TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010

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An online guide to events, night life and entertainment

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Wale, ‘Kafka,’ crafts, that Danish prince and more

Looking ahead, the April calendar is bursting, what with the start of summer sports, outdoor concerts and lots of theater. Here are several of our picks for the month. And be sure to check out the planning calendar in Friday’s Weekend section for even more events in April, May and June.

Wale and D.C. United

Apparently not content with merely

offering the best tailgating ticket in town, D.C. United management is also courting local music fans with a performance by area favorite Wale at the team’s 2010 season home opener. The performance is the first in United’s “It Takes More” concert series, which will showcase Washington area bands and artists before every game. Wale will also grace the stage at the 9:30 club the next evening.

Saturday. Wale pregame performance: 6 p.m. at Armory Mall at RFK Stadium. United vs. New England Revolution: 7:30 p.m. at RFK Stadium, 2400 East Capitol St. NE. 202-397-7328. www.dcunited.com. $23-$52.

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‘Kafka’s Metamorphosis’

Taking a break from Shakespeare,

Synetic is giving “Kafka’s Metamorphosis” a moving treatment. The company, which infuses classic stories with its trademark dance- inspired movement, is working with Derek Goldman, who directed last year’s sumptuous “Lysistrata.”

April 8-May 22. Rosslyn Spectrum

Theatre, 1611 N. Kent St., Arlington. 800-494-8497. www.synetictheater.org. $40-$45. Pay-what-you-can preview April 8 at 8 p.m.

“Hamlet”

“Hamlet” again? Yes, the famously indecisive prince is taking the stage at the Folger Theatre. But he won’t be the only draw. In conjunction with the performances, Folger is putting on “Hamfest,” featuring actress Kate Eastwood Norris, author Sarah Schmelling and British acting legend Derek Jacobi for various programs examining one of Shakespeare’s best-known works.

April 21-June 6. Folger Theatre, 201 East Capitol St. SE. 202-544-7077. www. folger.edu. $30-$60. Pay-what-you-can preview April 21 at 7:30 p.m.

“Sixty Miles to Silver Lake”

Studio Theatre is putting on a show

that’s a trip in more ways than one. “Sixty Miles to Silver Lake” takes place in the front seat of a car, moving back and forth in time to examine the roots of a father and son’s fractured relationship.

April 14-May 9. Studio Theatre, 1501

14th St. NW. 202-332-3300. www. studiotheatre.org. $25-$35.

Titus Andronicus

These New Jersey indie rockers are

getting plenty of love for their new album, “The Monitor.” The bold release is full of ambitious rock tunes built on epic themes. Catch the band at a benefit for We Are Family D.C. presented by Positive Force D.C.

Today’s online tip

It’s not everyday you can see the world’s No. 1DJ on a Tuesday night. Armin van Buuren, who’s topped DJ magazine’s prestigious Top 100 DJs survey of readers for three consecutive years, touches down at Fur tonight. Go to goingoutguide.com to find out how to get tickets to his show.

April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Stephen’s

Church, 1525 Newton St. NW. www. positiveforcedc.org. $8.

Smithsonian Craft Show

This annual exhibit is one of the

JERSEY BOYS: Titus

Andronicus, coming to D.C.

country’s most prestigious showcases of contemporary American crafts, presenting the opportunity to shop for very special pieces, meet up-and-coming and established artists and view a huge collection of works.

April 21-25. National Building

Museum, 401 F St. NW. 202-272-2448. www.smithsoniancraftshow.org. $15.

— Going Out Guide staff

PIETER M. VAN HATTEM

PLANNING AN EVENT WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ? TELL U S . SEND LISTINGS INFORMA TION TO EVENTS@WASHINGTONP OST.COM

THEATER REVIEW

With Neil LaBute at his best, ugly never looked so ‘Pretty’

by Peter Marks

Guys can be so clueless. Case in point: Greg, the rumpled but

attractive Everyschlub of Neil LaBute’s delectable “Reasons to Be Pretty.” He has a good thing going with Steph, a hair- dresser he has lived with for four years, until one day he makes the lame move of remarking on her looks to a third party. Not in intentionally hurtful terms; just not, well, in the most sensitive or flatter- ing way he could have come up with. So, sure enough, Steph gets wind of it, blows her stack — and off we go on a prickly and perceptive stuff-hits-the-fan evening at Studio Theatre, from the playwright who brought you “Fat Pig” and “The Shape of Things.” Like those earlier comedies, “Reasons to Be Pretty” focuses on our unhelpful predilection for judging all books by their covers, on how ruinous it is to try to calibrate hu- man relations to some idealized stan- dard of physical perfection. Studio should have a juicy little hit with “Reasons,” because it’s one of those plays you go to with a date or spouse or friend or partner, then spend the after- hours sorting out which character missed what signals and how couples stuff can go so wrong. It also happens to be LaBute’s most ef-

