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Running Time 45 minutes - no intermission
A quick, quirky diatribe of interest to those already convinced that it’s all America’s fault
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Storyline: A unique perspective on global politics through the love affair of two men, one representing the United States and the other representing Great Britain. A politically engaged play that takes a critical look at how Britain was at first enthusiastic and then became more disillusioned at American foreign interventions.

Caryl Churchill (born 1938) is a long-time fixture in the theatre world including association with the Royal Court Theatre in London.  She has penned dozens of scripts in her career and come to be known for her non-naturalistic style as she delved into feminist themes. Her critically acclaimed Top Girls (1982) received multiple Obie Awards and was revived in 2007-08 by the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York to wide praise. Drunk Enough was first produced at the Royal Court in November, 2006. Its American premiere was at the Public Theatre in New York City last March. Other recent Churchill work in the Potomac area including Cloud Nine, Far Away, and A Number as well as Fountainhead's 2005 production of Top Girls. Director Vreeke has a deft touch for this play and has cast it well. His casting of two relative unknowns is a blessing in fact. It allows the script to take center stage so that the audience can pay attention to the words and the playwright’s trajectory without letting celebrity names get in the way. He has his two actors very well-honed in the herky-jerky, short hand style of presentation and interaction that playwright Churchill demands. In this piece Segaller and Stray solidly do what is asked of them by Vreeke without flashiness. They let the script’s themes take over. Vreeke has also selected some very iconic images to project on a rear wall to set the dark mood of this production. Nicely selected scene changing music with titles such as “Love Hurts” is also an enormous help to add some theatrically to the evening.

Segaller is the “top” in this world, at first a quietly confident Dom; provocative, handsomely sexy, with a lean body and loving touches as he coos love. But over time, his mean streaks come to the fore as does his internal fears of being unloved; always needing attention and affection. In some scenes he wears a “wife-beater” undershirt so that his well-honed upper body and arms are a sensual prop. He is all swagger and posturing as he deflects any thought that his views of life are not quite right. He has a carapace that does not let others inside; until affection is withdrawn and then the hurt of a little boy comes forth. Stray skillfully plays the more submissive mien needed in his role. He leaves his unseen wife and nurturing “feminine” family for the strutting Segaller with some doubts, for sure, but leaves he does for the more muscular, manlier partner. At first he is reactive and only wanting to see the good in his new partner. “I can’t say no” is one of his first lines. But, over time, he thinks more deeply and begins to cool in his ardor. At blackout the relationship is in tatters. The kisses between the two start as passionate and their touches as lovers are all of building warmth between them, but as this short piece of agit-prop continues along, the kisses become colder and the touches more of a power relationship than of love.

The H Street Playhouse is in one of its most minimalist incarnations. Just a riser so that the stage area is a foot or two above the floor. On it is a bed with black covers. That’s it. Oh yes - and some nicely projected images on the rear wall and some lighting effects along with iconic music to take the production through its various scenes. One problem is that the H Street Playhouse does not have the smoothest of walls and sometimes the projected images are a bit muddy and broken up.

Written by Caryl Churchill. Directed by John Vreeke. Design: Michael Dove (production)  Rose McConnell (costumes) Mark W. C. Wright (lights) C. Stanley Photography (photography) Amy Kellett (stage manager). Cast: Adam Jonas Segaller, Peter Stray.

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Running time 2:50 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for intellectually challenging, highly entertaining theater
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Storyline: The trial of Judas Iscariot tests the question: if God is a forgiving God, can the unforgivable really remain unforgiven throughout all time?

John Vreeke seems at his best when directing plays with strong intellectual questions at their core. He did Death and the King's Horseman,  Lady Chatterley's Lover and Tiny Alice at the Washington Shakespeare Company, Homebody/Kabul, Born Guilty, and The Tattooed Girl at Theater J, For The Pleasure of Seeing Her Again and One Good Marriage at MetroStage. Clearly, he's no stranger to intellectual theater. He's no stranger to playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis either. He directed his Our Lady of 121st Street at Woolly Mammoth. In that play, and in Jesus Hopped the A Train which was stunningly staged at Round House's Silver Spring facility, audiences got to know the unique talent of Guirgis, who voices timeless topics in the vernacular of today. With this script, he adds a demonstration of an ability to give a wide range of characters unique voices - Mother Teresa sounds nothing like Mother Iscariot and Sigmund Freud sounds nothing like Pontius Pilate. Each voices a unique view in a unique vocal pattern.

