Something Past in Front of the Light is “The Exorcist” for grownups. Playwright Kathleen Akerley’s genius script recognizes, as “The Exorcist” did not, that Satan (Alexander Strain), or “Stan” as he is familiarly called here, does not torment the innocent. To win Satan’s special attention you must invite him, as you must invite Dracula, into your […]
Cat’s Cradle
For two decades during the twentieth century, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. wrote some of the most important fiction coming out of America. The six novels which comprise his earliest and best work – Player Piano, The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, Cat’s Cradle, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, and Slaughterhouse-5 – were a riot of strange […]
The Oogatz Man & Artist Descending a Staircase
I’ll get to the Stoppard play in a minute, but right now let’s focus on what’s really important for Washington theater: Kathleen Akerley’s The Oogatz Man. Washington deserves to develop its own authentic theatrical voice, as Chicago and other great theater towns have done.
Theories of the Sun
Theories of the Sun By Kathleen Akerley Produced by Longacre Lea Directed by Kathleen Akerley and Jonathon Church Reviewed by Tim Treanor Having already established herself as a premium Washington-area actor and director, Kathleen Akerley has now written a startlingly good play – not about playwriting and literature, as you may have been led to […]
The Hothouse
The Hothouse By Harold Pinter Produced by Longacre Lea Directed by Kathleen Akerley Reviewed by Tim Treanor The Hothouse belongs to that class of absurd, Kafkaesque plays of which Forum’s excellent production of The Memorandum by Vaclav Havel is the most recent local example. That the ultra-serious and occasionally self-righteous Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter could […]
ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE GREAT
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard Produced by Longacre Lea at Catholic University. Reviewed by Tim Treanor “Give us this day our daily cue,” prays Guildenstern (Jonathan Church), cueless and clueless, late in the second act of Longacre Lea’s remarkably satisfying production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Alas, Guildenstern’s problem is not […]