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Running time 2:40 - one intermission
An Avant-Garde comedy of coping with Bubonic Plague

Storyline: In the age of the black death, a friar in his brown robe dons a clown's red nose to divert the population from its attention to the plague then spreading throughout Europe. He recruits followers into a band of "Christ's Clowns," believing that laughter may not be the best medicine but it is the only way to maintain sanity.

Peter Barnes' strange play won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 1985. Barnes seems to specialize in plays that leap over time periods. While this one is set during the plague which killed some 75 million people worldwide including as much as half of the population of Europe during the Papacy of Clement IV (1342-1352), other works of his deal with Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo's Last Supper), Spain's seventeenth century king, Philip IV (The Bewitched) and one that juxtaposed Russia's Ivan the Terrible of the sixteenth century with Nazi horrors of the twentieth in a satire amazingly titled Laughter.

As Christ's Clown called by God to spread joy through "the heresy of humor," John C. Bailey does some of his best, most defined and highly polished work to date. Joe Palka ratchets up the level of bizarreness as an Archbishop who fends off the plague with sprays of vinegar and a fly swatter and Christopher Henley pulls off the admirable feat of enunciating so clearly as Pope Clement IV that he can be understood through the gas mask he wears under his miter. Add a Hindu mime (Melissa Marie Hmelnicky in a graceful performance) a stand up comic with a stutter (Evan Crump who looses the stutter when speaking through a puppet) and a one legged ballerina (Caitlin Smith hobbling around with a crutch) and you have quite an ensemble.

Costume designer Jennifer Tardiff provides garb in a wide range of styles, flirting with chronological confusion to match the tone of the text. Bailey is in simple brown friar's robes and Henley's finery (with the exception of the gas mask) is fairly traditional papal garb, although without the crimson cape Clement IV wore in many of the portraits that come down to us. Others, however, sport jeans and crocks and the "corps carriers" are in black gothic outfits with ravens' masks. Props are similarly anachronistic - fourteenth century revelers go on a picnic with a 7-Eleven Styrofoam cooler - while the incidental music ranges from chant to "The House of the Rising Sun." It all takes place, of course, on a three-ring stage.

Written by Peter Barnes. Directed by Jay Hardee and John Geoffrion. Dances choreographed by Heather Haney. Fights choreographed by John C. Bailey and Thomas Wood. Design: Michael Roike (set) Jennifer Tardiff (costumes) Andrew F. Griffin (lights) David Crandall (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Amber Krause (stage manager). Cast: John C. Bailey, Frank Britton, Brian Crane, Evan Crump, Kim Curtis, Kevin Finkelstein, Jack Fitzmorris, John Geoffrion, Kari Ginsburg, Heather Haney, Christopher Henley, Melissa Marie Hmelnicky, Erin Kaufman, Ellie Nicoll, Joe Palka, Matt Provance, Caitlin Smith, Josh Sticklin, Emily Webbe, Thomas Wood.

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Running time 2:20 - one intermission
A production for aficionados of cooler approaches to theater

Storyline: Hedda Gabler Tesman returns home after a long honeymoon with her new husband Jorgen Tesman, an aspiring academic. As the play progresses it becomes clear that Hedda feels confined in the marriage and in society in general.  Hedda’s old suitor appears, as does a slick local Judge, and her old friend who has just left her husband. All ends badly for most, with Hedda taking her own life.

Playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was one of the most influential playwrights of his time. His work was often of passionate but tragic lives of those who tried to push through society’s boundaries and barriers. His work is appealing to this day and is often revived. Upton adapted the original script for a production that starred his wife, Australian actress Cate Blanchett. That production must have been a star turn. With Ms. Blanchett as Hedda, one wonders even if the adaptation had been a horror, would anyone have had the audacity to say so when it was performed in Australia? But, for another theater company and without, Blanchett - well, that is clearly not an easy task. Director Christopher Hanley has approached this production with a stylized attitude, rather than a naturalistic approach. He seems to be trying to be hip and classic at the same time. It is a tough thing to do. The modern touches of the Hedda seen here seems almost parachuted onto the set. As the audience enters the theater, the entire cast is standing or sitting “at places.” All except Haney’s Hedda who is seen pacing about with the energy of a cat, and a shadowy male figure running in place behind a curtain filtering his full appearance. The cast is all dark costumed or darkly featured, except for Haney with her shimmering creamy skin, golden hair and soft flaxen colored corset dress. The odd touches in this production include the all too frequent use of reduced lighting intensity to almost black-out moments on stage with ominous music playing to emphasze a particular phrasing or script nuance. And then there is the invisible hand playing a triangle whenever the word “love triangle” is used. This reviewer thought of the old Groucho Marx show when a duck dropped down when the magic word was uttered.

Heather Haney’s Hedda is a glowing presence, her skin, her hair, her costumes … she is the only color dropped into a black and white film. With her cat-like pacing throughout the production, Haney presents a figure dying to live with abandon and no responsibilities, while the rest of the cast is sedentary and lost. As her womanly foil, the usually assured Kathleen Akerley feels miscast as a submissive mouse who has taken a bold move; leaving the husband she does not love for a life with a hot-blooded young academic who also happens to be the ex-lover of Hedda Gabler. Somehow, Akerley’s tall figure and strong features and long hair seem wrong for the part of a little mouse. Daniel Eichner’s Jorgen Tesman is such a prissy little boy that, for Hedda to have married him would have meant he had money or was great in intimate settings; the latter does appears likely. Adam Jonas Segaller, a dark-eyed, soulful presence brings heat to his role as Hedda’s ex-lover who ends up killing himself by shooting off his male member either accidentally or purposefully. He does take a rather strange turn as a blood soaked apparition walking about in the background in a hypnotic daze in the final minutes of the production, while others speak their lines. Frank Britton’s Judge is a delightfully “alive” character with his shiny bold pate, facial hair, his clipped speaking manner and his calm, know-it-all attitude as he holds the goods on Hedda and is prepared to use them to save his own reputation.  Marta Karl’s Aunt Jilie Tesman is one over-bearing woman with love that envelopes to the point of drowning others in her own neediness.

The Clark Street Playhouse is used to its fullest as the set is laid at on the floor and the risers force the audience to look down on the players. There are several playing areas that are best set off by Marianne Meadows’s lighting design. Sound designer David Crandall has pre-show musical selections and background melodic tunes that provide guidance as to what is happening on stage or might in the very next second. Costumes are set at the top of the show and easily give visual clues as to who is what in temperament.

Written by Henrik Ibsen. Adapted by Andrew Upton.  Directed by Christopher Henley. Design: William Fisher (set) Brandon R. McWilliams (costumes) Buck McGuffin (properties) Marianne Meadows (lights) David Crandall (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Amy Millican (stage manager). Cast: Kathleen Akerley, Frank Britton, Daniel Eichner, Heather Haney, Martha Karl, Adam Jonas Segaller and Caitlin Smith.

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Running time 1:20 - no intermission
An off-beat black comedy of familial affection (another term for incest)
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Storyline: A young man who has had an incestuous relationship with his sister brings his fiancée home to meet his strange family: his domineering mother, his immature brother and his sister/former lover who is obsessed with Jackie Onasis. His brother and his fiancée hop into the sack for some sex early on and his sister/former-lover wants to renew the affair with a game - acting out the parts of Jackie and Jack in the limo in Dallas at that fateful moment of the assassination.

