21 Mini Reviews
A star (B) denotes a show recommended by our critics.
NEWLY REVIEWED IMPROBABLE FREQUENCY At 111 K St. NE through Oct. 24
A daft draft is wafting these days through an otherwise unremarkable floor of a new office building, where the surprising Irish-centric theater company Solas Nua has chosen to stage its first musical. Tristram Faraday (Eric Messner) is a goofy English whiz at crossword puzzles who’s sent to Dublin during World War II by his British masters to learn whether secret messages being broadcast over Irish radio are somehow hurting the war effort. As it turns out, the effect the airwaves are having is not the result of mystical Gaelic spells but of a Teutonic evil genius who has built some sort of nonsense doomsday machine. Only occasionally, though, does director Matt Torney achieve the full-throttle giddiness that the plot’s far-fetched mechanics demand. A major problem is the actors’ vocal difficulties, sometimes with the accents and more often with the evening’s nearly three dozen songs. It would be a service if the device could also work some magic on the flaws in the musical itself. — Peter Marks
Friday and Wednesday-Thursday at 7:30. 111 K St. NE. 202-315-1317.
www.solasnua. org. $20-$25.
BKING ARTHUR At the Crystal City Theater through Oct. 31
The water is ankle-deep on the stage throughout the 90 heart-jolting minutes of “King Arthur,” the latest addition to Synetic Theater’s repertory of wordless movement-dramas. The liquid spectacle is a rollicking treat, a gymnastic epic spraying ample amounts of delight across the auditorium. The plot follows the legend’s familiar developments, such as Arthur’s pulling Excalibur from a stone and the king’s celebrated gathering of the knights. The fluid landscape serves as a voluptuous cushion for all the lovemaking in Camelot. Still, to suggest a metaphorical justification for rendering Arthur’s entire kingdom as a flood plain is a stretch. Also, a goodly chunk of this play concerns itself with combat, and all the splashing around begins to look the same. Yet, with a production this viscerally exciting, you can simply revel in the exhilarating visual style. Even when water-based, Synetic’s thrills are undiluted. — P
Friday-Saturday at 8, Sunday at 2, Wednesday at 7:30 and Thursday at 8. 1800 S. Bell St., Arlington. 800-494-8497.
www.synetictheater.org. $30-$50, $25-$45 seniors, $20-$25 students.
SCORCHED
At Round House Theatre/Silver Spring through Oct. 23
Forum Theatre is once again proving to be a champion of the marathon. “Scorched” is a big, rambling play staged simply and acted with force. It begins with grown twins, Simon and Janine, who are bitter and silent at the death of Nawal, their maddeningly secretive mother. Nawal’s last wishes include instructions that eventually send Simon and Janine on a quest to her turbulent native country in search of their mysterious father and brother. The back story is an illicit romance that ends with young Nawal being cruelly punished by her repressive culture, a society that brutally turns in on itself in Wajdi Mouawad’s increasingly unsettling plot. The play isn’t gripping right away, but the punches that Mouawad lands are knockouts, and the production Michael Dove fashions is impressively efficient. Not everything Forum does is epic, nor should it be, but “Scorched” adds to a track record suggesting that when it wants to go long, it won’t waste your time.
Friday-Saturday at 8, Sunday at 2 and Thursday at 8. 8641 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. 240-644-1100.
www.round
housetheatre.org. $25, $10-$15 younger than 30.
CONTINUING
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL At the Lansburgh Theatre through Oct. 30
This visually impoverished production, brightened occasionally by a glimmer of
exercises to free the body and spirit, and so the students rehearse nothing except games out of Marty’s psychic script. Eventually, Marty introduces a game that compels the anonymous divulging of deeper forms of pain and doubt, and provides the evening with a more profound rationale for all the actory frivolousness. Resonantly, too, the playwright has constructed a comedy about acting that gives actors terrific moments. And best of all, MacKenzie Meehan’s reserved, refreshingly honest portrait of a standoffish, 16-year-old allows us to see what’s really happening in a class that, in the end, is not all about pretend.
