Andrew White - Page 11

For all the pathos in this, one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, director Ron Daniels has found a way to create and unexpectedly festive atmosphere. There is, refreshingly, room to laugh knowingly even as Iago weaves his evil plot.

If you're looking for new, compelling, finely-crafted plays, look no further than the Hub Theatre. Their recently-concluded run of Philip Dawkins' autobiographical tour-de-force The Happiest Place on Earth is more evidence, as if any were needed, that they are a company to be reckoned with on the Washington theatre scene. Not only do they have an unerring eye for innovative scripts, they know how to give their playwrights the high-value productions they deserve.

Happenstance's ensemble is chock full of talents, and when combined in a show like this it is impossible not to smile the whole way through. For kids you have slapstick, bad puns and the occasional chance for audience participation (we can make it rain, people). For adults you have visual puns from classic art, statues, and familiar French tunes that never go out of fashion.

Oblivion is about the emptiness that plagues modern life, and the desperate attempts we make to fill that emptiness with something, anything, regardless of how illusory. Director Christopher Goodrich has assembled a dynamite cast, and the intimate environment at the River Road Unitarian Universalist's Fireside Room brings us into close contact with four truly vivid characters.

How I Learned What I Learned was originally intended as a way for August Wilson to share the many colorful, real-life characters that informed his work. With Wilson's passing, others have stepped up to represent on his behalf; and Roundhouse is blessed to have Eugene Lee, a veteran of many of Wilson's plays, to perform the master dramatist's life story.

Flying V has become the premiere forum for stage fights in the DC area, and the creativity in their 'Flying V Fights' series has never been more awesome or delightful. This year's entry, 'The Secret History of the Unknown World,' sees co-directors (and co-founders) Jason Schlafstein and Jonathan Ezra Rubin presiding over an evening of mayhem devoted to the bizarre, alternative worlds that have obsessed us on page and on film over 100 years.

The Washington Ballet's latest program, on view through this weekend, is especially rich with the work of three great choreographers on display; this talented ensemble has never looked more lively and inspired, and it is a joyful evening not to be missed.

What makes the Maly production of Three Sisters so compelling is Lev Dudin's ability to show how Chekhov's small-town characters, mired in the mores and beliefs of 1890's provincial Russia, anticipate our own thwarted dreams. Surprises abound, as we discover the inner fire that burns in people we thought we knew as humble, down-home folk. And they become shockingly familiar and contemporary in the process.

There is be nothing on the stage more exhilarating, exasperating and joyful than the sight of an entire company completely committed, all on the edge-dancing literally on the edge of success, on the edge of failure. "Walking with 'Trane (2015)" reminds us what a vital contribution Urban Bush Women company has made to the American performing arts.

For years the word "Palestinian" has been synonymous with terror; it hasn't occurred to the mainstream media that beyond the headlines, and just out of the camera's view, are families-many of them now fatherless-struggling to survive and maintain their identity in a world that has grown increasingly hostile to their very existence. Raeda Taha's brilliant autobiographical one-woman show, 'Where Can I Find Someone Like You, Ali?,' provides us with a narrative that is as timely as it is necessary.

Lee Breuer's The Gospel at Colonus took Sophocles' meditation on mortality, sin and redemption and brought it solidly into the American mainstream. This production of The Gospel at Colonus, revived by WSC Avant Bard under the inspired direction of Jennifer l. Nelson, is one of the most joyous experiences in live theatre you are likely to see.

Elevator Repair Service, a New York company with a decided literary turn, has brought its lengthy but satisfying staging of Hemingway's first novel, 'The Sun Also Rises,' to Shakespeare Theatre Company's Landsburgh stage for a healthy Washington run. For Hemingway fans, this is reason enough to make a pilgrimage downtown; for theatre enthusiasts, even those who wouldn't normally touch Hemingway with a 10-foot-pole, the sheer exuberance and creativity of the ensemble should be a huge draw.

It's especially gratifying to see companies like Aura Curiatlas Physical Theatre return to Washington with a fascinating new work, A Life With No Limits, dedicated to the life and ideas of the Nobel physicist Stephen Hawking. Aura Curiatlas has developed a unique, intensely physical brand of performance without words, incorporating circus and dance techniques into narratives that are eye-popping in their execution and touching in their meaning.

Last weekend I visited one of my friends in the great theatre town of Boston; while there I got to see an exciting new play that by rights should be produced here in the Washington area, and soon. A new playwright, Leo McGann, born and raised in Belfast, has written 'The Honey Trap' and it is a work as mature and necessary as any I have seen--and over the years I've seen quite a lot.

Times like these call for plays that directly address our anxieties; and Mike Bartlett's King Charles III is about as timely and necessary a play as we're likely to see. For all its indulgent verbal sprawl the Shakespeare Theatre Company has served Washington theatre audiences superbly, with a stellar cast and a politically taut drama written in the finely-tuned pentameter that once made, well, Shakespeare himself so famous.

Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm's new play Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies, receiving its world premiere with Mosaic Theatre Company, examines the dangers of identity, prejudice and identity politics from a variety of angles. This is an unforgettable, complex study in identity that for all of its tricks and turns is one of the more psychologically, spiritually rich plays you are likely to see on the stage.

As with all classic ballets in order to bring it to the stage you must breathe new life into it, and create a narrative that balances fidelity to the original with the genius of the modern choreographer. Not to mention the unique talents and personalities of each dancer. Kevin McKenzie, ABT's Artistic Director, brings this 19th-century classic into the 21st century with great sensitivity, but also with a sense of fun and celebration.

Adventurous theatre-goers, take note: a short drive beyond the Beltway, just off the Dulles Access Road, sits Next Stop Theatre Company, a troupe with a growing reputation for solid acting; their current production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is an excellent introduction to the growing theatre scene in Herndon, Reston and beyond-a scene which will become much closer as the Silver Line makes its progress to Dulles Airport.

Just in time for those winter, presidential inaugural blues, Pinky Swear Productions comes along offering the ultimate rock-scream therapy session with Lizzie, a musical dedicated to America's most famous real-life axe-murderer. Not for the faint-of heart, this is a musical that by rights should be featured in this Saturday's women's march, a reminder that women are perfectly capable of getting in their digs (or whacks, as the case may be) when pushed to the edge.

If you've had enough of the holiday cheer and are in desperate need of a chaotic romp, you could do a whole lot worse than Pointless Theatre's whimsical production of Alfred Jarry's anarchic satire, King Ubu. Decked out in costumer Ivania Stack's fuzzy, teddy-bear pajamas, the cast crackles with the energy of the cocky, petulant high-schooler that Jarry once was. The result is a 2-hour tour of Shakespeare as interpreted by a drug-addled adolescent.