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Running Time: 2:45 – one intermission
A virtuous work on a very large scale production by a precocious theater company
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Storyline: The drama concerns the House of Atreus as Agamemnon, King of Argos, returns home after 10 years to his waiting wife Cyltemnestra. He is triumphant from his victory in the Trojan War. She has been planning his murder as revenge for his sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia so the Gods would smile upon him for the war. This production brings Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, Orestes, Apollo, Athena and The Furies together in a story of war, love, vengeance, justice, mercy, murder and blood sacrifice.

There is a real sound and murderous fury in the writing of Aeschylus. His The Oresteia is even known to have won first prize at a festival in Athens when it was first performed in 458 BC. It has nearly everything ripping through it with little that is so ancient as to not be comprehensible to a modern audience. There is a festering war between the sexes, a witty contretemps between the old ways of the Greek Gods and the more “modern” state view of a system of justice. There is the violence of a long war and its effects on those who did the fighting and those who remained home. There is also a desolate Royal family split asunder as a consequence of actions taken to win the war by Agamemnon. Of interest, Director Allison Arkell Stockman received permission from the translator, Robert Fagles, to adapt his translation of the Oresteia for the Constellation Theatre Company. Stockman receives a special kudo for her traffic control of the 29 member cast. She has them move quite energetically, fight with swords and knives, dance, and emote with nary a missed step and usually with some sense that the movement makes sense in the trajectory of the play. There are several melodramatic scenes with some full force howling as killings of the innocent and the guilty take place. But, think back 2500 years ago; without microphones and other technology, melodrama was the only way to get a point across up into the cheap seats.

Many in the cast of 29 are invisible as individuals, failing to create some sort of character for brief appearances. That is not so much a fault of the production, just an issue with any large scale production. As for the featured actors, Brian Hemmingsen, with his rich booming voice is all swagger and furrowed brow generating heat and force as the all powerful King returning from victory. All powerful that is, except when in battle with the more verbally masterful and cunning Nanna Ingvarsson. She, with an outward smile and inward venom, can place him in untenable positions. Invgarsson, as the spurned wife, shows absolute malice as she speaks coyly, yet insincerely, in order to obtain revenge on her husband for his sacrificial murder of their daughter. Misty Demory (Athena) is stately and ram-rod straight, all dressed in stunning white robes as she presents her verbal cases for a new Greek justice system, and then casts a critical vote with a shrug of her shoulders. Nick DePinto (Apollo) is a haughty one, also dressed in stately robes, who speaks in a world of clipped words with little feeling for the humans he affects. Ron Ward (Aegisthus) plays the paramour to Clytemnestra as a bit fey, and one wonders what her interest must be in him other than as a weapon to be used for her revenge. Joe Brack (Orestes) is one heat-seeking guided missile in his way of performing. His uses a younger man’s very direct presentation style; all bravado, puffed-up cheeks and voice and little subtly.

Arrayed before the audiences eyes is an epic sized set of a Greek amphitheater at the Clark Street Playhouse. The audience sits high up andlooking down for the most part. The costumes run the gamut from the pure strong white robes to The Furies with their wings and short skirts, to black clad warriors to city people who wear unfrilly tunics compared to the more richly attired Royal family.

Written by Aeschylus, translated by Robert Fagles. Adapted and directed by Allison Arkell Stockman. Music composed and performed by Tom Teasely. Choreographed by Ashley Ivey. Fight Choreographed by Cliff Williams III. Design: A.J. Guban (set and lights) Yvette M. Ryan (costumes)  Erica Yeager (props)  Joseph Allen (photography) Alicia Oliver-Krueger (stage manager). Cast:  Joe Brack, Katy Carkuff, Jennifer Crooks, Misty Demory, Nick DePinto, Kevin Finkelstein, Gwen Grastorf, Theo Hadjimichael, Brian Hemmingsen, Nanna Ingvarsson, Keith Irby, Ashely Ivey, Elizabeth Jernigan, Hilary Kacser, Lisa Lias, Kenny Littlejohn, Beckett Martin, Meghan Nesmith, Anne Nottage, Kevin O’Reilly, Rachel Lee Poole, Julia Proctor, Amy Quiggins, James Radack, Julie Roundtree, Joe Thronhill, Jjana Valentiner, Ron Ward and Linsday Kit Wiebe.

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Running time 2:35 - one intermission
A spirited production of an allegorical play by Brecht
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Storyline: A trio of Gods visits Earth (or, at least, China) to determine if people have followed their edicts of honesty and charity. Seeking shelter in the village of Setzuan they find everyone too busy to help them except for one woman - a prostitute who is pure of heart. They reward her with enough money to buy a tobacco store so she can support herself without selling herself. Her natural charity, however, is played upon by customers and neighbors and soon the shop is a financial as well as physical ruin. She decides to dress up as a man, a cousin who can deny the requests she, herself, can't seem to resist. This dual personality works at first but the stringent cousin's presence is necessary more and more until some of her neighbors notice her absence and suspect foul play. Soon she's placed on trial for her own murder. 

Fantasy (or, as some have called this play, parable) can be a very difficult brand of theater to pull off. Get too flippant and emphasize the humor too much and it becomes silly. Get too serious and punch up the moral behind each story and it becomes pretentious. Director Allison Arkell Stockman finds the middle course in Brecht's fantasy, although she seems to take a "better to err on the side of seriousness" approach from time to time. She makes the absolutely right choice, however, in her decision to avoid making her non-Chinese cast members impersonate Asian characteristics. Brecht wasn't really talking about a village in China anyway, so his characters were universal and not ethnic. Yvette M. Ryan's costumes and A.J. Guban's workable set create a sufficiently Chinese visual image by themselves.