— P
Friday and Tuesday-Wednesday at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8, and Sunday at 2 and 7. 1501 14th St. NW. 202-332-3300.
www.studiotheatre.org. $35-$65.
FALSETTOS
At the Noi’s Nook at Go Mama Go! through Sunday
C. STANLEY PHOTOGRAPHY
Belen Oyola-Rebaza is Salome and Sun King Davis plays John the Baptist in Factory 449’s “The Saint Plays,” closing Sunday.
COMINGS AND GOINGS
Last chance Ganymede Arts’ “Falsettos” at Noi’s Nook at Go Mama Go! closes Sunday. 202-709-3698.
www.ganymedearts.org. Factory 449’s “The Saint Plays” at Church Street Theater closes Sunday. 866-811-4111. 703-892-0202.
www.factory449.com.
On stage soon, on sale now
.M.
Keegan Theatre presents “Fool for Love,” Sam Shepard’s play about a woman torn between two men, Oct. 16 through Nov. 7. Church Street Theater, 1742 Church St. NW. 703-892-0202.
www.keegan
theatre.com. $35. The Universes performance ensemble examines Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in “Ameriville,” Oct. 20 through Nov. 7. Round House Theatre, 4545 East West Hwy., Bethesda. 240-644-1100.
www.roundhousetheatre.org. $10-$60. Teatro De La Luna kicks off its International Festival of Hispanic Theater with the
Venezuelan comedy “My Husband Is a Cuckold” Oct. 21 through Nov. 27. Gunston Arts Center, 2700 S. Lang St., Arlington. 703-548-3092.
www.teatrodelaluna.org. $30. Spooky Action Theater presents Samuel Beckett’s “The Lost Ones” performed by Carter Jahncke and 60 puppets Oct. 21 through Nov. 14. The Universalist National Memorial Church, 1810 16th St. NW. 301-920-1414. www.spooky
action.org. $15-$20. Washington Shakespeare Company presents “Richard III” and “Mary Stuart” in repertory Oct. 21 through Dec. 12. Artisphere, 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. 800-494-8497. www.washingtonshakespeare. org. $25-$50. In “Sanctified,” the pastor of an African American Baptist church that has fallen on hard times takes unusual measures to help his congregation. Oct. 21 through Nov. 14. Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW. 202-328-6000.
www.thelincolntheatre.org. $37-$47.
Composer William Finn earned his following in 1981 with the winsome “March of the Falsettos,” an hour-long song cycle about a middle-class man who leaves his wife and child for another guy but who wants to keep everyone happy and connected. In 1990 Finn wrote a follow-up, “Falsettoland,” in which AIDS took over the storyline. You can produce these shows in a little backroom without sacrificing much, and that’s how Ganymede Arts is staging its minimal “Falsettos.” Jeffrey Johnson is not a big singer, but otherwise he’s perfect as Marvin, the married man in love with a guy named Whizzer (Michael Sazanov). Marvin is simultaneously appealing and abrasive, Sazanov is dusky and boyish, Lisa Carrier Baker is amusing and smart as Marvin’s abandoned wife, and small portions of the show are stolen by Noah Chiet as Jason, Marvin’s precocious son. The production is unsophisticated, but the performances are funny and honest; for “Falsettos,” that’s enough.
Friday and Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 7. 1809 14th St. NW. 202-709-3698.
www.ganymedearts.org. $30.
GLIMPSES OF THE MOON At MetroStage through Oct. 17
Susy, a poor young woman with champagne taste, hatches a scheme to marry a similarly cash-strapped lad named Nick, reasoning that their rich friends will shower them with lavish presents they can quietly hock. Susy and Nick intend to live grandly for at least a year on the cash, plus the favors extended to newlyweds. It’s a promising setup for an old-fashioned musical comedy, which seems like what “Glimpses” wants to be. But the tone suddenly goes brittle, and the mood truly breaks with the evolution of a character named Streffy, a swell whose low flame for Susy becomes an inferno once he inherits real money. The score, played by an efficient three-piece jazz combo onstage, is often disappointingly generic, yet from time to time it actually achieves the speed and seductiveness of the era. Glimpses indeed.