Wendy MacLeod teaches drama and is the playwright in residence at Ohio's Kenyon College, and has a half dozen plays to her credit in addition to this one which was made into a movie that went fairly quickly from theatre screen to DVD. The subtitle of this of black comedy is "A Suburban Jacobean Play." Jacobean, as in the plays written during the reign of James I of England (or "Jacob Rex," using the Hebrew name from which "James" evolved) when theatre concentrated on the shocking side of evil. At least Jacobean tragedy did. MacLeod's rather labored effort to layer Jacobean features on this simple tale include making the brother and sister twins (shades of Greek tragedy?) whose mother informs the fiancée in her very first conversation with her future daughter in law that her daughter's hand "was holding (her brothers') penis at birth."

Jason Stiles and Jay Hardee are the brothers in the family. Stiles establishes an initial sense of sanity as the one who has tried to break away from a disturbed past with some success, as witness the fact that he's actually established a relationship outside the demented family home. He resists a descent back into the pit of incestuous involvement, but succumbs in carefully measured steps. Hardee has no such reach for normality in his character -- he's simply a selfish manipulator from the start. Both Stiles and Hardee touch the truth of their unfortunate characters. Sara Barker may be too true to the role, making it difficult to spot the humanity under the veneer of instability, and Wendy Wilmer's ramrod-stiff mother of the brood shows little of the maternal instinct that might explain, if not justify, her protectiveness toward her children's oddities. As the representative of the supposedly normal external world, the fiancée whom Stiles has brought home to meet the family, played by an actress who spells her name all in lower case (elisha efua bartels), provides little indication of just why she'd give in to the inane seduction efforts of Hardee within minutes of entering the troubled house.

Given that realism is the effect they all seem to be going for, the design matches the performances well. MacLeod places the action in the family home at Thanksgiving, but adds the foreboding touch that a hurricane force storm is howling just outside the windows. Hannah Crowell's set, which had to be designed to meet the requirements of both shows in the repertory, works well with the rear wall that formed book cases for Kafka's Dick now featuring windows being taped up for the storm, and Matt Otto's sounds of wind, rain and thunder add to the apprehension. Just why the ultimate assassination reenactment features a handgun rather than a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle is left unexplained.

Written by Wendy MacLeod. Directed by Colin Hovde. Design: Hannah J Crowell (set) Erin Nugent (costumes) Andrew F. Griffin (lights) Matt Otto (sound) Ray Gnewiek (photography) Rob Barossi (stage manager). Cast: Sara Barker, elisha efua bartels, Jay Hardee, Jason Stiles, Wendy Wilmer.

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Running time 2:10 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a screamingly funny first act and a second act that is almost as good
(And, yes, the title's reference is to an anatomical issue)
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Storyline: A time-bending comedy finds Czech writer Franz Kafka appearing decades after his death to find that, in contravention to his explicit instructions prior to his death, his good friend didn't burn his manuscripts but published them instead, and, to add insult to injury, also wrote a best-selling biography about him. Posthumous psychological profiles of Kafka had concentrated on the impact his abusive father had on his self-image. But Franz isn't the only Kafka to slip through time to appear, along with his late biographer, in the home of an insurance man writing an article on him for "The Fine Print: The Journal of Insurance Studies." Also showing up is his father who tries to blackmail his son into exonerating him of allegations of abuse.

With his Olivier and Tony awards for the amusing but serious-minded The History Boys bestowing a sense of somewhat somber seriousness on his public image, Alan Bennett's early, laugh-filled fancies may come as a surprise to some. But remember, he was one fourth of the team that burst onto the consciousness of comedy fans with Beyond the Fringe along with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook -- the thinking man's alternative to Monty Python when it came to British humor. In this 1986 play, Bennett mines the vein of literary humor as well as hitting all the expected topics of social criticism for which this kind of comedy is known. Some of his funniest lines involve more contemporary authors, especially Tennessee Williams and Evelyn Waugh.

As absolutely marvelous as Rauscher and Henley are, they aren't alone on this stage. There is John Geoffrion doing nice supporting work as the would-be Kafka expert and Adrienne Nelson (as his wife) filling out a velour lounging outfit with the requisite pulchritude and playing the sexuality brightly (but mangling some of the dialogue with a too-thick British accent) and Brian Cassidy as an elderly gent whose appearances all lead up to a genuine belly laugh. The tremendously talented Ian Armstrong has the unfortunate fate of coming in a bit too late with a part a bit too strong -- he's Kafka's dad who blackmails his son with the threat of revealing what he suspects is the anatomical reason for all of his son's peculiarities that biographers have attributed to mal-parenting. He's fun in the role but it is jarring nonetheless.

Hannah Crowl's distinctive set features a wall of slats at an angle creating a series of slanted bookcases filled with identically bound volumes before a two-level playing space. But Banno doesn't confine himself to using that playing space alone. No, he has Rauscher out in the audience, prowling along the rows, excusing himself as he knocks the knees of patrons and generally assuring that everyone is paying attention. Once he reverts to on-stage blocking, Rauscher is still addressing the audience directly from time to time to comment on aspects of the action ("That's the trouble with big tits - the mind goes on holiday").

Written by Alan Bennett. Directed by Joe Banno. Design: Hannah J. Crowell (set) Kimberly Dawn Morell (costumes) Andrew F. Griffin (lights) Matt Otto (sound) Ray Gnewiek (photography) Donna Reynolds (stage manager). Cast: Charlotte Akin, Ian Armstrong, Bryan Cassidy, John Geoffrion, Christopher Henley, Adrienne Nelson, Bruce Alan Rauscher.

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Running time 2:15 - one intermission
A handsome staging of an exploration of a Roman Emperor's excesses
v strong sexual content and brief nudity

Storyline: Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known better simply as Caligula, third emperor of Rome, earns his reputation for depravity, debauchery and cruelty, in a short reign that ends with his assassination by a court threatened by his increasingly outlandish demands.

The history play as philosophical exercise has been a theatrical staple since its inception - theater's inception that is. Think Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides who wrote tragedies based on stories from Greece's already dark past. Then think Shakespeare. Now think Albert Camus. Camus? Yes, the distinctly 20th Century French philosopher who did so much to spread the word of existentialism to the beat generation of the 50s. Camus wrote this play at a time that Europe and, indeed, the entire world, was assessing the impact of the rise of Hitler. The text explores the logic or illogic of a demand for blind obedience by a ruler, but doesn't openly deal with any perceived parallels between excesses of the past and excesses of the then-present. Henley doesn't explore the Caligula/Hitler connection and, instead, treats the play as an interesting example of the reductio ad absurdum technique so often used in debate in which an assumption is taken to its ultimate conclusion in order to demonstrate that it is flawed in the first place. Here the assumption that obedience to authority is a good thing is put to extreme stress.