Since the structure of the play is a trial, there are moments for each member of the large cast to shine. They are either called to testify, or in the case of the attorneys, they pose the questions. There's Margery Berringer who starts the proceedings with a wrenching portrayal of the torment of a mother who discovers her son has betrayed God. There's Frank Britton as an un-contrite Pontius Pilate and Cesar A. Guadamuz who emerges from the nearly nebbish role of the bailiff sucking on a popsicle to take the stand as Simon the Zealot. Brian Hemmingsen turns in a fine performance as the judge over it all, but really shines when he switches characters to become Caiaphas the Elder ("no," he informs the court, "there is no Caiaphas the Younger") who defends his own actions in turning Jesus over to Pontius Pilate as a moral act, but views Judas' as the ultimate unforgivable transgression. Then there are a pair of fine bookend performances by Scott McCormick and Julie Garner as the prosecuting and defending attorneys battling wits with wit, flares of temper and oozing contempt for each other. Finally, there is the ever present Judas himself, the tormented Jason McCool, who never lets the audience forget that the other characters are discussing the fate of a real person, not an intellectual abstraction.

The large playing space in the black box of the H Street Playhouse is left unadorned with the exception of a raised dais for Hemmingsen's judge, a plain witness dock and a circular platform on which Judas himself is on the spot. Harsh florescent lights heighten the stark feeling and no costume adds any color to the light grey and darker grey that permeates the scene. Even Jorgensen's flashy fashions as Satan are stark whites and blacks. Only flesh tones on the faces - frequently florid with emotion - bring any color to the scene. The result isn't colorless, however. Guirgis' words have a broad enough spectrum for any play.

Written by Stephen Adly Guirgis. Directed by John Vreeke. Design: Colin K. Bills (set and lights) Pei Lee (costumes) Michael Dove (sound) Melissa Blackall (photography) Jenn Carlson (stage manager). Cast: Margery Berringer, Frank Britton, Patrick Bussink, Veronica del Cerro, Rex Daugherty, Julie Garner, Maggie Glauber, Cesar A. Guadamuz, Brian Hemmingsen, Jim Jorgensen,  Jason McCool, Scott McCormick, Frank B. Moorman, Jesse Terrill, Emily Weebe.  

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Running time 2:05 - no intermission
A fascinating re-telling of a classic with superb performances
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Storyline: After the royal siblings Polynices and Eteocles have killed each other on the road to Thebes, King Creon has decreed that the body of Eteocles is to be buried with honors while that of Polynices is to remain on the road, carrion for scavengers. Their sister, Antigone sees it as her duty to see Polyices' body treated with dignity. She attempts to cover it even when faced with her own execution for defying the decree of her uncle, the king.

Katie Atkinson's portrayal of the title character is highly human, with conflicts and doubts as well as determination and drive. She has a touch of quirkyness that makes her a very real person and not just a character caught up in a dramatist's structure. She waivers, she debates with herself, she weighs pros and cons of her actions, but she's driven by her sense of duty. Why does she do what she does? "You have to do what you can do."  Ah, but she's aware of the consequences and concerned for the details of life ("Take care of my dog" she begs her nurse.) and she fears her own weakness ("I can't stay this brave for long.") Reed's King Creon is a a man who sees his power as a duty, who claims not to enjoy its prerogatives and who finds a distinction between his job and his personal character. When Antigone bursts out with "You're disgusting!" he replies with a simple "Yes, it goes with the job." Reed is a bit slow to anger, especially in the early going when he first gets word of the attempts to cover Polynices' body, but the final lay-it-all-on-the-line battle of words between the two is fascinating to watch.

Two superb supporting performances mark the ensemble. Fiona Blackshaw blends the "please turn off your cell phones" announcement into the introductory explanations that become the narration Anoulh wrote for "Prologue." Her open honesty draws the audience into the event with almost effortless guile. Soon, Atkinson gets her first character to play off of: Lisa Lias as her nurse. Lias' take on the nurse is reminiscent of the nurse in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with that special combination of command and servitude cloaked in humor. Lee Liebeskind is less consistently satisfying as the guard who has the misfortune to be on duty when the King's niece commits her unthinkable act of disobedience. There are times when he's good at showing the inner workings of a mind trying to find a way to avoid punishment of the "shoot the messenger" kind, but at other times he seems a bit too conscious of being on stage before an audience.

