A Theatre-Goer's Thoughts

  Abraham Kim, Joe Ngo, Brooke Ishibashi, Jane Lui, and Tim Liu in Cambodian Rock Band . Photo by Margot Schulman. If confronted with a world map with the countries’ outlines but no captions, I daresay the number of Americans who could correctly locate Cambodia would be miniscule. And even those who might locate it (especially those born after about 1968) probably have little idea what happened there or why it mattered then – and matters now. Cambodian Rock Band may well be the most unexpected and distinctive title in dramatic literature. But it is a perfect title for Lauren Yee’s challenging and thought-provoking work, now on stage in the Kreeger Theatre space at Arena Stage. Joe Ngo, Brooke Ishibashi, Abraham Kim, Jane Lui, and Tim Liu in Cambodian Rock Band . Photo by Margot Schulman. A multi-talented cast of six (all but two of whom play multiple roles) takes us back to the early 1970s. We learn that Cambodian capital Phnom Penh has a long-standing, thriving, vibrant music s...

  Breon Arzell as Markus, Nehassaiu deGannes as Tanya, and Brandon J. Pierce as Marcus in Incendiary by Dave Harris at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Photo by Teresa Castracane. Incendiary is the first production I have seen at Washington’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. It is aptly titled, as fire and fire power play major roles in this world premiere by Dave Harris, directed by Monty Cole. When we first meet Tanya, she is firing a revolver for the first time. The program tells us that she “is a Black mother determined to break her son, Eric, out of death row – or die trying.” She has an uncanny aim, especially since she shoots with her eyes averted from the target. She tells her brother (a gun dealer) that she needs lots of guns, rifles, automatic, grenades, and, oh, yeah, a flamethrower, too. When asked why she needs all this hardware, she explains that it will soon be her son’s 33 rd birthday and she is going to free him from jail. We later learn that he is scheduled to ...

  Cara Ricketts (Aisha), Joel Ashur (Travis), and Johnny Ramey (Earl) in Good Bones  at Studio Theatre. Photo by Margot Schulman. “This house has good bones” is one of those realtor-speak phrases, meaning that the house is foundationally sound, but needs work – probably lots of it – in order to make it habitable. Just as “cozy” is realtor-speak for “really small,” a house with “good bones” is a fixer-upper. Proceed with caution. “Good Bones” happens to be the title of an HGTV show as well, in which a mother and daughter duo take on the task of rehabbing abandoned homes in Indianapolis. It is also the title of a world-premiere play by 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner and 2023 Tony nominee for Best Play (for Fat Ham ) James Ijames, now playing at Studio Theatre’s Milton Theatre. The subject here is gentrification, but unlike the stereotypical gentrification, in which trendy, privileged Whites move into run-down neighborhoods, filling them with Whole Foods and Starbucks, to repl...

  The cast of Sweeney Todd at Signature Theatre. Photo by Christopher Mueller.  Arlington’s Signature Theatre is noted for its long association with the works of the late composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. In 1991, the company’s first musical production was Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd , which is also Signature’s current production. Sweeney Todd concludes a season dedicated to Sondheim, with productions of Into the Woods and Pacific Overtures earlier in the season. After Signature’s season was announced, a New York City Center production of Into the Woods opened. An unexpected hit, it transferred to Broadway and ran for several months before sending out many of the original cast in a touring production, whose stops included the Kennedy Center. Similarly, Sweeney Todd has been revived on Broadway this spring, a well-reviewed production starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. Both productions are nominated for the Tony Award as Best Revival of a Musical; Into the Woods ...

  Josh Stamberg (Harry) and Karoline (Katie) in the opening scene of  Exclusion  at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, running through June 25. Photo by Margot Schulman. The current production by Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theatre at the Mead Center for the American Theatre is the tenth in the series of “power plays” they have produced and the last to be produced under artistic director Molly Smith, who is retiring after 25 years with the company. As Smith notes in the program, “The Power Plays cycle is a voice for both of these visions – to raise the voices and stories of unheard Americans from all points in history, and to spur debate as we search for truth and critique power.” Kenneth Lin’s  Exclusion  is an excellent example, particularly as Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander month is celebrated, despite the fact that at the same time hate crimes against Asians are on the rise. (Just 14 months ago, six Asian women were murdered duri...

  Charlie Thurston and Nemuna Ceesay in Here There Are Blueberries . Photo by DJ Corey Photography. Entering Sidney Harman Hall, the audience sees a small camera on a pedestal and the logo for Leica, a German company whose camera made photography accessible to a much wider audience. We are given this information in a sort of prologue, noting that during the 1930s photography became a hobby for a large number of Germans who documented their daily lives and maintained photo albums for the first time. Shakespeare Theatre Company closes its season with Moises Kaufman’s Tectonic Theatre Project production of Here There Are Blueberries , one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking plays I have seen. Kaufman is credited in the program as conceiver, director, and co-author of the play along with Amanda Gronich, but as is Tectonic’s practice, members of the company aided in the development of the play. (Perhaps Tectonic’s most famous production was The Laramie Project , which focused...

  Michael J. Mainwaring, Kara-Tameika Watkins, Imani Branch, Deimoni Brewington, Tobias A. Young, and Alex DeBard in Passing Strange . Photo Credit: Daniel Rader. Entering the Ark, the smaller of the two performance spaces at Arlington’s Signature Theatre, for the current production of Passing Strange , the audience enters an environment that feels completely separated from the outside world. The walls are covered with graffiti, seemingly random words and phrases; the “stage” is set with musical instruments stage left and an array of packing cases stage right. This feels more like a small nightclub or dive bar, a dingy space projecting an ambience that conveys a sense of uncertainty about what is to come. There is the potential here for a performance so intimate that artificial barriers between the “show” and the audience will be obliterated. And that is exactly what happens within the first few minutes of Passing Strange , which is part rock concert, part confessional, a loosely...