Pamela Roberts News

October is the ideal time to delve into the afterlife and commune with disquieted spirits. Washington Stage Guild presents the DC-area premiere of Summerland, the story of a post-Civil War "spirit photographer" to whom distraught mourners turn for images of their dead loved ones, and of the New York City police officer who is committed to prove he's a fraud.

For more than 60 years, Athol Fugard has helped us explore South Africa through his complex, flawed, and empathetic characters. He is one of the most significant voices of our time. Fugard's most recent work, The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, makes its DC-area premiere at MetroStage. When Producing Artistic Director Carolyn Griffin slated The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek as MetroStage's season opener, little did she know that an August tweet would thrust South African farm ownership and race relations firmly back into the world spotlight.

Taffety Punk Theatre Company's Bootleg Shakespeare production HENRY VI, PART 3 is performance without a net - exciting, dangerous, riveting, and raw. Bootleg Shakespeare isn't designed to be polished or perfect, it's designed to be fresh and immediate. And it delivered. What's more amazing? The actors arrived at 10:00 am Monday with roles assigned and lines memorized. That's it. Working together under the direction of Taffety Punk Artistic Director Marcus Kyd, over the next few hours the 32 actors DIY'ed the production and were on stage in front of an audience at 7:30 pm. There were minimal props, lights, and costumes-but the red and white paper lapel flowers told us exactly what we needed to know when every epic battle scene and every word of Shakespeare's text was performed.

THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS PROJECT is an innovative and ambitious world premiere musical commissioned by Solas Nua. The production blends two fresh and significant dramatic voices, each with a unique perspective on the same time and themes. Staged on a pier jutting into the Anacostia River, the production gains added resonance in the shadow of Douglass' historic home at Cedar Hill and the bridge that bears his name. The site-specific staging heightens the drama and creates a memorable theater experience.

"A film noir inspired theatrical montage"- the subtitle of Happenstance Theater's CABARET NOIR perfectly encapsulates the richly stylized and wonderfully varied experience. Scandals, pistols, foggy streets, soft shoe, sweet harmonies, and red herrings - this production vividly captures the mood and the moment of those dark, smoky movies. Devised and performed by the Helen Hayes Award-winning ensemble, CABARET NOIR highlights the artistic strengths of the company of six.

LIGHT YEARS, a world premiere musical at Signature Theatre, is a moving performance with a beautiful score and an introduction to touching and endearing characters. LIGHT YEARS is a deeply personal story of son and father attempting to understand each other. The relationship is firmly grounded in love and respect. Yet the two have profoundly different ideas about pursuing artistic passion versus creating a stable and consistent life. LIGHT YEARS is a production of great heart and promise that deserves to continue to evolve. It is exciting to be privy to new work in creation.

THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH at Constellation Theatre is a thought-provoking, skillfully-rendered reminder that chaos and uncertainty are not unique to our time or to any single time. In the sure directorial hands of Mary Hall Surface, Thornton Wilder's masterpiece is a wild time-traveling, allegorical tragicomedy, without the Pepperidge Farm and Hallmark overtones we've now come to associate with the OUR TOWN playwright.

Theatre Prometheus' world premiere, SOLDIER POET, is a compelling work, richly rendered. In an intimate theater space with fresh and compelling actors, a persuasive script, and inspired scenic design, SOLDIER POET aptly and successfully reminds us of our shared responsibilities and human connections.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company's TWELFTH NIGHT is a fresh look at a familiar story a bit darker with less over-the-top mirth. It is well worth revisiting Shakespeare's comedy for a new take on the familiar story.

THE ORIGINALIST at Arena Stage introduces Antonin Scalia as "the most polarizing figure in American civic life." When a liberal Harvard Law grad ("I fall in the flaming category") clerks for the justice, she encounters both maddening combatant and sage mentor.

Synetic Theater's 'beautifully disturbing' HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME is gripping storytelling at its best. The wordless production conveys the epic tale with movement, spectacle, connection, and artistry.

Aura Curiatlas Physical Theatre will present DREAM LOGIC and A LIFE WITH NO LIMITS at Firehouse Theatre on Friday June 2 (7:30pm); Saturday June 3 (7:30pm), and Sunday June 4 (3pm).

Shakespeare's HENRY V gains new perspective with a retelling by We Happy Few Productions that takes a closer look at the stories and stakes of the everyday foot soldiers. It is a fascinating, resonant, and important new take on a known work that's only around for another week, so make plans now to take it in.

BLOOD KNOT is an apartheid-era Cain and Abel tale of half-brothers, Morris and Zachariah, who share a mother and a history, but have been separated by color and opportunity. Morris, whose light skin has allowed him to pass as white within South Africa's codified racial stratification, has benefited from opportunities unavailable to his darker-skinned brother.

In the American premiere Fiona Doyle's COOLATULLY, Kilian (David Mavricos)is stuck in the village of Coolatully and has few prospects. Once the powerful champion of the hurling team, Kilian has watched so many of his generation leave for opportunities abroad that the tiny town no longer has enough young people left to field a hurling team. The garda station is closed and the post office shuttered. When an opportunity to leave presents itself, Kilian must decide if there is enough to tie him to Coolatully when so much seems to indicate that he cannot afford to stay.

'What voice is God, and what is your own wishful self?' THE CHRISTIANS by Lucas Hnath playing at Theater J examines religion's power to unite or divide us. It delves into what bonds a community in faith. The play looks at houses of worship as institutions guiding faith formation and as businesses.

With pure kinetic energy and abounding bravery to boot, it is no wonder the performers of STREB Extreme Action are billed as Action Heroes. The company's three performances of the new work SEA (SINGULAR EXTREME ACTIONS) on November 4-5 at the Eisenhower Theatre marked STREB Extreme Action's Kennedy Center debut.

Who knew ecological adversity and failed policy could be so much fun? It's a grim world in Urinetown where a dire water shortage has made it a privilege to pee anywhere but the corporate amenities. Yet the zany humor and high energy of Constellation Theatre Company's URINETOWN (The Musical!) offers a hilarious lampoon of corporate greed, corrupt politics, and earnest populism complete with zingy songs and jazz hands.

DISTRICT MERCHANTS, Aaron Posner's new adaptation of Shakespeare's THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, explores the 'other-ness' of being outside the white male stations of power. Setting the work in post-Civil War Washington, D.C., the premiere takes a uniquely American look at race, religion, class and gender. DISTRICT MERCHANTS at the Folger Theatre is an important and compelling work that deftly balances humor among weightier, thought-provoking moments.

Mosaic Theater Company of DC completes its whirlwind inaugural year with WHEN JANUARY FEELS LIKE SUMMER, a play that is relevant, engaging and sweetly funny.