A pioneer in modern absurdist theatre, Christopher Durang can be seen as polarizing. You either love his work or hate it. Indeed, attend a production of one of his plays and you're apt to fi…
Immersive theatre experiences can be somewhat tricky to do well. There's the logistics of it all, having actors disciplined enough not to be distracted or thrown off by less-than-conventiona…
Passion, raw emotion, and utter frustration need no translation in GALA Hispanic Theatre's latest production, "Choke, Or, SUCEDE HASTA EN LAS MEJORES FAMILIAS." The actors pour their hearts …
Sarah Ruhl is not one to shy away from more risqué subjects. Her Tony Award-nominated "In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)" deals with, you guessed it, a controversial moment in the his…
Dominque Morisseau's "Pipeline" dives straight into the lives of an utterly exhausted mother and her beleaguered son. Nya (Melissa Scott) is a teacher at a NYC public school. As we learn in …
Larissa FastHorse's widely produced "Thanksgiving Play" has helped establish the playwright as someone who expertly deploys sardonic humor and cleverly nuanced sarcasm, particularly when dea…
Should a play strive to present all sides of a given issue? In other words, is any audience experience made more meaningful if no one message or position is prioritized over another, if we g…
Of Anton Chekhov's work, Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen insightfully observed that he made "subjectivity edit and rule experience." Moving away from more totalizing abstract themes and events …
Playwright Matilda Feyiá¹£ayá» Ibini explains that with this play about four young Black British women, she at last felt the "freedom" to write in a style and language that represents…
A meta-theatrical farce that searingly pokes fun at the things people do in the name of trying to quell their mistakes and their anxiety, "It's a Motherf**king Pleasure" hits some truly laug…
Playwright José Rivera's resume is certainly an impressive one. The Obie Award-winning "Marisol" sticks out in my mind as representative of a body of work that brilliantly brings together t…
Though written in 2014, Dominique Morisseau's "Blood at The Root" proves an incredibly timely play. Dealing with themes of racial equality, homophobia, and the crackdown on student protests,…
TEACHING THE CREATURE'S BRAIN"WHO IS THE REAL MONSTER?Elizabeth Frankenstein v. Victor Frankenstein Originally conceived in 1994, Shakespeare Theatre Company's Mock Trial event this year tur…
For some, resistance is protesting, for others it's making their voices heard through whatever channel possible during times of strife, and still for others resistance might be as simple and…
Wombats, who knew? Former small mammal, zoo biologist David S. Kessler happens to be a pretty ardent supporter of the wombat"of all small mammals really, but perhaps most fondly, the wombat.…
Boundlessly creative is the only way I can think to describe Avant Barde Theatre's production of "The Margriad." A complex assemblage of four of Shakespeare's history plays"the three "Henry …
Characters in Harold Pinter's plays tend to have a shorthand when it comes to their conversations. That is, the words they say to one another are generally packed with a lot more meaning tha…
What is "art?" This is the question that Tony award-winning, French playwright Yasmine Reza puts front and center in her quirky drama, "Art" (translated by Christopher Hampton). The Vagabond…
Getting a new musical on its feet is notoriously difficult. Generally speaking, this is why smaller regional theatres don't often try it. In the case of Bethesda Little Theatre's mounting of…
Often, we have difficulty seeing beyond the challenges and barriers specific to our own situation or to our own country. Plays like Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of "Kunene and Th…
Perhaps best known for his Pulitzer-finalist "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," playwright Rajiv Joseph walks a different artistic path with "The Lake Effect" now playing at 1st Stage. A rel…
Immersive theatre can take a number of shapes and occur in any number of venues. Bob Bartlett's "Love and Vinyl" is immersive, record-store theatre with a quirky, highly entertaining edge. S…
Given this incredibly challenging artistic and national moment, it is so good to see that DC theatres aren't afraid to embrace material that may be considered on the more controversial side …
Acclaimed DC playwright Karen Zacarias's "Native Gardens" has been well produced in regional and community theatres across the country"with good reason. While on its surface, this is the sim…
The Reading Room Festival at the Folger Theatre kicked off Thursday with a deep dive into the historic-minded Shakespeare. Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels invited a few friends to help h…