A cast of twenty is headed by Katie Atkinson as the prostitute who can't refuse any plea for aid, comfort or shelter. She is an appealing character that the audience can take to its heart. Ashley Ivey opens the festivities in a narrators role of a water seller, nicely challenging the audience to follow events in order to render a judgment (a gimmicky touch from Brecht that gives a fairly peremptory feel to the end of the evening). The bulk of the cast play townspeople, each rendered with enough personality and peculiarity to be something more than just stock characters, and Catherine Deadman, John Geoffrion and Kenny Littlejohn make a colorful and entertaining trio of gods.

This is not a musical or a dance play but it uses music and movement to establish moods, reveal a character or two here and there, and give energy to the town of Setzuan. The same Ashley Ivey who is so personable as the water seller has provided choreography that moves the cast about in ebbs and flows to create a more vibrant atmosphere in the town than might be expected, even from a cast as large as this one. He's not alone in creating the impression of a bustling suburb in a Chinese town, however. Tom Teasley provides original music which also helps make the production feel even more substantial.

Written by Bertolt Brecht. Translated by Eric Bentley. Directed by Allison Arkell Stockman. Choreography by Ashley Ivey. Original music by Tom Teasley. Design: A.J. Guban (set and lights) Yvette M. Ryan (costumes) Angelo Merenda and Erica Yeager (properties) Chris Baine (sound) Joseph Allen (photography) Francoise Bastien (stage manager). Cast: Katie Atkinson, Molly Cahill, Katy Carkuff, Catherine Deadman, John Feist, Kevin Finkelstein, Lewis Freeman, John Geoffrion, Keith E. Irby, Ashley Ivey, Hilary Kacser, Jenny Leopold, Lisa Lias, Kenny Littlejohn, Beckett Martin, Francisco Reinoso, Joe Thornhill, Meghan Tolmie, Yasmin Tuazon, Ron Ward.

 
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Running time 2:20 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for an atmospheric production of a collection
 of ancient tales
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Storyline: Scheherezade is wed to Persian King Shahryar whose habit is to marry a different virgin each day only to have her executed the next morning so he can marry another one. To avoid meeting the same fate as her predecessors, she tells him a lengthy story which hasn't quite finished at dawn. He decides to postpone her execution to the next day so he can hear the end of the story only to have another one begun before the next dawn. In this way, with a nearly inexhaustible collection of fascinating stories, each with a twist and a moral, she extends their marriage through a thousand nights, and, on the thousand and first night, King Shahryar discovers he has fallen in love with Scherezade and abandons his practice of executing brides.

Zimmerman, whose adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses won her a Tony Award, and who directed Shakespeare's Pericles at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in 2004, wrote this adaptation for the Lookinglass Theatre Company in Chicago where she is a company member. It combines a delight in the pure act of storytelling with a deep interest in the moral of each story which gives it more than mere entertainment value; yet, in an evening of morality tales, the piece never seems preachy. That's because of the strengths of the stories she selects from the many in her source (not actually a thousand, even in the most comprehensive of versions). She avoids those that have been done to death. No "Aladdin's Lamp" or "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" here. Instead, fresher and more intriguing tales fill the evening. This skill at picking and choosing between many possible story lines whets the appetite for her next project which is the adaptation of the myths of Jason and the Argonauts which she will direct at the Shakespeare Theatre Company next January.

All members of the cast take on multiple roles in this production, including Katie Atkinson who, as Scheherezade, slips into some of the stories she tells, and even John Tweel as the raptly listening King Shahryar breaks out to join in a story moment here and there. That none of the doubling confuses for even a moment is a tribute not only to the skills of the cast but to the director's sharp blocking which establishes and then maintains boundaries for each story to clarify between the story and the telling. In Atkinson's hands, the energy, wit and charm of Scheherezade captivate not just the king but the audience as well. The entire cast works well as an ensemble, but a few stand out in specific roles. Keith E. Irby is a tower of dignity as the legendary Harun al-Rashid and Lisa Lias is a marvelously clever and intelligent woman of great learning with the fabulous name "Sympathy Learned."

A not-insignificant aspect of the magic of this evening is the work of percussionist Tom Teasley, who sits to one side of the multi-platform, Persian carpet covered set with a collection of instruments ancient and modern to provide an accompaniment that underlines the shifting moods and emphasizes the varied paces of Stockman's staging. He's in place when the theater opens, punching out rhythms on various sized bongo-like hand-held drums or blowing into a breath-operated keyboard instrument to evoke a Baghdad Bazaar, while his electronic drum pad lays down a bottom beat. The decision to have him performing as the audience enters is a good one, for he becomes part of the ambiance of the space by the time the show actually starts, and as a result, his presence is not distracting during the storytelling. At times, cast members break into songs as well, adding to the musical impact of the evening.

Written by Mary Zimmerman based on the book One Thousand Nights and One Night. Directed by Allison Arkell Stockman. Musical accompaniment by Tom Teasley. Choreographed by Ashley Ivey. Design: A.J. Guban (set and lights) Yvette M. Ryan (costumes) Rob Barossi (stage manager). Cast: Katie Atkinson, Steve Beal, Katy Carkuff, Misty Demory, Kevin Finkelstein, John Geoffrion, Gwen Grastorf, Keith E. Irby, Craig Klein, Lisa Lias, John Tweel, Anastasia Wilson.