SCENA Theatre continues to mount vital international works in its 26th year, kicking off the season with a stage adaptation of the 1979 film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, The Marriage of Maria Braun. This cult favorite from the New German Cinema movement is a cultural import worthy of SCENA’s brand, and it’s about time that […]
Salomé
Oscar Wilde renounced convention with his tales of decadence and beautiful corruption—preferring the treacherous beauty of the poisoned apple to Victorian moralism. In their production of his tragedy, Salomé, Scena Theater spins the Janus coin of great beauty to show its counterpoint in sickness and corruption. Their impeccable production of Salomé reaches through the fabric […]
A Clockwork Orange
If you are asking, starry droogs, “What’s it going to be then, eh?” and you’re up for viddying malchickies tolchoking others in the guluva, the odd in-out-in-out, you know, a malenky bit of ultra violence, look no further than Scena’s production of what some would term Anthony Burgess’ “immoral classic.”
Mein Kampf – Eine Komodie
The story of Hitler’s youth often gets overshadowed by his bloody WWII legacy, but the following is known: he began adulthood as a struggling, academically rejected artist in Vienna who was taken in by Jewish art dealers.
The Seafarer
The Seafarer – a Christmas-themed play set in Ireland – arrives in DC too late for both the Yuletide season and St. Patrick’s Day. But that’s no reason to miss it. Anyone who wants to feel some of the Christmas spirit in the middle of Spring – or get a taste of Ireland in the […]
Director Robert McNamara on SCENA’s Hedda Gabler
SCENA Theatre’s current production of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler puts some interesting twists on a classic that’s rarely seen on DC stages these days. SCENA’s veteran Artistic Director Robert McNamara has chosen to remedy this problem at least in part by employing an updated adaptation of the original by popular contemporary Irish playwright […]
Hedda Gabler
We’ve all had our days of anxiety, waiting for the proverbial gun to go off. It’s on such days that we most enjoy taking a night out at the theatre, to clear our minds and – go figure – wait four acts for the real gun to fire.
Greek
Collect all the polluted epithets that people hurl at each other on the street and you’d have quite a heavy volume, not the least of which would concern people’s mothers. The streets of 1980s London are a dark and nasty place in Steven Berkoff’s play, a re-imagining of Oedipus Rex for the Margaret Thatcher years. […]
Constellation’s Ramayana becomes the next summer rerun to sell out
August is the hottest month for ticket sales too. DC audiences are showing they like seeing their favorite shows the second time around. Yesterday morning, Constellation Theatre had only 30 seats left for its return run of The Ramayana at Source. They’re gone now, guaranteeing busy nights for the 14th Street venue through August 21st. Woolly […]
Purge
When Aliide looks out her window, across her silent stretch of rural Estonian farmland, she sees a country sent reeling from the impact of Soviet occupation. Cold-eyed and resolute, she is the kind of hardened survivor who stands at the center of some of the most moving historical dramas. Her role in Sofi Oksanen’s 2007 […]
Purge – Finland’s young writer uncovers Estonia’s dark shame
Finland’s best selling novelist writes a play about Estonia’s painful past On June 9th, Scena Theater – which bills itself as “Washington’s International Theater” – will host a regional premier of Sofi Oksanen’s Purge. The play, according to Scena artistic director Robert McNamara, “is not for the faint-of-heart, but for those who feel that the […]
The Weir
The Washington area’s unofficial Totally Irish Theater March Madness continues unabated this week, aided and abetted by Scena’s new production of Conor McPherson’s problem comedy The Weir. Now playing at the H Street Playhouse DC’s increasingly trendy Atlas Theater District, Scena’s current offering is the second iteration of McPherson’s play to hit the boards here […]