Pamela Roberts

Written by MacArthur “genius” fellow and award-winning screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Danilo Gambini, A Case for the Existence of God is vulnerable, funny, and intense. It builds like a wave on the horizon that slowly and steadily gathers power as it nears, landing with massive energy and impact.

Synetic Theater’s new adaptation, “Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus,” is demanding and dark, a dystopian tale that merges the classic gothic novel with a timeless myth to make us question our current quest for progress.

Five gifted actors in four bare walls work theatre magic to bring the epic work of Cyrano to life in Taffety Punk’s new interpretation skillfully directed and adapted by Lise Bruneau. The production is vibrant, visceral and immediate.

Cirque du Soliel’s LUZIA merges powerful artistry and adrenaline-fueled action punctuated with lush music, evocative scenery and a dreamy atmosphere for 125 minutes of pure entertainment. It’s exciting, with an immediacy and connection that only live performance can deliver.

Woe to Whoa to Wow! DUEL REALITY is an adrenaline-fueled retelling of Romeo & Juliet At the Shakespeare Theatre Company through July 20.

“Falsettos” at Keegan Theatre bursts with humor and heart as the musical’s talented cast explores the hope and chaos, and frustrations and forgiveness that are woven through the bonds of family and friendship.

Grab your bunny slippers and pop some popcorn. SLEEPOVA is a coming-of-age story about the strong ties of female friendship amid the stresses and trials encountered on the road to adulthood. Like the teens themselves, the production at Olney Theatre Center is earnest, frank, funny … and a bit clunky and awkward.

A Room in the Castle, by Lauren M. Gunderson, premiering at the Folger Theatre, is a fresh look at a story we thought we knew – and demands that we reconsider the tale from other viewpoints. The well-paced story is engaging and infused with humor.

The national tour of COME FROM AWAY is making a brief stop at Capital One Hall in Tysons – just five performances Friday, Jan. 31 to Sunday, Feb. 2 – so act quickly. This show is good medicine to soothe rough times.

Leopoldstadt, a weighty and ambitious work by award-winning author Tom Stoppard, is on stage now at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. The modern epic traces a Viennese Jewish family from the zest and promise at the eve of the 20th century, through the devastations of the Great War and the annexation of Austria by the German Reich, to the Holocaust and the tender, broken years after.

Primary Trust is a touching, intimate, and deeply affecting work. The 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winner is making its Washington-area premiere at Signature Theatre in an outstanding production directed by Obie Award winner Taylor Reynolds.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company has opened its 2024-2025 season with a fun, frothy, beautifully rendered Comedy of Errors by the theatre’s “resident playwright” William Shakespeare and directed by the company’s artistic director, Simon Godwin. Godwin layers visual and aural punch to keep the pace lively – including a band of versatile on-stage musician storytellers.

Soft Power at Signature Theatre, is lush and polished, wacky and worrisome, absurdist and cautionary. It’s a tightrope of high political stakes and a zany montage of the US and China. As we head into high season of the 2024 election, the timing is perfect for staging the recently revised musical by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori.

Rodin Alcerro’s PONDERING ABOUT MY MEMORIES is lush, powerful and deeply moving. Premiering at the Capital Fringe Festival, the play explores past, present and future. Like flecks of glitter in a snow globe, in this production thoughts, memories, and fragments drift peacefully or swirl turbulently and resettle each time in unique new ways.

RE: WRITING is a moving and assured new work at the Capital Fringe Festival. The play delves into trust and memory. It asks who gets to tell your story, it reflects on the ethics of writing, and it looks at how we surface and articulate the major moments of our lives.

At Round House Theatre, director Jamil Jude stages a brilliant, heightened and deeply emotional interpretation of the Suzan-Lori Parks’ work that is as raw and affecting now as it was when it earned Parks a Pulitzer Prize two decades ago.

Creative Cauldron stages a positively effervescent musical, THE BUBBLY BLACK GIRL SHEDS HER CHAMELEON SKIN, a coming-of-age story that ably balances light humorous moments with pointed questions of growing up a Black woman in the latter part of the 20th century.

Signature Theatre’s revival of the groovy Vietnam-era musical HAIR is wildly energetic, colorful, and full of spirit. The cast’s gorgeous voices and exuberance uplift songs that we know as the soundtrack of the times, from the opening “Aquarius” to the final “Let the Sunshine In.”

STOMP is here for a brief five-performance run through April 7 at Capital One Hall in Tysons. In STOMP, anything can be used to drive a beat and set the rhythm. Brooms, trashcans, grocery carts, inner tubes, suitcases – everything including kitchen sinks are objects to play with and explore. Zippo lighters, plastic bags and the performers’ bodies are pressed into action to create surprising and exuberant music.