A Theatre-Goer's Thoughts

  Barzin Akhavan, Peregrine Teng Heard, and Nancy Robinette in The Motion at Arena Stage. Photo credit: Kian McKellar. Is it ethical to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to research a review about a play that, in part, takes AI as its subject matter? That is one of many questions about the subject of AI, which seems to be increasingly asking for our attention. In this instance, I was searching for definitions of “motion,” given that The Motion is the new play by Christopher Chen currently being performed in the Fichandler Theatre space at Arena Stage, directed by Arena artistic director Hana S. Sharif. At the beginning of the play, “motion” takes on the second of two primary definitions: a proposal for a discussion or resolution at a meeting. As The Motion begins, the motion up for discussion is whether animals should be used for medical testing. Two “debaters” from each side make their cases, with a moderator keeping the discussion focused and balancing the time afforded to ea...

  Constance Zayroun in A Good Day to Me Not to You in the Kogod Cradle at Arena Stage, through May 3. Photo credit: Daniel Rader. A Good Day to Me Not to You (into which I would desperately like to insert a comma), the title of Arena Stage’s current offering by Lameece Issaq in its Kogod Cradle space, draws its title from a conversation conveyed by the central character early in the play. In a bit of conflict with a woman whose space she has disturbed, the offended one wants to ensure that the woman infringing on her space understands that she is by no means wishing “a good day” to the offender, but only to herself. That contretemps is just one of many our central character will relate to us during the 90 minutes in which we, her audience, become her confidante and to whom she will relate the story of her life in intimate and sometimes painful detail. The playwright keeps her anonymous – the program calls her “the Narrator.” She doesn’t even have a name, or, if she does, finds ...

  Eddie Izzard in her solo performance as Hamlet and others in Shakespeare's Hamlet at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo credit: Amanda Searle. Hamlet is often considered the best play written by William Shakespeare – certainly most would count it among his top five. The title role in this tragedy has challenged some of the best actors in the world on the stage and/or on film, some of whom are so well-known that I need only list their surnames: Gielgud, Olivier, Burton, and Branagh. And not just the men: the legendary Sarah Bernhardt performed it in 1899 in Paris and London. According to the Internet Broadway Data Base website, Hamlet was first produced on Broadway in 1761 (long before Broadway was Broadway and pre-dating American independence). It has been produced on Broadway 63 separate times, most recently in 2009 starring Jude Law. Hamlet has been filmed no fewer than 25 times (including TV films), with stars including Benedict Cumberbatch, Ethan Hawke, Riz Ahmed, and M...

  Jonathan Atkinson as John Adams and the cast of the 2026 Ford's Theatre production of 1776 , directed by Luis Salgado. Photo credit: Scott Sachman. I first encountered the Tony Award-winning musical 1776 more than 50 years ago as a high school student, thanks to a bus-and-truck tour sponsored by the Broadway Theatre League in Huntsville, Alabama. It was after school in a high school auditorium, but it was a big deal and made quite an impression on me, in the realms of both history and theatre. It became one of my favorites – I can remember most of the lyrics and at the beginning of every July, I find the time to sit down and watch the film version on DVD. Sherman Edwards, a high school teacher of American history, came up with the idea of a musical based on the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which was roundly rejected by many for a number of reasons. For one, he was a history teacher, who had been a moderately successful songwriter in the 1950s and early 1960s bu...

  The cast of As You Like It at the Folger Theatre. Photo credit: Brittany Diliberto. Since I began writing this blog I have seen eight productions of Shakespeare’s plays: three staged by Folger Theatre and five by the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC), as well as two adaptations/updates, one at each venue. What they have in common is this: none of them have been presented in a traditional, classical form. As much as I respect and admire directorial creativity, I have to wonder if it might be a good thing to see a Shakespeare play performed primarily in the way the original productions were staged. Two of the seven productions were of the same play, the pastoral comedy As You Like It . STC produced it in late 2023, set in the “flower power” days of the 1960s, with a soundtrack of Beatles songs. The current production at Folger Theatre purportedly sets the play in contemporary Washington, DC. The play’s program features articles by Folger artistic director Karen Ann Daniels (the ...

  Rory Alexander as William Shakespeare and Kami-Jo Jacobs as Agnes in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamnet , currently at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Harman Hall.  Photo credit: Kyle Flubacker. Many years ago in elementary school, I discovered a series of books that purported to be biographies of famous people, including their experiences as children. I think that one of the first was about Elias Howe (who invented the sewing machine) and another was about Robert Fulton (who is credited with the steamboat). Other inventors were included, but so were figures from American history like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin (who I suppose also counts as an inventor). The only female I can remember from that series was Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii, though I hope there were others, as well as diverse representatives of other nations and cultures. Certainly I hope that a similar series today would be inclusive of underrepresented groups. What I did not know ...