A Theatre-Goer's Thoughts

  The cast of the 2023 St. Ann's Warehouse production of The Jungle . Photo credit: Teddy Wolff. The arts transport us to different times and different places. Most of the time we can be somewhat objective about our experiences, because we know we are standing in a museum or sitting in a concert hall or theatre. Sometimes, though, theatre can take us to locations that, even though we know we are seated in a (hopefully) comfortable seat in a theatre, we feel a part of what is (supposedly) actually happening. Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company and Woolly Mammoth have joined forces to bring the St. Ann’s Warehouse and Good Chance production of The Jungle to Washington. Written by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson (based on their own experiences as volunteers at the real “Jungle”) and directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, The Jungle takes its audience to a different place and time in which we become witnesses to the events that unfold, rather than spectators at a play. When...

  Nick Westrate as Prior Walter in Angels in America: Part One, Millennium Approaches . Photo by Margot Schulman. Arguably one of the most important, and perhaps best American play of the last half of the twentieth century, is Tony Kushner’s Angels in America . A work of epic proportions, Angels is divided into two parts. Part One, Millennium Approaches , is the current offering at Arena Stage’s Fichandler Theatre. Although there has been no announcement concerning the production of Part Two, Perestroika , one can hope that, having produced such a fascinating production of Part One, Part Two will be on the schedule soon. Coming toward the end (we hope) of the plague of COVID, this play reminds us of another plague, AIDS from the 1980s, which still has not been conquered. Seven actors play a variety of characters in three connected stories. Prior Walter has just learned that he has Kaposi’s sarcoma, indicative of the beginning stages of AIDS, and is sharing the news with his part...