Review: THE ENIGMATIST at The Kennedy Center

Puzzles and patterns, stories and magic are artfully woven together by David Kwong in The Enigmatist now playing at the Kennedy Center. The immersive experience is a little bit theatre, a little bit magic show, with some codebreaking, word games and storytelling thrown in for fun.

Who knew that constructing a crossword puzzle together could be so fun and awe-inspiring? (Really. It is.)

First off: do you need to be a math whiz, an avid Wordle-player who consistently gets it on the second guess, or work as a cryptologist for one of the DC-area super-secret agencies to participate and enjoy the show? Nope. The show is appropriate for all ages and puzzling skills. There’s a range of puzzles to figure out to make you feel pretty impressed with yourself, but there are some feats of magic and skill that are simply mind-blowing— you can do nothing but let your jaw drop in wonder.

David Kwong, who studied the history of magic at Harvard and now constructs crossword puzzles for The New York Times, created the one-man show “to combine all the nerdiest hobbies as one career.” He’s charming, he’s funny, and he’s a wonderful host of a giant puzzle party. He has a dry and self-deprecating humor that allows us to share his joy in geeking out.

The immersive experience begins even before audience members find their seats. Ticketholders are invited to arrive a half-hour early to solve four puzzles displayed in the lobby. (These can get crowded and bottlenecked close to showtime.) The pre-show solving is not mandatory, but they do tie back to the show and they are a fun way to warm up observation and logic skills.

At the center of The Enigmatist is the true story of an unsolvable mystery at Riverbank, the estate of George Fabyan where William Friedman and Elizebeth Smith met and fell in love before pioneering the field of cryptology. Kwong weaves in card tricks, audience puzzles and word games to propel the action. There are plenty of opportunities for audience participation. (Fellow introverts, never fear – participation is by choice not demand.)

Yet Kwong also layers in astounding magical feats in which the audience’s only role is to shake our heads in wonder and applaud.

The production is in the Kennedy Center’s 324-seat Family Theater. The polished wood of the theater and Production Designer Brett J. Banakis’s bookshelves and occasional tables lend an air of stepping into the conservatory in a game of Clue. The room is intimate and draws the audience together in a shared event.

Like other works of art, The Enigmatist sharpened my focus and changed my thinking even after the houselights came up. On the drive home I found myself studying the environment more closely, seeing patterns and puzzles along the way. Or, as Kwong would say, attempting to find order in chaos.

Runtime: Approximately 1:40 minutes with no intermission.

THE ENIGMATIST by David Kwong is presented by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20566. The production runs through July 2 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays – Sundays and 2 p.m. matinees on Saturdays and Sundays.  For tickets, Covid protocols and more information, see the Kennedy Center website. A limited number of $25 mobile rush tickets are available for each performance on TodayTix.

Photos by Jeff Lorch.

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