don’t come expecting a history lesson. I know no more about the biographical details of Stokely Carmichael’s life than I did when I entered the theatre. Instead, what I got was a lesson in the message behind the man.

While the subtitle, “Stories I can’t f*ckin’ hear no more,” hinted at aggression, this was a performance that came from a place of understanding, not anger.

Behold the wretch. He squats before you, sputtering and muttering, shaking his sweat-drenched, alcohol-infused head and slapping his thigh repeatedly. He sorts through his bag of garbage, occasionally opening a piece of refuse, scribbling furiously on it, and throwing it away. His eyes dart back and forth, as though he is on the lookout for […]

Jeanne d’Arc (1412-31), who in this play uses her mother’s premarital name, Romée, was a charismatic leader and a military genius who improbably – because she was an illiterate peasant, and a teenage girl – led the French Army to a series of important military victories against the English after a generation of defeat.

The Washington Post humor columnist Alexandria Petri has here written a play about the least funny subject imaginable: pedophiles. And is it funny? Yes, uproariously so. And is it heartbreaking? That also.

Tomato Beard contains all of the following: broken hearts, puppets, curses, an alcoholic turtle (who’s also a ship’s captain), a neurotic and sexually confused pig (who’s also a mayor), a lion made out of leaves, and a catchy soundtrack with lyrics that reference T.S. Eliot poetry when they’re not pining over unrequited love.

“Trash…can take on all kinds of forms,” observes Refuse Expert Ron Litman in his one-man show DC Trash – Recycled!! Of all the forms rubbish can take, though, DC Trash – Recycled!! definitely isn’t one of them.

It appears that director Carol Spring, Artistic Director Elizabeth Dapo, and the Half Mad Theatre Company have garnered some very positive attention locally, so it beats me why this show left at least this audience member baffled and disheartened.

“I DON’T WANNA DIE!” echoed through the room, the first words of Kris Noteboom’s one-man show And Then I Woke Up. Noteboom’s performance covers a lot of ground and weaves in and out of stand up, monologue, and even flirts with lecture.

This show has a fire eater. An honest to God, lights the torch aflame and sticks into his mouth fire eater. If that isn’t enough to  get you here then, dear reader, read on…