fective work, one with a soft spot as well as abrasive facets, and a plot that doesn’t hinge on some contrivance, such as a shocking reverse. We know — from La- Bute’s other plays and elsewhere — that men behave badly. But as “Reasons” would have it, women’s vanity about their appearance can be as much to blame for the horrendous state of our body politics as the masculine tendency to engage in sexual objectifying. This production benefits greatly from astutely balanced casting and the min- istrations of director David Muse, who knows how to steer it for laughs, for pa- thos, even toward a sense of danger. (Strange: The show with one of the most persuasively staged fight scenes in mem- ory lists no fight choreographer.) It remains on a gratifyingly strong footing because of the splendid anchor- ing performance of Ryan Artzberger, whose Greg comes across as an appeal- ing manual on how to make a bad situa- tion worse. It’s an indication of Artz- berger’s charming hold on us that we identify with Greg even when he feels compelled to corroborate the lies of a truly reprehensible buddy. Artzberger gets sturdy support from the trio of actors who fill out the tale:

THEATER REVIEW

‘Dancing at Lughnasa’: A touching Irish tale

by Nelson Pressley

Five adult sisters in a small Irish kitchen, their spirits dreadfully under- fed: That’s the landscape of Brian Friel’s exquisite “Dancing at Lughnasa,” a clear-eyed memory play loosely based on Friel’s mother and aunts. The family saga features eight roles, each rich with contradiction, and the moods blowing through that over- crowded kitchen are like the highs and depressions of heavy weather. The Kee- gan Theatre gets this; these Irish spe- cialists have put together a plainly in- expensive but compelling production at the Church Street Theater. This isn’t the kind of bravura per- formance that “Lughnasa” can be (it was an international hit in the 1990s, and then a film with Meryl Streep). But it’s smart, and it works.

Lughnasa (pronounced almost like

CAROL PRATT

COUPLES’ PLAY: Kent (Thom Miller) and Carly (Teresa Stephenson).

Margot White, who plays the tempestu- ous Steph; Thom Miller as Kent, Greg’s strutting co-worker and the embodi- ment of every ghastly macho excess, in- cluding too much testosterone and self- adoration; and Teresa Stephenson as Carly, a fetching security guard with an insurmountable disability: She’s mar- ried to Kent.

“Reasons” is set in a thoroughly non- descript exurb, where Greg, Kent and Carly toil in unremarkable shift work. LaBute likes American drabness as a blank background. His characters up- end the sterile rule books of comport- ment in malls and Italian chain restau- rants. (Debra Booth’s set pieces are mere suggestions of ordinary spaces: a factory lunch room, the plastic chairs of a food court, although we could do without the obligatory over-amplified rock music during scene changes.)

On this occasion, it is the relationship faux pas by Greg, a bookish warehouse worker, that sparks the conflagration. The play begins in Greg and Steph’s apartment, with Steph erupting in a tor- rent of profanity over Greg’s casual re- mark about her appearance, which she has been told about by Carly. The out- burst itself is more than a little ugly. Does Greg grasp precisely why Steph is so volcanically offended? One of the more enigmatic aspects of “Reasons” is that you’re never quite sure that chasm is bridged, that Greg truly comprehends the line he has crossed. Isn’t it enough, Greg asks, that he loves her and prefers her to all other women? Steph can’t for- give the utterance, as palpable a betrayal

for her as an act of actual infidelity. Perhaps it’s because Greg is privy to the more corrosive secrets that men may not share with women that he thinks he should be let off the hook. He sees what the vile Kent, for instance, is doing be- hind Carly’s back with the factory hottie. Miller is first-rate in creating the im- pression of a louse, and in Kent’s ulti- mate meltdown at a company baseball game, the actor expertly rekindles mem- ories of those schoolyard bullies and their infantile acts of aggression. White, too, brings a believably coarse

edge to Steph; she and Artzberger have a terrific scene together — their war is consistently entertaining — in the wait- ing area of a restaurant, at a time when both of their characters profess to be moving on.

Of course, we wait, too, to learn

whether the confused but repentant Greg is going to find a way back into Steph’s good graces. A sign of LaBute’s mature handling is that where they do end up manages to feel at once surpris- ing and satisfying. And, like much of what we’ve gleaned, worthy of a healthy argument on the way home.

marksp@washpost.com

Reasons to Be Pretty

by Neil LaBute. Directed by David Muse. Lighting, Michael Giannitti; costumes, Kate

Turner-Walker; sound, Neil McFadden. About 2 hours 10 minutes. Through May 2 at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. Visit www. studiotheatre.org or call 202-332-3300.