Strain gives a strong performance of an unstable ruler released from restraint. His isn't the only notable performance, however. Kathleen Akerley is distinctive as both a Roman writer in Caligula's court and the French writer Camus in Henley's intriguing opening for the show when she appears to the audience in the lobby to introduce the action. (The audience is then invited into the theater, passing between two rows of centurions chanting "Note the exits. Turn off cell phones.") Heather Haney is particularly impressive as Caligula's sister with whom he's incestuously involved. Abby Wood and Rahaleh Nassri add two more well developed female characters to the court. Among the males, Jay Hardee is fascinating in the role of a young poet who, as the poet Camus would believe poets do, sees through Caligula's posturing long before anyone else in the court, and Evan Crump adds an ethereal touch as a reverse-polarity mirror image of Caligula.

The physical design for the production is notable for its use of the great amount of space available in the Clark Street Playhouse. Set designer Andrew J. Berry places a draped atrium to one side of the stage and an open set of steps and passages on the other with plenty of open space in front suggesting the openness of the Roman Forum. The drapes around the atrium can't completely hide the atrocities committed within, as the drapes are flimsy and shadows play over them when lit from behind. This is particularly effective as a double rape is committed out of sight but not out of the hearing of the victim's husband whose loyalty is being put to the test. Strangely, Henley obscures that rape scene but plays out a male-on-male rape in plain sight.

Written by Albert Camus. Translated by David Greig based on a literal translation by Chris Campbell. Directed by Christopher Henely. Design: Andrew J. Berry (set) Emily Dere (costumes) Robert Brown (lights) Erik Trester (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Jenn Carlson (stage manager). Cast: Katheleen Akerley, Frank Britton, Brian Crane, Evan Crump, Kim Curtis, Parker Dixon, Theo Hadjimichael, Heather Haney, Jay Hardee, Rahaleh Nassri, Francisco Reinoso, Alexander Strain, Abby Wood.

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Running time 2:10 - two intermissions
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a sparkling, high fashion comedy
Performances at 1409 Playbill Café
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Storyline: Five years after their divorce from a marriage that must have been marked by unimaginable fireworks, two members of the upper crust of British society that flourished between the world wars are each on their honeymoon with their new spouses in separate bridal suites that happen to share a balcony. When they discover each other’s presence, the old passion is reignited and they flee for her flat in Paris, leaving behind, for the moment, their respective spouses. Their reunion is marked by all the passion of the earlier marriage and marred by all the incompatibility that destroyed it. They may be older, but are they any wiser?

Bruce Alan Rauscher brings a sense of charm and style to the part of the upper-class leading man, Elyot Chase, whose flippancy is exceeded only by his urbanity. Coward wrote the part for himself and endowed it with a host of fabulous lines as well as with an internal consistency that makes it a delight in the hands of an actor who can sink his teeth into material without seeming too calculated. Rauscher throws off the bon mots with aplomb. As Amanda, the role Coward wrote for Gertrude Lawrence, Magee is a thinking-woman’s libertine, matching the considerable emotional and intellectual strength of Rauscher/Elyot with flare. Three decades before the coining of the term, she is the embodiment of women's lib. Magee/Amanda is irresistible to Rauscher/Elyot precisely because she is his intellectual equal. The chemistry between the two actors is instantaneously obvious when their eyes first meet on the balcony in act one, and the heat builds until it combusts.

Rauscher and Magee aren't the only charmers on stage. The new spouses deserted on their wedding nights are Megan Dominy and Jeremy Lister. Each provides their respective spouses with effective foils for the early scenes, but it is in the third act, when their characters team up only to exhibit signs of the same combativeness that afflict Elyot and Amanda, that they really shine. Gable adds a nice touch to link the second and third act. He has Dominy and Lister, who make a brief appearance at the end of the second act, remain on stage attempting to sleep away the hours before the action resumes at dawn. Gable also converts the small part of the maid in the third act, nearly a walk-on, into a split role -- maid/chanteuse -- so that Barbara Pappendorp can perform "Someday I'll Find You," Porter's example of (his words, not mine) "how potent cheap music is" in a live prologue to both of the first two acts.

The play requires two sets - one of the balcony of the sea-side resort where Amanda and Elyot re-discover each other, and one of the flat in Paris to which they abscond. This presents quite a challenge in the confined space in 1409 Playbill. Designer Richard Montgomery doesn't take the easy approach of a sketchy suggestion of the scenes. Instead, he goes for two architecturally distinctive and highly detailed structures with distinctive features for each. It means the stage crew must work awfully hard between the first two acts, but the results are rewarding. Even more rewarding are the costumes of Lynly Saunders who creates a wardrobe expressive of the time, the wealth, the style and the class pretensions of the characters, while, at the same time, actually looking as if these are the clothes they wear, not just costumes for a play.

Written by Noel Coward. Directed by H. Lee Gable. Musical direction by James R. Fitzpatrick. Design: Richard Montgomery (set) Lynly Saunders (costumes) Jason Cowperthwaite (lights) Erik Trester (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Zachary W. Ford (stage manager). Cast: Megan Dominy, Jeremy Lister, Cam Magee, Barbara Papendorp, Bruce Alan Rauscher.

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Running time 2:35 - one intermission
A superbly atmospheric presentation of Shakespeare's classic
v Performed in the nude 
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Storyline: With prophecies from three witches ringing in his ears and driven by his wife’s ambitions, a Scottish lord kills his King and assumes the throne only to find that he must commit other murders to keep it. As guilt eats at him and at his wife, he is cornered and killed by one of his own intended victims.

Shakespeare’s great tragedy of a Scottish King’s rise to power through murder and his undoing through guilt is one of his simplest stories in structure with the fewest subplots and diversions from the central narrative. It is an almost uninterrupted progression toward the terrible fate of the central characters and nearly every scene which doesn't feature either Macbeth or his lady exists purely to set up some event that contributes directly to their eventual destruction. Carrasquillo's atmospheric staging enhances rather than distracts from that singularity of story. While some may speculate that the naked approach was motivated at least in part by the thought that it would stimulate ticket sales (and it is undeniable that the matinee performance we saw was better attended than would normally be expected of a beautiful weekend afternoon), the images Carrasquillo creates and the spell the cast casts more than justifies the approach on purely artistic grounds.

That cast is headed by Daniel Eichner who is magnetic as the early, ambitious Macbeth. His mad scenes are no match, however, for those of Kathleen Akerley who is superb throughout the performance as Lady Macbeth. She also doubles as Hecate, the Queen of the Witches. Her three subordinates are Manshu Chang, Heather Haney, Ashely Robinson who are nearly feral as the three witches with their oft-quoted "Double, double, toil and trouble / Fire burn and cauldron bubble." Eichner is the only member of the cast who does not double, triple or even quadruple to cover the more than thirty speaking roles in the script. It is a tribute to Carrasquillo's staging, and the cast's craft, that they are able to create recognizably distinctive characters without costumes to change.

Tsappas' setting is a thing of theatrical beauty, a triangular platform floating within a magical forest of nearly Stongehenge-ish trees against a black background. The cast appears as an apparition as the play gets underway and none leave the playing space between scenes. Instead, any actor not engaged on the triangle is either hunkered down on its perimeter or standing ramrod straight as if he or she has become one of the trees. All is shrouded in darkness that is crafted with care by lighting designer Ayun Fedorcha who actually should be billed as darkness designer. She adds a very effective touch with a blood-red spotlight shining straight down into an opening in the triangular stage that serves as both the witches cauldron and washbasin allowing Akerley, as Lady Macbeth, to have her hands turn red every time she tries to wash out the famous "damn spot."

Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by José Carrasquillo. Design: Girogos Tsappas (set) Marie Schneggenburger (properties and tree sculpting) Ayun Fedorcha (lights) Ray Gniewek (photography) Gaurav Gopalan (stage manager). Cast: Kathleen Akerley, Denman C. Anderson, Manshu Chang, Daniel Eichner, Heather Haney, Jay Hardee, Christopher Henley, Sasha Olinick, Lee Ordeman, Ashely Robinson.

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Running time 2:25 - one intermission
A thoroughly satisfying production of a play only recently believed
 to be by Shakespeare
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Storyline: The forces of Edward III, King of England in the fourteenth century, conquer Scotland to his north and rescue the imprisoned Countess of Salisbury. Edward is immediately smitten with her but there are two objects in the way of a love affair - her husband and his wife. War is on the horizon as well to the east where the French King John stands in England's way to continental power. Edward, distracted by his desire for the Countess and determined to give his son, "The Black Prince," a chance to earn glory on a battlefield, wages a longer and more costly war than he expected.

Edward III was first published in 1596, some four years after Shakespeare was first referred to as an "Upstart Crow" in the theatrical community of London. It didn't have any author listed - something that wasn't too rare at a time preceding copyright laws. Indeed, what would today be called "pirated copies" were the first written record of most of Shakespeare's plays and the famous "first folio" of his works came out in 1623, eight years after his death. The 1596 printing was titled The Raigne of King Edward III As it hath bin sundrie times plaied about the City of London. As with the history plays that are recognized as definitely by Shakespeare, this possible work of his takes liberties with strict historical records. However, it's encapsulation of the key events of the half-century reign of the King who started the Hundred Years War is based on the history of the rulers of the Plantagenet family as seen through the eyes of their successors, the Tudors, including Shakespeare's own Tudor Queen, Elizabeth I.

David Ghatan's set consists of a platform in the center of the Clark Street Playhouse with the audience placed on four ranks of seats surrounding the playing space. The octagonal platform is rimmed by metal swivel chairs so that the platform becomes a giant conference table around which King Edward conducts his war councils with some of his aides receiving war news via telephone. There's no confusing just who is King here. Wherever Rauscher goes, an aide brings along an ermine cloth to drape over his chair.

You wouldn't need that ermine clue, however, for Rauscher's demeanor is consistently that of the man in charge. He's comfortable with his royalty and expects the world to move in his preferred path. Novack's strong-willed and wily Countess blends the dignity of her character with a clear intelligence and the ability to see some of the ironic humor in her plight. She's every bit a match for Rauscher. Kimball, as his wife, doesn't have that much to do but she does it with flare, and McCool captures the adventurousness of youth in his eyes both as he gets his initial assignment to the battlefield and when he returns in triumph. The large cast - twenty-five credited actors in the program - offers many nicely tuned smaller roles including a striking King John played with dignity by Chuck Young.

Written by William Shakespere (?). Directed by Joe Banno. Design: David C. Ghatan (set) Erin K. Sutton (costumes)  Andrew F. Griffin (lights) W. Kavanaugh Latiolais (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Jenn Carlson (stage manager) Cast: Barbara K. Asare-Bediako, elisha efua bartels, Bryan Cassidy, Brian Crane, Evan Crump, Kim Curtis, Parker Dixon, Daniel Eichner, John Geoffrion, Elizabeth Jernigan, Callie Kimball, Jennifer Lutz, Jason McCool, Christine Millette, Karen Novack, Joe Palka, Bruce Alan Rauscher, Brian Razzino, Francisco Reinoso, Arthur Rowan, Brian Rubiano, Mundy Spears, Miyuki Williams, Abby Wood, Chuck Young.

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Running time 2:35 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a raw psycho-drama performed with intensity and intelligence
v Includes nudity
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Storyline: A psychiatrist with a few psychological problems of his own is assigned the case of a teenager arrested after having blinded five horses at the riding academy where he worked as a stable boy. The psychiatrist establishes a level of trust with the boy as he also obtains information from the boy’s parents and his employer. A picture emerges of just why the boy would do what he did.

The play by Peter Shaffer, author of such divergent material as the penetrating study of genius, Amadeus, and the comedy Lettice and Lovage, is a fascinating piece of work that builds two simultaneous psychological portraits; that of the boy and that of the doctor. The boy's act of violence and his withdrawal into an uncommunicative state presents the doctor with a unique and challenging task. First he must determine what triggered the events and then figure out what to do for the lad. What sets Shaffer's work apart from other whodunits, or even whydunits, is that it challenges the assumption that curing abnormality is a good thing. It isn't that the doctor is faced with a "cure worse than the condition" situation. It is that the condition involves the boy's capacity for "worship," the source of the "rapture" that gives meaning to his existence. Can science be justified if it destroys such capacities in order to control aberrant behavior?

Jay Hardee demonstrates again his uncanny ability to sink so deeply into a character that the line between actor and acted blurs completely. He's fascinating both in his periods of repressed emotion, when he seems an explosion waiting to happen, and during the final horrible release of energy and emotion. As staged here, he must fling himself into that final explosion naked from the waist down but there is practically no indication that he - or his character - is aware of being exposed. The effect is magnetic. As the doctor, Christopher Henley takes a much more intellectual approach, which is precisely the way Shaffer wrote it. He's troubled and tortured. On opening night he was also suffering from a terrible case of nasal congestion but still managed to deliver not just the text of the part but the meaning of it as well. Cam Magee and Bruce Alan Rauscher contribute substantially as the boys' parents - she so devout in her religious convictions and he an agnostic. Now there's a conflict to bedevil any young man growing up in their household.

Abby Wood's set design is an exercise in effective minimalism. The flexible space at the Clark Street Playhouse is configured as a theater in the round with four banks of seats surrounding a square playing area which is bare except for two chairs, a small round platform and bales of hay. Straw is sprinkled around the perimeter. Hanging from chains overhead are three metal horse head sculptures. The feeling of intimacy is enhanced be the nearly unnoticed fact that only about half of the space in that large room is actually used. Black drapes closing it in, making the theater smaller. Artificial mist from a fogger turns every lamp in Eric Dixon's lighting design into a shaft of light, with those focused on the sculptures projecting horse head shadows on the black walls in the corners to mark the area as a sort of primitive temple to the equine. Rapture, indeed.

Written by Peter Shaffer. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. Design: Abby Wood (set) William Fisher (costumes) Eric Dixon (lights) David Crandall (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Zachary W. Ford (stage manager). Cast: elisha efua bartels, Kim Curtis, Jay Hardee, Christopher Henley, Cam Magee, Denise Marois-Wolf, Adrienne Nelson, Bruce Alan Rauscher, Joe Tippett.

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Running time 2:05 - one intermission
An unorthodox reinterpretation of a 1934 drama featuring cross-gender casting
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Storyline: A disturbed student at a struggling private girls school destroys the lives of the school's proprietors by making allegations of sexual impropriety.

