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The Wild Duck, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Klein Theatre, Washington, DC

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Maalke Laanstra-Corn as Hedvig, David Patrick Kelly as Old Elving, Nick Westtrate as Hjalmar, Melanie Field as Gina, and Alexander Hurr as Gregers in The Wild Duck at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Photo credit: Gerry Goodstein, We spend a lot of time these days questioning “truth.” We have been told that there are “alternative facts” and that “fake news” is rampant. Many of us have learned to question the veracity of information we receive and to bring into question the credibility of those who share that information, even when there is incontrovertible evidence that what is said is wholly truthful. “The truth will set you free” is an often-quoted maxim most of us have grown up hearing. It never occurred to me to try to trace the metamorphosis of that phrase, but I now know that it is Biblical. In the New Testament, the Gospel of John (8:32) quotes Jesus as saying, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Here, “the truth” is expressed in spiritual terms, but ...
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Fremont Ave., Kreeger Theatre, Arena Stage, Washington, DC

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  Bradley Gibson as Robert, Stanley Andrew Jackson as Walter, Wildlin Pierrevil as Frank, and Jeffrey Rashad as Tony in  Fremont Ave.  at Arena Stage. Photo credit: Marc J. Franklin. Reggie D. White’s Fremont Ave. receives an inspired production in its world premiere run at Washington’s Arena Stage, continuing through November 23, in a co-production with South Coast Repertory. White has a true gift for creating dialogue that is smart, snappy, character-appropriate, and by turns, raucously funny and poignantly moving. In a sense, White has given us three plays in one, unified by a family’s three generations – and some characteristics that are shared among them – in a single setting of a Los Angeles suburb over three decades. Under the deft direction of Lili-Anne Brown, the eight actors create a panorama that spans the years from 1968 through the 1990s, up to the 2020s. The changes in time are accomplished through costumes (designed by Jos N. Banks) and period music, as we...
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Julius X, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC

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  Jonathan Del Palmer (Marc Anthony) and Brandon Carter (Julius X) in Folger Theatre's production of  Julius X: A Re-envisioning of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare,  written by Al Letson and directed by Nicole Brewer, on stage at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Photography by Erika Nizborski.  Julius X is subtitled, on the title page of the program, as “a re-envisioning of the tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.” It is a bold, creative, some might even say audacious, incorporation of the story of Malcolm X, the controversial civil rights activist who was assassinated in 1965, into this classic play. Playwright Al Letson has crafted this play using much of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as a framework. Letson uses some of Shakespeare’s original dialogue, augmenting it with his own words. Much of the time Letson emulates Shakespeare’s language, while contemporizing much to fit the period (the mid-1960s) and location (Harlem). While this...
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The Great Privation, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Washington, DC

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  Victoria Omoregie as Charity and Yetunde Felix-Ukwu as Mother in The Great Privatio n at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. Photo credit: Cameron Whitman. Part of the legacy of this nation’s history of the enslavement of Africans torn from their homelands is – and unfortunately may continue to be – the marginalization of African Americans in the area of healthcare. One of the most famous (and infamous) examples is “The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male,” in which the United States Public Health Service and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied approximately 400 Black men, for 40 years, from 1932 to 1972. Available treatments were withheld, resulting in much suffering and many deaths that could easily have been avoided. In this and similar circumstances, the lives of African Americans were (and perhaps are) controlled by societal and government (White) establishment. The men were literally human guinea pigs. The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into ...
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Damn Yankees, Fichandler Theatre, Arena Stage, Washington, DC

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  Alysha Umphress as Gloria Thorpe with members of the team in Damn Yankees at Arena Stage. Photo credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman, Let me get right to the point: Arena Stage’s Damn Yankees is damn good! Originally produced in 1955, it is a classic American musical. Director/choreographer Sergio Trujillo calls it a “revisal”: not exactly a revival, but a revival with revisions to make it more meaningful for the audience 70 years after it debuted. Playwrights Doug Wright and Will Power have dusted off the musical’s book, re-setting it in the year 2000. Wright explains that just as we, in the 1980s and 1990s, nostalgically considered the 1950s to be “a comparatively innocent time,” we may similarly look back on 2000 – before the saturation and domination of the Internet and social media. Of course, changing the time period required and allowed some changes. In the original production, the focus was on the Washington baseball team: not the Nats, but the defunct Washington Se...
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Merry Wives, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Sidney Harman Hall, Washington, DC

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  The cast of Merry Wives at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo credit: Teresa Castracane. Some Shakespeare scholars believe that it was during a period of the plague that Shakespeare wrote two of his best-known and most admired plays, King Lear and Macbeth . Just as in that troubled period, during the COVID-19 pandemic (the “plague” of our times), playwrights, actors, musicians, and artists were challenged to think outside “the box” in order to keep their creative juices flowing. New York’s Public Theatre commissioned award-winning playwright Jocelyn Bioh, who received a Best Play Tony Award nomination for Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (produced last year at Arena Stage), to work on a new production of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor . The resulting play, now titled Merry Wives , was first produced in New York in 2021. The production program credits Bioh as “Adaptor,” though I am certain that titleTdoes not reflect the magnitude of what she has accomplished, which i...
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Dead Inside, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Washington, DC

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  Riki Lindhome is a woman with a plan in her one-woman show, Dead Inside , at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. Photo credit: Cameron Whitman. The program describes Riki Lindhome as an actress, comedian, writer, and musician, so it comes as no surprise that Dead Inside , the current offering at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, is listed as “created and performed” by her. “Created” covers a number of tasks, in this instance: she conceived (pun intended) it and wrote the text, as well as music and lyrics for the songs. “Performed” also covers numerous tasks in this one-woman show that is sometimes stand-up comedy, sometimes musical comedy, deeply-felt confessional, satirical, extremely funny, incisive, but also quite tender and moving. Dead Inside is Riki’s very personal story recounting her “fertility journey,” which she admits is somewhat misleading, since “journey” implies (in her mind) something that is fun. Riki recounts events in her efforts to become a mother with happy-face and sad-face emo...
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