The set is an intriguing use of classic Greek lines in a modern structure with pillars and a central entranceway before a framed backdrop lit with different colors to denote different times of day - dark blues in the pre-dawn hours, reds at dawn, lighter blues in daylight. Modern costumes - Atkinson in a simple dress, Reed in well tailored business suits and the guards in black military fatigues - keep contemporary sounding references such as "children breaking open their piggy banks" and modern idioms such as "I get up early enough, thank you very much!" from seeming anachronistic. Instead, it is the well-known ancient names like Oedipus, Antigone that sound a bit staid.

Written by Jean Anouilh. Translated by Jeremy Sams. Directed by Michael Dove. Design: Jon Boags and Carleen Troy (set) Yvette M. Ryan (costumes) Paul Frydrychowski (lights) Cliff Williams, III (fight choreography) Sarah Becker (photography) Zachary W. Ford (stage manager). Cast: Katie Atkinson, Fiona Blackshaw, Frank Britton, Parker Dixon, Lisa Lias, Lee Liebeskind, Jason B. McIntosh, Nigel Reed, Megan Reichelt, Francisco Reinoso, Betsy Rosen,.

 
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Running time 1:55 - one intermission
t Potomac Stages Pick for a fast paced contemporary comedy
v Sexual themes dealt with in descriptive dialogue
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Storyline: A man finds himself a celebrity after a mix up in his travel arrangements takes him to Valparaiso, Chile when he thought he was headed to a business meeting in Valparaiso, Indiana. After 140 interviews in 4 1/2 days he and his wife end up on the number one daytime television interview show where his life is dissected by the host with devastating results.

This is the third play from the pen of  Don DeLillo, a New York writer best known for his novels (White Noise, Underworld). All three have now been produced here. Woolly Mammoth took a crack at The Day Room in 2003 with mixed results. The Kennedy Center's New Play Program gave us a forgettable look at Love-Lies-Bleeding last year. Perhaps the third time is the charm. This production is neither forgettable nor a mixed bag. It starts strong and stays strong with sharp performances carrying it along its slightly demented path toward a stranger than expected resolution. Along the way, there are marvelous digressions, enjoyable diversions and a host of enjoyable bits and pieces of memorable writing ranging from the marketing view of unborn babies ("they take up space but they do not spend") to a sharp summation of modern media ("everything is accessible, everything is replayable").

Lott is working with a cast of uniform enjoyability. There's Fiona Blackshaw, as his wife who hogs the spotlight from time time time (the wife, not the actress) and who throws him curves he can't see coming. There's a delightfully choreographed trio of flight attendants in Parker Dixon, Rose McConnell and Helen Pafumi who all double as interviewers for Lott as he tries to stretch his 15 minutes of fame. Act II gives  Charlotte Akin and Brent Lowder a chance to shine as an adoration-addicted daytime talk show host and her ever-unctuous announcer/side-kick. Akin has all the clichéd mannerisms of a TV hostess so sharply developed that she could well be the next in Regis' line of co-hosts.

A special note for theater goers who enjoy edgy contemporary theater: There is something unfortunate when a cast of seven outnumbers the audience at a matinee performance even if it happens to be on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon when it takes an act of will to leave the sunny, dry, 80 degree air and enter the darkness of the H Street Playhouse. Those seven cast members and the supporting technicians gave their all in the performance we saw and delivered a show many readers of Potomac Stages would enjoy. There are fourteen more performances on the schedule. If you value this kind of cutting edge theater, try to make one of them.

Written by Don DeLillo. Directed by Michael Dove. Design: Mark W. C. Wright (set) Erin Nugent (costumes) Melissa-Leigh Douglass (choreography) Andrew Cissna (lights) Kenneth Gilbert (sound) Grady Weatherford (multimedia) Jenn Carlson (stage manager). Cast: Charlotte Akin, Fiona Blackshaw, Parker Dixon, Brent Lowder, Jason Lott, Rose McConnell, Helen Pafumi.

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Running time 1:45 – no intermission
A more unusual adult fairy tale
Performances at the Warehouse
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Storyline: An ancient English fairy pursues two young women trying to obtain the unborn child of one of them.

