Roundheads and Peakheads By Bertolt Brecht Directed by Christopher Gallu Produced by Catalyst Theater Company Reviewed by Tim Treanor Oh, what an unpleasant task it is to review a play one didn’t enjoy! And how much worse it is when the production is done by an excellent and admirable company, and with such obvious care […]

1984 Adapted from a novel by George Orwell by Christopher Gallu Directed by Jim Petosa Produced by Catalyst Theater Company Reviewed by Tim Treanor War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. And Catalyst is in the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street, rather than its old digs at the Capital Hill Arts Center. I know this […]

Crumble (lay me down Justin Timberlake) by Sheila Callaghan Directed by Shirley Serotsky Produced by Catalyst Theater Company Reviewed by Leslie Weisman This may be the shortest, sharpest – and the most seemingly effortlessly poetic – play you’ll see outside of the Capital Fringe Festival.  Like some of those memorable mini- quasi- master sketches, “Crumble,” […]

Swimming in the Shallows By Adam Bock Directed by Scott Fortier Produced by Catalyst Theater Company Reviewed by Steven McKnight Describing Swimming in the Shallows as a quirky little comedy with surreal touches would be accurate, but that description alone would fail to convey what a smart and entertaining production awaits you at Catalyst Theater […]

The Trial Adapted by Christopher Gallu from a novel by Franz Kafka Directed by Christopher Gallu Produced by Catalyst Theater Company Reviewed by Tim Treanor There are some great novels which simply cannot be happily adapted to the stage.  I regret to report that The Trial is one of them, notwithstanding some extraordinary inventiveness by […]

  By Will Eno Produced by Catalyst Theater Company Reviewed by Tim Treanor The reviewer plops heavily into his chair and fires up his Dell.  He types in the basics.  Playwright’s name.  Producing company.  His own name.  He takes a pull from the glass of tawny port he had just poured and sits back.  He […]

Produced by Catalyst Theater Company Reviewed by Tim Treanor Cassie Platt (Moth) and Scott Fortier (Leather) (Photo credit:  Joe Shymanski) The first thing to understand about this quirky and provocative play is what it is not. It is not a play about the internet. It is not a play about underdeveloped or third-world countries, with […]

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, by Bertold Brecht Produced by Catalyst Theater Company Reviewed by Tim Treanor For Bertold Brecht, theater was always a sort of sermonette disguised as a circus act.  When he was at his most speculative and general – Threepenny Opera comes to mind – his plays were like the planet […]

By: Ronnie Ruff Eleemosynary                                         Catalyst Theater Spelling Bees, flying children and the joy of articulate vernacular are all part of the simple diversion that is Lee Blessing’s Eleemosynary. This is a story of three bright women;  a mother, daughter and grandmother and the ties that bind them together. There is nothing traditional about these women or their […]