Lillian Hellman's 1934 drama used the then-scandalous topic of lesbianism not as a subject, but as a tool in her drama of the damage a lie can do. It established her as a major playwright, setting the stage for The Little Foxes, Watch on the Rhine, and Candide. It was an example of the kind of naturalistic writing so popular in the second third of the twentieth century. It was strongly plotted and peopled with characters with marked strengths and weaknesses. The story was told in a series of scenes that were both interesting in their own right and carried the plot forward in a literal, linear manner. It built to an emotional climax all the more affecting because the audience cares deeply for the people to whom it is happening. It is not well served in this production by the effort to turn the tool into the theme.

The production starts well enough, with a scene dominated by Suzanne Richard as the unwelcome relative sponging off her niece who is played by Henley. Richard is superb in her first scene and very good in what seems to be a highly truncated version of her last scene. Also impressive are Annie Houston who has but one misstep playing the heavy - the grandmother who believes her granddaughter's lie about the proprietors of the girl's school and takes the actions which ruin their lives. (Her misstep is the all-too-rapid acceptance of the first piece of evidence that the granddaughter might be lying. Hellman specifically provided multiple clues in her script so that the character could absorb the possibility of a lie over time.) William Aitken does some nice work as well as Magee's fiancé who tries to stick with her through rough times.

Gable indulges in additional unorthodox casting when he has Jay Hardee in one of the key roles for adolescent girls and then features actress Dana Edwards as the "Grocery Boy."  Hardee is really quite good as the girl blackmailed into supporting the lie. In his biographical sketch he points out that he studied cross-gender performance at Tufts University. Perhaps Henley should have taken the same class. However, it isn't so much Henley's performance that damages the production as it is Henley's casting, and this must be laid at the feet of director Gable.

Written by Lillian Hellman. Directed by H. Lee Gable. Design: Michael (Misha) Kachman (set) Melanie Clark (costumes) Jason Cowperthwaite (lights) Ian C. Armstrong (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Zachary W. Ford (stage manager). Cast: William Aitken, Elisha Efua Bartels, Dana Edwards, Jay Hardee, Christopher Henley, Annie Houston or Jan Boulet, Cam Magee, Suzanne Richard, Abby Wood.

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Reviewed April 19
Running time 2:50 - one intermission
A semi punk styled mounting of a Shakespeare history play
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Storyline: Richard II, the last King of England of the Plantagenet line, banishes his cousin Henry Bolingbroke for six years and then confiscates his property to finance a war in Ireland. While Richard is out of the country pursuing that unpopular war, Bolingbroke returns as a hero to those who have lost faith in their king. When Richard returns, Bolingbroke takes him prisoner and forces his abdication. Bolingbroke becomes the first King of England of the house of Lancaster, the Henry IV of Shakespeare's next three plays.

McNamara does take a few liberties with the text, but that is hardly unusual. The play, after all, is a typically lengthy five act piece that has been tinkered with since at least the 1590s when it was brand new. In today's director-driven age of theater, the play sometimes seems the excuse rather than the reason for a production, so McNamara's approach is scarcely a theatrical revolution. He's streamlined and re-focused where it fits his view, and presents a solid two-act - or at least two part evening.

Any production of Richard II must have a fine Richard and a strong Bolingbroke. One or the other is at the focus of practically every scene. Here, Christopher Henley is mercurial one minute and morose the next as this manic-depressive King who looses his crown and his life. Hemmingsen is less satisfying as Bolingbroke, if only because he is called upon to scowl so much that the future King's strengths, which supposedly inspire his followers, are hard to discern. He does handle the big speeches with a sense of class, however, and his physical aversion to the crown itself provides a powerful image.

Some of the characterizations are overwhelmed by the visual impact of the design. The fact that Henley's Richard II is in short pants is not so much a symbol of immaturity as it is a fashion statement - but what it says isn't quite certain. The painted pattern atop Hemmingsen's bald pate could be a yarmulke, or a tattoo, or simply a foreshadowing of a crown, but what is his white face makeup supposed to symbolize?  Kathleen Akerley delivers a performance as Queen Isabel which is all but obscured by her clothing which consists of skirt and bra. Kim Curtis doubles as John of Gaunt and the Abbot of Westminster but just which he is when he's stripped above the waist in a wheel chair is hard to say. The distressed black and white towering set fits the concept well as does the lighting by Marianne Meadows who makes good use of florescent lights, something which is unusual on stage.

Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Robert McNamara. Design: A.J. Guban (set) Jennifer Tardiff (costumes) Marianne Meadows (lights) David Crandall (sound and music) Ray Gniewek (photography) Eryn Chaney (stage manager). Cast: Kathleen Akerley, Denman C. Anderson, JJ Area, Kim Curtis, Theo Hadjimichael, Jay Hardee, Rashard Harrison, Brian Hemmingsen, Christopher Henley, Alexandra Hoge, Allan Jirikowic, Richard Mancini, Ryan McGrath, Adrienne Nelson, Buck O'Leary, Robert Rector, Nick Scott, Dan Vanhoozer, Steve Whilhite.

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Reviewed February 14
Running time 2:40 - one intermission
An elegantly staged, intellectually engaging drama
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Storyline: The King of the Yoruba has died and the time approaches for the man who has the honor of being the King's Horseman to commit suicide to accompany him to heaven in the tradition of his tribe. The country, however, is occupied by the colonialist British who view such traditions as primitive. They determine to prevent the act with no care for the cultural consequences of such intervention.

In the "Author's Note" printed in the program, Soyinka objects to the description of his play as dealing with "a clash of cultures" because such a label implies some sort of equality between the cultures. He certainly doesn't straddle the line with an attempt to give balanced arguments for each side. If you have any doubts as to the opinion of the author about which of the two cultures is superior, you won't after the scene between Nanna Ingvarsson as the wife of the British District Officer and Clifton Alphonzo Duncan as the son of the horseman who efficiently analyzes the essence of the colonial mindset and eloquently states the case against it. This one scene, so eloquently written, effectively staged with Duncan one step above Ingvarsson, and cleanly performed with an honest sense on both sides of the obvious fundamental truth of their views, delivers the author's judgment eloquently. The key to its dramatic impact is the honesty with which the writing puts the pro-colonial view and the sincerity with which Ingvarsson delivers them. Still, Duncan's elegant responses are all you need to know about Soyinka's view of the world.

The Horseman here is Felipe Harris. While Soyinka's text says that the Horseman is "a man of enormous vitality" who "speaks, dances and sings with that infectious enjoyment of life which accompanies all his actions," Harris plays it a bit more subdued as a man with a heavy weight on his shoulders. After all, he has just lost his King and soon will lose his life in an act of duty as well as honor. That additional layer of character sets up the final scenes well, but it takes a while for his performance to settle in. Ian Armstrong throws himself into the posturing role of the British District Officer (referred to by the horseman as "ghostly one") while the quiet dignity of Kamil J. Hazel as the horseman's bride contrasts nicely with the passion of Towanda Underdue as the "Mother of the Market" who takes the horseman to task for his failures. Richard Mancini has a marvelous single scene as the embodiment of colonial superciliousness.

