War stories and insights from Hemmingsen, Ingvarsson, and McNamara — doing it together for decades Robert McNamara is Artistic Director of SCENA Theatre and Director of The Norwegians, the play by C. Denby Swanson receiving its D.C. premiere at Anacostia Playhouse through April 19th. The production reunites him with actors Nanna Ingvarsson and Brian Hemmingsen. […]
Theatre is like a cheeseburger: Brian Hemmingsen and Nanna Ingvarsson on The Norwegians and more
“We were trying to figure it out the other day,” Nanna Ingvarsson said after I asked her how many times she and her husband Brian Hemmingsen have worked together. I was talking to them in the dressing room at Anacostia Playhouse before a rehearsal of The Norwegians, their latest project. The SCENA Theatre production runs […]
The Norwegians. Funny? You can bet your Lutefisk
If Scena Theatre’s production of C. Denby Swanson’s The Norwegians was a food, it would be a chocolate mousse. It is a darkly delicious black comedy about two spurned women in Minnesota who consider hiring Norwegian professionals to kill the lovers who jilted them. Yet despite the murderous subject, it has an entertaining lightness that […]
Review: The Insect Play. Bugs reveal the human condition
I don’t like bugs. Not even a little bit. The good news is The Insect Play has little to do with bugs and more to do with those things that drive us as humans – the desire for sex, the desire to own things and the desire to be a part of something larger than ourselves. We humans, […]
Review: No Exit from Scena
Mirrors. We use them every day, find them in all sort of obvious locations. One could almost say that we even take mirrors for granted, simply assuming that they will always be there when we need them. But what if you were never to see a mirror again – could never glance at a reflective […]
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, […]