Your Ticket to Theatre News in MD, DC & VA!
I was first introduced to Harold Pinter in 1975 by way of The Birthday Party and its mysterious brutality. Having seen, acted in, and directed many of his works since then, I have only grown in my admiration of the unique manner in which this master playwright synthesizes the linguistically brilliant with the visceral, creating worlds that [...]
The Golem is an ancient character of Jewish history that keeps popping back into the wider culture, whether it be in the books of Michael Chabon, in the odd “Simpsons” episode, or in the new novel by Helene Wecker, The Golem and the Jinni. That Taffety Punk, the innovative, rebellious and punk rock theater company in [...]
By the time Voltaire got around to writing Candide, he had been kicked out of Paris a couple of times for his outspoken work. The 1759 book, whose subtitle was “or Optimism,” earned him the enmity of the government and religious leaders alike, as well as lasting fame. The latest variation on Candide aims to be [...]
In all of the plays and movies about writers, there are usually very few scenes of actual writing being depicted. This may be understandable – the solitary endeavor makes for dull spectator sport. In Michael Hollinger’s play Ghost-Writer, however, currently at Metro Stage in Alexandria, the typewriter is front and center and, at least a [...]
As people, as a nation, what are we to do with our dark history of violence and oppression? Is it the key to our progress and redemption, or are we doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes in a new disguise? These are among the questions posed by Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize winning play, Topdog/Underdog, [...]
As a title, Pas de Deux, with its connotations of ballet and romantic refinement, might be a bit misleading. With Skin Tight by New Zealander Gary Henderson and 2-2 Tango by Canadian Daniel MacIivor, we definitely have dancing, but of the psycho-sexual variety. And we have lots of romance, both the longterm and enduring and the flash-in-the-pan-and-smash-that-watermelon-to-bits kind. [...]
In its 27 seasons, in its several homes, the literary-minded Washington Stage Guild has become one of the best known purveyors of the work of George Bernard Shaw. Now, it’s become the theatrical authority on the works of T.S. Eliot. Not that the group will stage the Eliot-derived musical Cats anytime soon. …a production so [...]
If I were to tell you that The Personal(s), now playing at the No Rules Theatre Company in residence at Signature Theatre, was about a married couple who, after the death of their daughter in a horrible car wreck, struggles to save their marriage through a series of role-playing “blind dates,” you might say: “That play [...]
When you enter the world of The Amazing and Marvelous Cabinets of Kismet be prepared to free yourself from expectation. To be sure, you will find puppets within the Mead Theatre Lab, but do not expect any Pinocchios or Punches or Judys to spring into being. These puppets are of a wholly different order. The puppets of Kismet are [...]
Most of Arthur Miller’s works are intense and emotional, and The Price currently in production at Bay Theatre Company is no exception. It’s 1967, and Police Sergeant Victor Franz (Peter Wray) has returned to his family’s New York brownstone. The play opens with Victor entering the attic and surveilling it as if it’s a crime [...]
This musical adaptation of the 1997 British comedy, The Full Monty, playing at Riverside Center Dinner Theater, tells the story of six unemployed steel workers who decide to perform a Chippendale act in order to make money quickly, though in order to have the edge over other male striptease acts they decide to go “the [...]
Before I begin, I should say that it is almost impossible to describe the success of this production without revealing its major theatrical conceit. Those of you who are unfamiliar with the plot may wish to remain so and, in that case, I encourage you to stop reading here and go buy your tickets to [...]
Faction of Fools, DC’s Commedia dell’Arte company, is back this spring with The Lady Becomes Him, a wild adaptation and expansion of a three-page, 17th century text called Donna Zanni. Using classical technique, mask-work, and improvisation, the company tells a humorous story of forbidden love and mistaken identity. And while the style may be unfamiliar to [...]
On December 17, 1996, a rebel group called the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) took hundreds of high-level dignitaries hostage at the Japanese embassy residence in Lima, Peru. While many hostages were released, some were held for a total of 126 days–more than four months since first stepping through the doors to attend Ambassador Aoki’s [...]