Unlike many productions which seem to line up just the standard assembly of designers (you can almost hear the producers say "lets see, we need set, costumes, lights, sound . . . that should do it") the Washington Shakespeare Company and director Vreeke have obviously approached this project from scratch, assembling the unique talents needed for this unique project. Yes, there is the fine set with two circular platforms on a floor painted with Yoruban designs and the costumes are fine. But the design team reaches beyond the norm with movement choreography that is fluid and vital and a sound design that features the music and sounds of both cultures and especially the drone of distant drums which give the piece a special resonance. Finally, there is a fabulous piece of film projected on the one white wall of the theater. Just where could projection designer Erik Trester have come up with this black and white image of a ball?

Written by Wole Soyinka. Directed by John Vreeke. Movement choreography by Brooke Kidd. Design: Misha Kachman (set) Genevieve Williams (costumes) Erik Trester (projections) Ayun Fedorcha (lights) Matthew Nielson (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Eryn Chaney (stage manager). Cast: Ian Armstrong, Barbara K. Asare-Bediako, Frank Britton, Mwangala Changwe, Maurice E. Clemons, Clifton Alphonzo Duncan, Constance Ejuma, Felipe Harris, Kamil J. Hazel, Letricia Hendrix, Nanna Ingvarsson, Micha Kemp, Joe Lewis, Richard Mancini, Nick Scott, Towanda Underdue.

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Reviewed November 5
Running time 2:20 - one intermission
A fast paced spy mystery
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Storyline: Someone is leaking secrets from the "Star Wars" program for a Strategic Missile Defense to the Russians - and British Intelligence is on the case. Who could be the leak? Is it the double agent - a Russian himself? Is it a British spy? If so, could it be the boss of the British spy operation, a woman named Mrs. Hapgood?  Or is it all of them - or none of them?

Tom Stoppard is not known for simple, uncomplicated stories. Here he merges the advanced physics that the Star Wars program tried to apply to Strategic Defense with some of its more advanced projects, and the twists and turns of spy novelists. As Stoppard has the Russian double agent explain, "The act of observing alters the reality." It is that concept that seems to have fascinated him and he uses it to spice up an otherwise fairly routine spy-versus-spy story with neat twists and turns that can leave the audience bewildered in less capable hands.

Here co-directors Christopher Henley and Alexandra Hoge, along with assistant director H. Lee Gable, keep the focus clearly on the storytelling without seeming to presume the audience needs help. It is a fine line they straddle and they do it well. Rather than stage the script with constant movement and repeated quick shifts of tone, they stop the action from time to time to concentrate on the dialogue, especially when it deals with the science involved. As if to compensate, the physical design of the set is slick, with its gleaming black floor, its black and chrome sliding panels and a trio of furniture pieces that are moved about to create locales from a bath house to Hapgood's office.

There is plenty of fine acting to enjoy as well. Kathleen Akerley is the lady whose name is the title. She captures the efficient assurance of a chief secure in her position (especially as decked out in Melanie Clark's spot-on executive suit) and then reveals a more earthy side when her world begins to come apart. Bruce Alan Rauscher is a pleasure to watch as he delivers much of the scientific explanation with a sense of real excitement over particle physics and the ways in which light behaves at a fundamental level. Hugh T. Owen mixes it up with a sharp portrayal of one of Hapgood's operatives and Ian Armstrong gets suitably officious as the agent investigating the leak. Ben Wates adds a touch of class early on simply by observing all the comings and goings in the opening scene and then reporting crisply what he and we have just seen . . . only to find it wasn't quite as clear as it seemed. Fun!

Written by Tom Stoppard. Directed by Christopher Henley and Alexandra Hoge. Assistant Direction by H. Lee Gable. Design: Elizabeth Jenkins McFadden (set) Melanie Clark (costumes) Nick Scott (properties) Jason Arnold (lights) Erik Trester (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Jenn Carlson (stage manager). Cast: Kathleen Akerley, Ian Armstrong, Michael Dove, Jay Hardee, Hugh T. Owen, Bruce Alan Rauscher, Nick Scott, Theodore M. Snead, Brandon Thane Wilson.

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Reviewed August 4
Running time 2:30 - one intermission
A spectacle of the clash between cultures
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Storyline: 167 Spaniards under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro invade the empire of the Incas in search of gold. They take the sovereign, Atahuallpa, hostage and hold him for a ransom of a room full of gold which his subjects surrender. They execute him anyway so that he cannot lead his nation against them as they return to Panama to sail back to Spain.

The play builds on history but isn't really an effort to put historical accuracy on stage. The events over the four years of Pizarro's conquest of the Inca empire in what is now Ecuador and Peru are collapsed into a tight story framed by a prologue and epilogue delivered by an impressive Jim Jorgensen whose strength has always seemed to be his way with a monologue. In the prologue he promises an answer to how 167 Spaniards prevailed over a nation of 24 million, but the play never really gets into many of the forces involved. There's no mention of the smallpox which the Spaniards carried which decimated the Incas. There's only passing reference to the power of firearms that they also carried with almost as much impact. Instead, author Peter Shaffer (Equus, Amadeus) was much more interested in the conflict of cultures and he painted the indigenous population as "noble savages" in contrast to the greed-driven insensitive invaders.    

The large cast provides an uneven range of portrayals. James Foster, Jr.  takes some time for his performance as Pizarro to achieve much depth, but it ends up nicely tuned. In keeping with Shaffer's view of events (at least as directed by Mazzola) the real strength of the evening comes from the performance of Peter Pereyra as the noble Atahuallpa. He could have gone overboard and made this into a cartoon of a character, but instead, keeps it just human enough to be touching.  Unfortunately, Daniel Ladmirault found no such boundary and takes his performance as the cruel piety-spouting priest to over-simplified extremes. Of particular note is the work of Matt Mezzacappa as the young page to Pizarro. His part calls for him to listen to others quite a lot which is never an easy thing for an actor to do without causing distractions.  He does this well, and yet he switches with ease to scenes where he must be more active.

There are impressive contributions from the off-stage creative team as well. Mariano Vales has composed a compelling score giving distinct feelings to the scenes involving native and invading people. Matthew Soule is very inventive within the constraints of his set design budget, using a length of tapestry that unrolls to present different backgrounds and a shimmering gold curtain for the mounting ransom. The cumulative effect of the visual and sonic designs is to focus attention on the content of the play rather than distract with spectacle. Hardly Hollywood's approach to an epic - but a very good one for this company and the Clark Street Playhouse.

Written by Peter Shaffer. Directed by Steven Scott Mazzola. Original music composed by Mariano Vales. Choreography by Krissie Marty. Fight choreography by John Gurski. Design: Matthew Soule (set) Cynthia Abel Thom (costumes)  Eleanor Gomberg (properties) Ayun Fedorcha (lights) Matthew Nielson (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Karen Currie (stage manager). Cast: William Aitken, Leslie Sarah Cohen, Brian Crane, Edward Daniels, James Foster, Jr., Chris Galindo, Theo Hadjimichael, Katherine E. Hill, Jim Jorgensen, Daniel Ladmirault, Steve Lee, Matt Mezzacappa, Peter Pereyra, Alex Perez, Francisco Reinoso, Beth Madeline Rubens, Nick Scott, Michael Sherman, Addison Swtizer, Shane Wallis.

