What do you expect when you see a play called Rage? Yelling? Violence? Gunshots? Ambassador Theater’s US premiere of Rage by Canadian playwright Michele Riml definitely delivers there. But the play also delivers a philosophical discussion from two characters with polar opposite opinions on violence, two characters who are familiar in the DC area.
Happily Ever After
Ambassador Theater’s latest production has just opened at Mead Theatre Lab. Happily Ever After’s three scenes explore the landscape of loneliness and aloneness experienced in various stages of “relationships.” Whether it’s a misunderstanding that causes a couple to inadvertently stand each other up, a one-night stand with emotional possibilities, or the inner turmoil of a […]
Dyskolos
Rarely does theatre make you feel educationally illuminated and shamelessly entertained at the same time, but such are the charms of Ambassador Theater’s production of the ancient Greek comedy Dyskolos by Menander. Dyskolos feels like a genetically combined blend of Moliere’s The Misanthrope, Italian commedia dell’arte (complete with masks), and The Three Stooges. It is […]
Protest
The Mead Theatre Lab has rarely felt as inviting as it did for Wednesday night’s performance of Protest, the thoughtful political two-hander currently being produced by the internationally-minded Ambassador Theater. Snacks, drinks, and colorful tablecloths cover the small tables arranged nicely throughout the room, creating an evening café environment suited to some nice pre-show conversation […]
Vaclav Havel tribute performances start this weekend
Václav Havel is well known for having been a political dissident, but he was also a well-regarded playwright in his time. His writings were banned by the Communists in the ’70s and he became leader of the revolution that drove them out of power. In 1993, he was elected president of the newly independent Czech […]
The Third Breast
As The Third Breast opens, the cast sings, accompanied by acoustic guitars, tambourines, and a flute, as if around a mid-summer bonfire, and they invite the audience into the fold of their valley “commune” through the offer of libations. It seems as if one is walking into a 1969 love-fest, yet the audience leaves feeling […]
Ambassador Theater inserts some nonsense into our lives
We admit it – when Artistic Director Hanna Bondarewska sent the Ambassador Theater’s press release for their upcoming performances at Flashpoint Gallery, our email back could be capsulized as “huh?”
Trespassing
DC is just the city for a company like Ambassador Theater. Home to a constant tide of diplomats, businessmen, and wandering tourists, this town must re-translate every day to keep the population flowing. Ambassador knows its audience is up for some cross-cultural fun and games, and they’re clearly excited about this new project: the US […]
The Madman and the Nun
You know things are going to be a little weird when you enter a theater and receive—in lieu of a program—a confidential psychiatric patient file clipped into an official-looking manila folder. Things got even stranger on opening night when cast members, wandering about outside the stage area, encouraged audience members to sample some of the […]
Under the Shadow of Wings
With Under the Shadow of Wings, Ambassador Theater has staged a double bill of dramatic visions so vivid and absorbing they feel almost like lucid dreams. Springing from the minds of two Nobel Laureates, Karna and Kunti and Death of Tintagiles whisk the audience to a moonlit Indian plain and a cursed European village, respectively, where […]
The Little Prince
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” These words, penned (in French) during the Second World War by writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, will immediately ring a bell with children of all ages and nationalities.
Summer at Nohant
If you are accustomed to seeing paired down black box productions at the Flashpoint venue, the well-crafted nineteenth century salon will be a pleasant surprise.