Friday at 8, Saturday at 3 and 8, Sunday at 3 and 7, and Thursday at 8. 1201 N. Royal St., Alexandria. 703-548-9044.
www.metrostage.org. $45-$50.
THE KNIGHT FROM OLMEDO At GALA Theatre-Tivoli through Oct. 17
.M.
A fierce athleticism quickens director José Luis Arellano García’s bleak, taut staging of the tragedy “El Caballero de Olmedo” ("The Knight From Olmedo") by Lope de Vega. Written about 1620 and based on a folk tale, the play tells of a romance between Don Alonso, a brave knight from the town of Olmedo, and a well-brought-up young woman named Doña Inés, who lives in Medina. Because she is also being courted by one Don Rodrigo, Inés initially tries to keep her relationship with Alonso secret, but what with the jealous Rodrigo’s snooping, her happiness is not in the cards. Bringing this story into sharp focus is a confident, disciplined cast that includes performers from Spain. Juan Caballero is particularly engaging in the title role. In one of the show’s most powerful scenes, a solitary Alonso hears a song that seems to foreshadow his death. It’s a quiet, eerie moment, all the more effective for the kinetic energy that surrounds it.
Friday at 10:30 and 8, Saturday at 8, Sunday at 3 and Thursday at 8. 3333 14th St. NW. 202-234-7174.
www.galatheatre. org. $15-$50.
BOVO
At the Plateau at National Harbor through Oct. 24
— Nelson Pressley
You may worry that with “Ovo” the great Cirque du Soleil has finally scraped bottom. Performers in alarmingly bright, extremely silly rubbery suits make nonsense sounds and dance like they’ve just infested a third-rate nightclub. They are meant to be insects. But never fear. Once the troupe’s world-class acts begin their dazzling tricks, it really doesn’t matter what they’re wearing or what the gimmick is. The title is Portuguese for “egg,” and indeed the design features a large glowing egg that fascinates director Deborah Colker’s bizarre colony of characters. The action is full of becoming and emerging: A chrysalis that slowly emerges from the floor is marvelous, and so is the aerial dance on a swinging rope that follows between a pair of butterflies. Magnificence is the standard for Cirque du Soleil, and “Ovo” is not consistently glorious. It’s awfully good, though, thanks to some brilliant, highly disciplined people who excel at turning stunts into art.
Friday-Saturday at 4 and 8, Sunday at 1 and 5, Tuesday and Wednesday at 8 and Thursday at 4 and 8. 800-450-1480.
www.cirquedusoleil.com. $55-$255, $49.50-$117 students and seniors, $38.50-$178.50 ages 2 to 12.
THE SAINT PLAYS
At the Church Street Theater through Sunday
Hats off to the young theater company Factory 449 for daring to tackle “The Saint Plays,” a set of phantasmagorical
— N.P . continued on next page
Inns, Lodges & Villas
— Nelson Pressley
resourceful casting, gives the impression of a roomful of capable people having an off day. The play concerns the bizarre campaign by Helena, a doctor’s daughter raised in the household of a countess (Marsha Mason), to compel a man to love her. The countess’s son Bertram is ordered by the king of France to marry Helena, after she has come to court and used her dead father’s medicines to cure the monarch of a fatal illness. Pressed into a union he detests, Bertram flees. Helena’s dogged devotion to Bertram — who, in Tony Roach’s bland portrayal, makes you wonder what all the fuss is about — takes ever odder turns. The performances for the most part are rather antiseptic. Mason gives a fairly one-dimensional account of her role. Only Paxton Whitehead, as a feisty old French lord, finds ways to convey a sophisticated
relationship with Shakespeare’s elan and language. As it is, though, everything around him just seems unwell.
— P
Friday and Thursday at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8, Sunday at 2 and 7:30, and Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30. 450 Seventh St. NW. 202-547-1122. 877-487-8849.
www.shakespearetheatre.org. $20-$93.
B CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION At Studio Theatre through Oct. 24
The games people play to open themselves up in acting class can sure look idiotic, but this is where the imaginative intervention of a cunning dramatist can work wonders, as with the eminently satisfying outcome in “Circle Mirror Transformation.” Marty, the teacher, is all about using acting
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THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010
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