Sarah Murphy - Page 2

Some events in history are too large in scope for us to properly grasp and process them. It is in small, personal stories that we are able to gain a greater understanding of just what has occurred and how it may echo through time. Time and time again, we return to the individual narratives, the threads that make up the unfathomable, to anchor us.

Body. is the kind of kinetic theatre experience that Fringe was created to showcase. An ensemble of eight using movement and spoken word to encounter all of the things we don't want to talk about: body image, gender, race, toxic masculinity, the menstrual cycle, masturbation...

Resurrecting and redefining the misunderstood women of myth and history is not breaking ground for a Fringe Festival in the #MeToo era, but Rewiring Eden manages to make its mark with a thoughtful enough conceit - what if all of those women had the opportunity to meet one another?

Inspired by Common's 1994 'I Used to Love H.E.R.', director and playwright Goldie E. Patrick has brought together a dynamic cast of five to tell the story of the role of women in Hip Hop. What unfolds is a love letter to HER and to all women who have shaped and influenced Hip Hop.

Shakespeare's Richard III has been no stranger to DC theatre goers this season. In true Synetic fashion, their current production turns a well known tale on its...crown.

Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding centers around several steamy post-World War II Southern days as seen through the eyes of twelve-year-old Frankie Addams. Frankie, or F. Jasmine as she requests we call her, is on the cusp...of what she does not know.

In Scena Theatre's Beckett Trio, Part 2 identity and story are up for debate. Most importantly, the audience is left to wonder about the relationships involved in each piece.

Even if you're not familiar with George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, you're most likely familiar with Lerner and Loewe's adaption, My Fair Lady. At the core of both is the classic question of how much can we really change our stripes? Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm gives us a modern take here with his world premiere of P.Y.G. or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle.

There's "beauty in the dark" Tino McGoldrig tells us and in 'Silent' that darkness has many, many layers. You see, Tino (named after silent film icon Rudolph Valentino) "once had splendid things", but has lost it all...

Mean Girls, Big Little Lies, Heathers, Broad City, Thelma and Louise, Parks and Recreation, Sex and the City…These are some of the better known vehicles for female friendship that inhabit our pop culture universe. Paling in comparison to the numerous portrayals of male friendships and "bromances", too often these relationships center on competition or jealousy, on getting the guy. Very few take a deeper, more comprehensive dive into the complexity of female companionship. Even fewer are the product of female authors, directors, playwrights, etc.

Tino, short for Valentino (as in Rudolph), 'once had splendid things', but has lost it all and is now living on the streets of Dublin. Taking inspiration from the historical Valentino, Kinevane brings us into an intimate world of love and loss, of regret and of hope.

You may be forgiven if the phrase 'romantic getaway' doesn't immediately inspire images of Iceland and, though it features several couples, Steve Yockey's 'Reykjavik' is unlikely to change your mind. What it will do is give a momentary, and at times uncomfortably intimate, glimpse into the relationships of these couples as paths intersect and unwind in the titular city. It is a haunting and disorienting ride you won't want to miss.

Inspired by the idea that the greatest "clowns" sometimes hide the greatest pain, Synetic Theater's creative team, helmed by Vato Tsikurishvili in his directorial debut, has created a wonderful world of pantomime and harlequin.

An artistic genius and his muse...a dancing cat...Pontius Pilate...No, this is not the latest Andrew Lloyd Webber revue. It is the wonderful and completely weird world of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (adapted by Edward Kemp).

DC's Scene Theatre presents the US premiere adaption of French author Michel Houellebecq's controversial novel 'Submission'. Through the lens of middle-aged academic, Francois, Houellebecq masterfully interweaves real-life and fantasy, imagining a political showdown between far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen and the fictitious Mohammad Ben Abbes, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

AMERICAN MOOR is an intimate portrait of an artist and a cry of grief for the boundaries we impose upon our artistic lives. Using the role of 'Othello' as both an anchor and a jumping off point, Keith Hamilton Cobb skillfully takes the audience through a deeply personal examination of race and privilege in the theatre.

In an age when we are tearing down digital walls and erecting physical ones, Solas Nua brings us Sonya Kelly's brilliant and autobiographical How to Keep an Alien, which tells the story of two people "falling in love and proving it to the government".

We do not know the exact date, time, or words spoken, but in that moment when Susan B Anthony met Frederick Douglass, two paths merged and two movements would never be the same.

'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' draws from American literature and a variety of cinematic treatments. In typical Synetic fashion, however, the story is quite literally turned on its head.

It is difficult to think of another work of American literature that has so captured the imagination or has inspired more reincarnations than L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This summer, Synetic Theater manages to make a mark on this prolific field with their own adaptation.