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Reviewed June 7|
Running time 1:45 no intermission
A stylish staging of a classic

Storyline: Medea, a former princess, has abandoned her homeland to marry Jason of Argonaut fame who she helped steal her country's proudest possession, the fabled golden fleece. Now, after she has borne his children, he has cast her off in favor of another. She takes awful vengeance, causing the death of her rival. She knows she will pay for the crime but is much more concerned that the children she had with Jason will be the targets of revenge. To prevent that she slays them herself.

When the title of a tragedy by Euripides is a character's name you can be sure it is a part with enough meat on it to fill the house with sorrow. Right now we have two examples on display in the Potomac Region, Vanessa Redgrave is holding forth in Hecuba just across the river at the Kennedy Center, while Delia Taylor is Medea here in Arlington. (Seeing both shows can be something of an over-dose of dead children!) Taylor can be searing in her anguish and she can be incredibly intense. Both skills serve her well here. Whether hers or her directors' choice, the Medea she creates seems less royal and therefore less regal than might be expected of a former princess brought to Greece in glory before being wronged. The result is more an "everywoman" approach that concentrates on the motivation for the slaying of her own children as protection rather than revenge.

Carrasquillo and MacWhorter, along with set designer Giorgos Tsappas, create a striking environment for the tragedy, a circular platform suggesting, but not quite imitating, the central playing space of a classic Greek theater. Here, however, the platform is a subdued blood red and contains a sand-filled pit which could be a sand box for the kids, a pit for blood sports or a piece of the desert removed from civilization to which Medea's plight condemns her. It is all those things and more. An inspired piece of staging is the use of Marie Schneggenburger's puppets - dolls, really - for the children. Their presence, either on the side of the platform observing the actions of the grownups or in the arms of their tutor played with touching honesty by Richard Mancini, gives a focus to the impending horror that permeates the piece.

Each of the players work as part of the Greek Chorus as well as taking on named roles and each adds another layer to the texture of the piece. Kathleen Akerley adds a strength, Christopher Henley an otherworldliness and Alexander Strain a touch of intrigue, while Jenifer Deal, who is cross-cast as Jason, gets a chance to sink her teeth into another meaty part. Only Debbie Minter Jackson, as one of the women of the court, seems to have nothing much to add beyond the scope of her role as a woman of the court. However, they all contribute to the haunting sound of the production as the chorus whispers, hums and cries in a most otherworldly manner, creating a score that is neither music nor electronic effect but becomes the very atmosphere of the world in which the play plays out.

Written by Euripides. Translated by Alistair Elliot. Adapted and directed by Jose Carrasquillo and Paul MacWhorter. Design: Giorgos Tsappas (set) Melanie Clark (costumes) Marie Schneggenburger (puppets) Ayun Fedorcha (lights) Ray Gniewek (photography) Meg Taintor (stage manager). Cast: Kathleen Akerley, Jenifer Deal, Christopher Henley, Debbie Minter Jackson, Richard Mancini, Alexander Strain, Delia Taylor.

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Reviewed March 8
Running time 2:50 - one intermission
General admission seating
Brief nudity viewed from behind
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Storyline: On a hilltop overlooking Italy's Divina Costiera, a dying elderly woman is visited by a mysterious man with a history of approaching wealthy dying elderly women. His presence stimulates her to contemplate her life but that hardly seems necessary since she happens to be dictating her memoirs to her secretary.

Perhaps the absence of satisfying atmosphere and narrative clarity in this production shouldn't be judged too harshly. After all, the play was a failure both times it was attempted on Broadway. Today it is better known for the casts that have performed it than for its own quality. The aging woman was briefly a role for Tallulah Bankhead on stage (with Tab Hunter as the enigmatic stranger) and later in a movie (titled "Boom!") for Elizabeth Taylor with Richard Burton. Henley has a haughty Annie Houston paired with a mysterious Hough T. Owen voicing Williams' sometimes inscrutable dialogue.

Physically, this production seems rather disjointed with a number of different set areas in the spacious Clark Street Playhouse. One of those areas is the writing room of "TW" played by Steve Wilhite, who sets the scene in stage directions and then follows the events in the draft as if giving one final read to his creation before sending it off to wherever famous playwrights send their scripts. He's so far to the rear of the playing space, however, that his voice becomes echoey and difficult to follow.

Houston gives the role of the dying woman a stately presence and Owen seems comfortable with the inscrutable. Suzanne Richard makes an impression as "The Witch of Capri" but the meaning of her presence is rarely clear. Marybeth Fritzky seems the only really normal person in the collection as the old lady's secretary. Williams experimented with many theatrical traditions in assembling this play, including Japanese kabuki represented by two stage assistants that scamper around in their black robes with red fans. With such disparate elements in Williams' creation it is no wonder that this production can't establish a consistent feel.

Written by Tennessee Williams. Directed by Christopher Henley. Design: Eric Grims (set) Melanie Clark (costumes) Heidi Volf (properties) Jason Arnold (lights) David Lamont Wilson (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Laura Rozmeski (stage manager). Cast: Marybeth Fritzky, Chris Galindo, Jay Hardee, Annie Houston, Hugh T. Owen, Suzanne Richard, Alexander Strain, Heidi Volf, Steve Wilhite, Katrina Wiskup. 

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Reviewed November 16
Running time 2:30 - one intermission
Caution: strong themes and nudity
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Storyline: A conquering general returning in triumph to Rome is immersed in the politics of the empire in the wake of the death of the emperor. He is proclaimed the new emperor but refuses the post, naming one of the former emperor's sons in his stead, but unleashing a flood of jealousies that involve his five remaining sons (he's already lost 21 in wars!), his daughter, the family of the late emperor and the queen of the land he conquered whom he has brought home in chains along with her entire family. Each act of violence begets another, gorier and more inventive atrocity, an escalation that includes rape, maiming, mayhem, torture, disfigurement and cannibalism.

You know you're in for an evening of ugly things early on when the on-stage toilet is simultaneously used for its biological function and for a forced head dipping, but unless you've read the script, seen the movie (Julie Taymor made a movie of the play which is nothing like The Lion King) or attended the rock musical version by Shawn Northrip that played at Source a few years ago, you won't be prepared for the ugliness of the horrors committed in this exploration of just how inhuman humans can get. Shakespeare was quite inventive in his visions of revenge, but director Joe Banno adds a few inventive touches of his own. After all there were no plastic and steel paper cutters available in 1591 when the young bard (probably collaborating with another playwright) wrote the play based perhaps in part on the vividly titled poem "A Lamentable Ballad of the Tragical End of a Gallant Lord and of his Beautiful Lady, With the Untimely Death of Their Children, Wickedly Performed by a Heathen Blackamore, Their Servant: The Like Seldom Heard Before." That sort of says it.