“lunacy”) is a pagan festival happening during the summer in which this drama unfolds. Some of the sisters want to go, but Kate — the stern teacher, chief breadwinner and most dedicated Catholic among them — suggests it wouldn’t be appropriate. Nonetheless, when their balky radio lands on an in- spiring tune, a ferocious dance unex- pectedly sweeps up the sisters, who laugh and stomp like wild things in a mighty rumpus. That’s one of the hallmark scenes of modern theater, and although the stag- ing by Mark A. Rhea and Abigail Isaac (with choreography by Kurt Boehm) doesn’t nail it, a weird power still comes through. The tug of war between Chris- tianity and paganism is on, with Friel skillfully raising questions of faith and conduct against a backdrop of harsh physical and spiritual deprivation. The play is uncommonly well bal- anced. Conservative Kate has an espe- cially pivotal role, and Kerri Rambow is blessedly nuanced in it. Rambow is a fine scold, but love and watchfulness come through, too. The characterization makes it clear that there will be no easy solutions. The varied sisters include jolly Mag-

gie (Susan Marie Rhea), who largely runs the house and instinctively defuses fights, and quiet Chris (Brianna Le- tourneau), the single mother of the un- seen 7-year-old boy whose grown self (Colin Smith) recalls all this as he nar- rates the tale.

Agnes (Elizabeth Jernigan) knits gloves for practically no money and keeps a special eye on Rose (Emily Le- vey), the sister who is mentally unable to look after herself. The internal hier- archies, affinities and rivalries are well

What to do with old encyclopedias?

HINTS FROM HELOISE

Dear Heloise: The time is drawing near when we will

have to downsize and move to a smaller home. Do you or your readers have any suggestions for disposing of a set of encyclopedias? I offered them to the local library but got a “no” response.

Suggestions would be welcome.

Delores M., Spearfish, S.D.

This is a timely question, and one that

libraries across the country are asked daily. Heloise Central did some research, and here’s the scoop. Resale and thrift shops usually will

take them as a donation, and the books often end up for sale in their clearance

center. The library here in San Antonio will

take encyclopedias and sell them. Sometimes schools in your area will

take the books if they are not too old, and the students can use the pictures from them for various projects. P.S.: Ask a nearby retirement, assisted-living or nursing home or jail if it might want them. And readers, if you have hints for what to do with these books, please let me know so I can pass them on.

Dear Heloise: Just a word of caution when reusing envelopes with stamped bar codes. Even

though I had marked out the bar code completely, my letter went to the bar-code address, not the address my letter was addressed to. Thankfully, the recipient returned my letter. In the future, I won’t

reuse bar-coded envelopes.

Kate, Fredericksburg

Good to know, Kate. We always recommended blacking out the bar code in the past, but it’s interesting that one got through.

Dear Heloise: Each Wednesday, our newspaper has a food section. I saw a recipe but didn’t want to cut it out because my husband

Dear Heloise: My father’s final wish was that a

donation of canned goods be given in his memory to the poor. He wished to begin a new trend, hoping that in the future people would follow his lead and request that each person attending a wake of a loved one bring a can of food in that person’s memory. More than 200 pounds of canned goods and hundreds of dollars

had not read the paper yet. I grabbed my cellphone and took a picture. It will stay with my phone until I decide to send it to my computer.

Janet, Dallas

My condolences on the loss of your

father. How lovely that your father thought of others. Hope my readers keep this in mind.

Heloise@Heloise.com. Please include your city and state.

© 2010, King Features Syndicate

were brought to the funeral home by his friends and family, and then were

distributed to various food banks.

Colleen, Staten Island, N.Y.

JIM COATES

A SISTERLY BOND:Susan Marie

Rhea as Maggie in Brian Friel’s Tony-winning drama about five adult sisters in 1930s Ireland.

sorted among this alert ensemble. Matthew Keenan is a trifle slow to be- come the charmer that Gerry — the young boy’s seldom-seen father — should be, and as Jack, the sisters’ elder brother, Kevin Adams doesn’t seem fully steeped in the mists of a distant culture, despite the fact that Jack has been a missionary in Africa for 25 years. That seems to have worked in reverse,

for Jack (aging and ill) has returned in thrall to customs and rituals that simply aren’t appropriate — not in Friel’s fre- quent setting of Ballybeg, Donegal, in 1936. Yet there’s an ache at large, and that’s

the play’s deep and engaging subject, re- spectfully rendered in this modest per- formance. You see it in the sisters’ faces, even during the inelegant, frenzied dancing: Something’s got to give.

style@washpost.com

Pressley is a freelance writer.

Dancing at Lughnasa

by Brian Friel. Directed by Mark A. Rhea and Abigail Isaac. Set, George Lucas; costumes, Kelly Peacock; lights, Megan Thrift; sound design, Matthew Keenan. About 2 hours 20 minutes. Through April 18 at the Church Street Theater, 1742 Church St. NW. Call

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