One would think that a show about joy would have little to do with theater- or much else, for that matter- these days. Yet Synetic Theater, that chameleon of invention, brings us little glimmers of joys past and joys to come. Their current online offering, Joy!, is really two separate one-person offerings. This reviewer was […]
Review: Cyrano de Bergerac. A knockabout clown in love with a tiny dancer
Confession time: When I fell in love with theatre, I really fell for Cyrano, Roxanne, Christian and their heady love triangle. And the swashbuckling. And the language. Edmond Rostand’s heroic and poetic swordsman with the prominent nose practically leapt off the page for me and my imagination as a high school student. My heart skipped […]
Body by Synetic: free video workouts from the award winning company
Just released – Synetic Theater has begun offering free fitness videos on their YouTube channel – inspired by their popular fitness classes. Synetic Fitness is an exercise class that develops strength, conditioning, and flexibility, based on the training techniques that Synetic actors use to prepare for physical theater productions. Synetic Fitness videos and classes are […]
Hamlet … the rest is silence
Every great young actor should get his shot at Hamlet. The Dane is the tragical crown jewel, the great emo star-maker. It’s to Synetic’s credit that upon remounting the production that started their silent legend they passed the crown to perhaps their brightest young star. Alex Mills takes the honor and runs with it. And […]
Synetic’s wordless Twelfth Night
I have two surprises to report. The first is that I liked Snyetic Theater’s production of Twelfth Night. I didn’t think I would, because it tells the story of Viola and Sebastian with movement and music, not with words, and I’m a language aficionado — so language-addled, in fact, that I wondered whether you could […]
Caught on camera, Synetic paints The Picture of Dorian Gray
Synetic Theater has built their artistic identity on arresting visuals, stunning physicality, and frequently audacious wit and creativity in storytelling. All of these elements came into play when I stopped by a rehearsal for their upcoming production of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The scene they were rehearsing surrounds the creation of the supernaturally-powerful portrait […]
Monday at Page-to-Stage 2013
The Kennedy Center’s 12th annual Page-to-Stage event was an all you-can-eat buffet last Monday. Not to worry if the flavors and tastes run together. Everyone won in this Labor Day Weekend event which ran the weekend before the DC theatre season cranks up in earnest. Small companies may boast they’ve landed the big venue gig; […]
Synetic’s next season offers 3 new works and 1 reprise
Synetic Theater, the DC Area’s unique movement-theater specialists, will be presenting four adaptations of works better known for their dazzling language in its 2013-2014 season, the company has announced.
Synetic takes on The Tempest
Synetic Theatre has delivered a blockbuster with its almost cinematic rendition of The Tempest. Think Lord of the Rings mixed with scenes from James Cameron’s Titanic. Shakespeare’s masterpiece is moved through with a lush underscoring whose decibel strength could do an AMC “big screen” theatre proud.
Alex Mills, star of Synetic’s Jekyll and Hyde
In Synetic Theater’s newest production, based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s short novel, Alex Mills plays both the muted Professor Jekyll and his voracious alter ego Mister Hyde. Under guidance from Mills, and in the company’s uniquely acrobatic style, the audience experiences a well-known story from some dark, surprising new angles. We spoke with Mills about […]
Jekyll and Hyde
Synetic Theater, a company which has never shied away from showing squirmy evil in all its wormy liveliness, here produces a ninety-minute symphony of depravity, and I mean that in a good way. Jekyll and Hyde, loosely based on Robert Lewis Stevenson’s story, could, with justice, be subtitled The Fall of Man, and How Good […]
Synetic’s untamed Taming of the Shrew
When Synetic cooks up Shakespeare, know that under Paata Tsikurishvili’s fired-up direction, the team will tackle something bold and often delicious. However, is it any wonder that in Synetic’s repeated attempts to re-concoct the bard, placing the ingredients of each play in a new mold, there might prove one production that, like a soufflé, doesn’t […]