Laughter typically greets each of the fairy creatures, including some that should be disturbing or creepy, and this light hearted reception by the audience damages much of the setting for the play. The cast performs well, but this is a show that demands a more fanciful setting or elaborate special effects to get across the difference between the world of the fairy-like folk called the fae and that of mortal folk. In the end, the dread, fear, or terror of the fae mission and the sympathy of the plight of their mortal prey just isn’t felt.

Caryl Churchill is known for adventurous use of language and creating innovative works, and The Skriker is said to be her most difficult play. Kathleen Akerley’s direction, the cast’s performances, and the production as a whole would work so very well with better costumes, staging and effects that could only come with a larger budget. Costumes often appear comical and the unfamiliarity of the fables involved in the story make laughter as easy a choice as alarm when first confronted by each creature from this ancient mythos. Post show, the audience is encouraged to visit the company's web site to hear tales read by the cast that give enlightenment on the fairies in the play, but this knowledge would be better served up prior to attending.

The mission of the Forum company is to create unique multigenre productions, and this is apparent in the combination of movement, mime, dance, and staging during the show. Forum Artistic Director Michael Dove acknowledges this plays is an incredibly difficult production and goes on to say that many companies in the area are afraid to produce it, which is why Forum chose to start their season with this show. Perhaps it would have been better to follow the lead of their contemporaries rather than take such a chance with this level of show.

Written by Caryl Churchill, Directed by Kathleen Akerley. Design: Michael Dove (set) Denman C. Anderson (lights) Neil McFadden (sound) Kathleen Akerley (photography) Jenn Carlsen (stage manager). Cast: Katie Atkinson, Katie Clemmons, Ashley DeMain, Lindsay Haynes, Nanna Ingvarsson, Stephanie Roswel, Dan VanHoozer, Cliff Williams III, Abby Wood.

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Reviewed August 15
Running time 2:00 - one intermission

Storyline: These seven short pieces run from the roughly half-hour well known Krapp's Last Tape in which a man who has spent his life dictating an audio diary listens to an old take and makes his last new one, to the wordless two-minute Breath in which the cast walks across the stage, some of them dumping trash. There is the intensely atmospheric Come and Go with its three women delivering brief, cryptic statements, the contemplation of mortality titled Rockaby, the piece Catastrophe, which Beckett co-wrote with Vaclav Havel, Footfalls and, perhaps most captivating, a piece titled Not I featuring simply a mouth.

The five members of the cast all deliver precise, deliberate and well developed performances in pieces that place great value on meticulousness. Beckett's work is enigmatic but very specific, and it works best when performed cleanly with no distracting embellishments. He attempts to strip theater of what he saw as impediments to connection -- such things as plot, character development and action. He replaces all that with an intensity of focus. This requires actors who can leave the material and their performances totally exposed without mannerisms, quirks or added actions to dilute the intensity of Beckett's focus on a single concept.

The best illustration here is found in Not I where Melissa Schwartz, as the Auditor, wraps a seated Maggie Glauber in a drape so that all that is exposed is her mouth. That mouth then delivers a torrent of talk. Glauber can't use any of the traditional tools of an actor. She is deprived of body language, posture, gesture, facial expression, eye contact and all the rest of the tricks of the trade. That she pulls it off is a testament to both her talent and her discipline. Paul Danaceau signals just this kind of discipline in his performance as Krapp which is, at least in the early portion, shorn of much movement. He takes that to the necessary extreme as the Protagonist in Catastrophe as he is practically motionless throughout, while Brent Lowder, as the "Director," examines him from afar and suggests slight alterations in his demeanor.

As would be expected given the mission of this company, the production is visually striking. Mark Wright's scenic design is essentially a painting on the floor on which the pieces are performed. It could be interpreted as a spotlight or a hole or a pit or a cage -- or all of the above. His surgically efficient lighting works with a few set pieces to change the effect for each of the seven playlets. Deb Sivigny's costumes are also precise solutions to theatrical requirements with the three color schemes for the three women in Come and Go differentiating otherwise identical outfits, the rumpled excess of Krapp and, most specifically, the drape which turns Glauber into a mouth.

Written by Samuel Beckett. Directed by Michael Dove. Design: Mark W.C. Wright (set and lights) Deb Sivigny (costumes) Michael Dove and Mark W.C. Wright (sound). Cast: Margery Berringer, Paul Danaceau, Maggie Glauber, Brent Lawder, Melissa Schwartz.