Banno assembles a large cast for the eighteen named characters in this version. Returning to the Clark Street Playhouse in the title role is Ian Armstrong who lacks the imposing stature and presence the role calls for at the start. He looks more like a quartermaster than a commanding General in his U.S. Army uniform in this production which is presented as if in modern times. As the evening progresses (or is that regresses?) Armstrong captures the character's descent into vengeful madness quite well. He draws well-formed characterizations from Alexander Strain as the late emperor's eldest son, and Arthur Rowan as his younger brother and John-Michael MacDonald as Titus' brother. The pack of sons, most fated to die before the evening is out, along with those of of the conquered Queen of the goths (played with delightful menace by Rahaleh Nassri) feature fine work by the likes of Jon Reynolds, Cesar A. Guadamuz and Chris Galindo. Young Brandon Thane Wilson continues to impress, this time in the dual roles of Titus' youngest son and the queen's own ill-fated offspring. The most ill-fated of all, however, is Titus' daughter Lavinia. Kate Siegelbaum manages to keep the character human throughout the most vile abuse - she's the one who's raped, has her hands and her tongue cut out and is left naked and bleeding to be discovered by her family.

Set designer Matt Soule has done striking work here, creating a dozen different playing spaces around the perimeter of Clark Street's large playhouse with the audience dispersed between them. Across the center space he has created an elevated runway that serves as everything from debate platform for the Roman process of selecting a new emperor to banquet table where the ultimate feast of vengeance is served. Such a sprawling assemblage of settings is a challenge for any lighting designer. Marianne Meadows rises to that challenge not just managing to make the areas visible but creating an atmosphere for each that increases the impact of the scenes. There is a great deal of quality work to be enjoyed here  by anyone who thinks they can stomach the gore.

Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Joe Banno. Design: Matt Soule (set) Melanie Clark (costumes) Rebecca Trotter (properties) Arthur Rowan (fight choreography) Marianne Meadows (lights) David Lamont Wilson (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Karen Currie (stage manager). Cast: Ian Armstrong, Chris Galindo, Daniel Eichner, Cesar A. Guadamuz, Jay Hardee, John-Michael MacDonald, Eric Messner, Rahaleh Nassri, Jon Reynolds, Suzanne Richard, Arthur Rowan, Kate Siegelbaum, Alexander Strain, Brandon Thane Wilson, David Lamont Wilson. 

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Reviewed August 10
Running time 2:50 - one intermission
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: Deposed Duke Prospero, abandoned on a desert island lo these dozen years, sees his opportunity for justice when his usurper passes by in a ship. Prospero, who has used his time studying sorcery, conjures up a fierce storm during which his usurper's party abandons their foundering ship and washes up on his island. Prospero's daughter falls in love with the usurper's son. The usurper and his entourage get involved in many schemes as Prospero's revenge proceeds, but all are reconciled through the love of parents for children and children for each other.  

Jenifer Deal is this production's Prospero. This gender switch is of no consequence at all and it allows Deal the opportunity to sink her teeth into a meaty role with gusto. She plays this deposed duke as a blind sorcerer with a towering dignity and a sense of assurance that dominates the play even when she's off stage. Other gender switches among the cast such as Meg Taintor as Prospero's brother (sister?), Antonio, seem less natural.

Supporting Deal are some standout performers,  Scott Kerns,  Daniel Ladmirault, Chris Galindo and Saskia de Vriesto to name but a few. Kerns is a delight to watch as the "airy spirit" Ariel whose presence emphasizes the magic of the fantasy. He's accompanied by Regina Aquino and John Reynolds as companion spirits, with Aquino in red and Reynolds in blue contrasting with Kerns white outfit. These two also play the ships' crew and Reynolds is particularly good at rendering the bard's iambic pentameter in the guttural accent of so many pirate movies. Ladmirault displays a gift for emphasizing the word play of Shakespeare's text while scampering about as a sly slave. Galindo and de Vries make an appealing pair of young lovers capturing the essence of just why this pair has been one of the most popular of Shakespeare's many pairs of infatuated youngsters. de Vries' instantaneous reaction to the sight of the first male of her own age she had ever seen is innocence personified.

As with most of his later works, Shakespeare blends many subplots and subsidiary characters into a heady brew with fathers and their children, dukes and kings, councilors and butlers, slaves, sprites and spirits. Many directors rely on their design team to help keep it all straight with different color schemes or patterns for different elements. In this production, however, there seems to be no discernable scheme. Instead there is an overall look that emphasizes the fantasy nature of the story without subdivisions or even a consistency of time period. Kerns' silver sneakers, Galindo's undershirt, Ladmirault's Caribbean skirt, Joe Baker's tropical shirt - none of these seem to identify thematic threads. Still, the visual impact of the show is a satisfying one, especially David C. Ghatan's effective lighting of his own set design.

Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Christopher Henley. Design: David C. Ghatan (set and lights) William Fisher (costumes) Kim Deane (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Elizabeth Welke (stage manager). Cast: Regina Aquino, Joe Baker, Jenifer Deal, Saskia de Vries, Chris Galindo, Cesar A. Guadamuz, Scott Kerns, Daniel Ladmirault, Monique LaForce, Paul McLane, Anne Nottage, Jon Reynolds, Alexander Strain, Meg Taintor, Genevieve Williams, Katrina Wiskup.

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Reviewed May 6
Running time 2 hours 25 minutes
t A Potomac Stages Pick for three superb performances

Storyline: Two befuddled characters wait for the arrival of a mysterious person. Their lives don't seem to have much purpose but they seem to believe that this Mr. Godot will provide answers to what they should be doing and why. In the meantime, they try to find ways to fill their day. The monotony is broken by a chance encounter with a stranger and his servant or slave. When a messenger delivers the word that Mr. Godot won't be coming today, all they have to do is wait for tomorrow.

Henley and Hemmingsen start out as something of a Laurel and Hardy team with Hemmingsen giving the Hardy role a touch of pathos and Henley orbiting him in precise movements and manners. But as the evening proceeds, Hemmingsen deepens the character and Henley approaches a Chaplinesque comedy of posture, movement and mannerism that is captivating. Each is a delight on his own - witness Henley scratching his chin in thought or Hemmingsen tumbling about in an effort to take off a shoe -- but as a team they amplify each other's strengths gloriously. From the lightning timing of challenges and retorts to slapstick routines like the exchange of derbies that gives new meaning to the term "hat trick" this is an act not to be missed.

Richard Mancini is also very impressive as the servant/slave with the ironic name of "Lucky." His is a part that requires him to be mute and to approach a standing comatose state, calling for a mime-like first half. But his character is energized by another bit with a hat and, suddenly, the cast can't shut him up. Few roles in the standard literature call for such an abrupt and complete change and Mancini not only turns it on and off with precision, he sets it up so well with his early struggle just to stay on his feet that it is all the more effective. Steve Wilhite, on the other hand, doesn't quite find the tone for his part of the strange visitor until well into the play.

The "action" of this play famous for the absence of meaningful action takes place on a nicely abstract set consisting of a circular platform with two ramps, a partition and a single tree designed by Misha Kachman in highly theatrical style. Painted a splotchy gray-white, the entire space takes on a look reminiscent of faded white-face makeup -- just the right look for this piece of whimsy with substance.

Written by Samuel Beckett. Directed by Dorothy Neumann. Design: Misha Kachman (set)  Howard Vincent Kurtz (costumes) Katherine Osborn (p