A Theatre-Goer's Thoughts

  Armando Dur á n as Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile . Photo credit: T. Charles Erickson Photography.  When a new adaptation (by Ken Ludwig) of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile was announced as the first production to be directed by Hana S. Sharif, who succeeded Molly Smith as Arena Stage’s artistic director, I was surprised. Based on her artistic director bio, and having heard her speak at various openings this past year, I expected something more cutting-edge, more socially conscious, reflecting her penchant for new works and plays concerning underrepresented groups. Yes, this is technically a new work, but a plot-heavy mystery about a group of well-to-do characters set in 1937 was an unexpected choice. But in Sharif’s bio as the play’s director, the first credit mentioned is another Agatha Christie chestnut, Murder on the Orient Express . Perhaps the choice is not as unexpected as it seemed. Plays and films based on Agatha Christie’s mysteries ha...

Patrick Page in his one-man show,  All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain , at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo credit: Julieta Cervantes. All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain , created and performed by Patrick Page, is the current offering (through December 29) on the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre stage. Directed by STC’s artistic director, Simon Godwin, it is, strictly speaking, not a play: it is so much more than that. It is an event, a spellbinding performance, a master class in classical acting (and acting in general), an entrancing lecture about Shakespeare’s genius, and a persuasive argument that Shakespeare is responsible for the villain as we know it today. Page created All the Devils during the pandemic. It was first performed on film, presented online by STC. The performance won major awards when it was presented off-Broadway in the spring (Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards for O...

  The cast of Leopoldstadt  at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo credit: Teresa Castracane. Sir Tom Stoppard may well be the most awarded and one of the most often-produced playwrights of the past 60 years, since bursting upon the scene in 1967 with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead . He is the most honored playwright in Broadway history, having won the Tony Award for Best Play a record five times, including for this play in 2023. Leopoldstadt may be the crowning achievement of his career. He has said that it is perhaps his final play (he is now 87 years old) and in some ways, it is his most personal. Leopoldstadt is a sweeping epic regarding four generations of a Jewish family in Vienna, which at the turn of the 19 th to 20 th century may well have been the cultural center of western civilization, fostering achievement in literature, music, poetry, and philosophy, in addition to the advent of psychoanalysis. The play takes its title from the “Jewish ghetto” of Vien...