The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Hamlet, directed by Michael Kahn, is a rich, multi-layered interpretation of a uniquely great play.
Avery Glymph, Michael Urie, and Federico Rodriguez. Photo by Scott Suchman.
Hamlet is central to the Western literary tradition. Mark Rylance, whose Hamlet was by all accounts memorably deranged, remarked that, “There have been more books alone written about Hamlet than have been written about the Bible.”
We are fortunate to have the gifted Michael Urie as Hamlet. He is all motion, vividly alive, operating at a physical and mental speed approximately three times as fast as those around him. His soliloquies sparkle with creativity and humor.
The velocity of his performance derives from his traumatized emotional state. His pain is so great that he has been catapulted into an emotional realm where he is utterly alone. No one can contact him. He is separated from his loved ones as if by a pane of glass.
Michael Urie. Photo by Scott Suchman.
The horror, for him, is not only the murder of his father. It is the oppression and violence of his entire society. Nazi-like emblems are everywhere: on the soldiers’ armbands, above the balcony, at the lectern where Claudius gives his unctuous speech. The police and soldiers carry guns. In this totalitarian world, independent thinking is punishable by death. Hamlet’s inner conflict and the outward corruption of his universe mirror one another with breathtaking clarity.
In the first scene, three security guards, Marcellus (Avery Glymph), Barnardo (Chris Genebach), and Francisco (Brayden Simpson) see the Ghost (Keith Baxter) on a large security camera, high above them. Horatio (Federico Rodriguez) is skeptical at first but agrees to tell Hamlet what has occurred.
Claudius (Alan Cox) and the court enter; it could be a press conference from Scandal. The power suits. The photographers. The stately Queen, Gertrude (Madeleine Potter), all in red. Hamlet stands to the side, brooding. Claudius’s speech is, fittingly enough, simultaneously being shown on TV. Hamlet agrees not to go back to Wittenberg to study but makes it obvious he is only doing it for his mother. Claudius, a capable politician, smooths over the awkwardness with “Why, ‘tis a loving and a fair reply.”
Hamlet is full of spies. Rosencrantz (Ryan Spahn) and Guildenstern (Kelsey Rainwater), here a young couple, are recruited to spy on Hamlet, although he sees through them immediately. Hamlet takes a listening device away from Ophelia; later, he rips down a security camera. Polonius orders Reynaldo (Brendan McMahon) to spy on Laertes. Polonius spies on Hamlet and pays for it with his life.
Gertrude is curiously stoic at first. One wonders what on earth is going through her mind. Her grief for her husband must still be very new. Was there something wrong in the marriage? Why did she marry Claudius so quickly? Perhaps she thought it was the only way to ensure her safety in such a perilous environment. As Madeleine Potter portrays her, she gradually becomes more and more aware of Claudius’s duplicity. Her confrontation with Hamlet is intensely compelling.
Ophelia’s state of mind at the outset is also in question. How did the court change after the old King’s death? Was it sudden? Slow? A more mature girl would have been asking questions about much more than just Hamlet’s feelings for her. As Oyin Oladejo plays her, she is very young and innocent. This makes her extreme shock at the death of her father (at the hands of her former lover) much easier to understand.
Ryan Spahn and Kelsey Rainwater. Photo by Scott Suchman.
The script has been cut meticulously to avoid some of the textual problems. Robert Joy as Polonius captures both his irritating habit of spouting well-worn truisms, and his proficiency as a counselor to the King and Queen. Keith Baxter (who was Prince Hal in Orson Welles’ Chimes atMidnight) acts with extraordinary depth and skill. His scenes as the Ghost, the Player King, and the Gravedigger are among the finest of the evening.
In this production, Hamlet overhears Polonius’ plot to “loose” his daughter to him and knows that she agreed to assist her father. This explains his dreadful behavior to her, in the “Get thee to a nunnery” scene. His disillusionment with her renders him even more alone.
Most of the minor roles are performed with style and energy: the guards in the first scene; Lise Bruneau as the Player Queen/Cornelia, David Bryan Jackson as Voltemand, Chris Genebach as Lucianus, and Gregory Wooddell in his expanded role as Osric. Hamlet’s scenes with Rosencrantz (Ryan Spahn) and Guildenstern (Kelsey Rainwater) work especially well.
Paul Cooper’s Laertes, though well-acted, might benefit from more definition. The same is true of Avery Glymph’s Fortinbras and Federico Rodriguez’ Horatio.
There are captivating moments of comedy: the scene between the Gravedigger (Keith Baxter), the Priest (David Bryan Jackson), and Hamlet, for example. The Ensemble — Jack Henry Doyle, Chelsea Mayo, Kamau Mitchell, Maggie Thompson, Jeff Allen Young, Brendan McMahon, and Brayden Simpson — are all excellent.
The visual aspects of the production (Scenic Designer is John Coyne) heighten the overall feeling of extreme danger. Large gray panels. Surveillance television. Hidden listening devices.
The costumes by Jess Goldstein are well-suited to the overall design. The security guards and soldiers wear uniforms. The Queen, an enigmatic figure, is in deep reds and blues at first, then black and magenta, then black, which echoes her emotional journey. Before the play-within-the-play, Hamlet puts on a marvelous Fool’s costume, complete with a Lord of Misrule-type hat. He might be Touchstone in As You Like It.
Lighting (Yi Zhao) is superb, although there were instances where I could have benefited from more light on the actors’ faces. Projection/Video Designs by Patrick W. Lord and Sound Design and Original Music by Broken Chord are of equally high quality. Every attribute of the production is precisely coordinated.
Michael Urie is a Hamlet of today; his Elsinore is something of a warning. Hopefully, as Sinclair Lewis once said, It Can’t Happen Here.
Running Time: 3 hours, including one intermission.
Hamlet plays through March 4, at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, performing at Sidney Harman Hall – 610 F Street, NW, in Washington, DC. For tickets, call (202) 547-1122 or go online.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that seeing Edmund Kean play Shakespeare was like “reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning.” Acclaimed Director Liesl Tommy brings us Shakespeare torn asunder by gunfire. It is a blazingly original concept. The production is part of the “Clarice Smith Series: New Directors for the Classics” at Shakespeare Theatre Company.
Jesse J. Perez as Macbeth and Nikkole Salter as Lady Macbeth. Photo by Scott Suchman.
What happens when a foreign country intervenes in the governing of another country? The result, of course, is chaos. What could be a more contemporary theme? Chaos is exactly what greets us as soldiers enter, with what look like machine guns, in Scene I of this literally explosive Macbeth.
The beauty and sensuousness of Shakespeare’s language is still there, but we are in a modern universe, teeming with war crimes, hi-tech cruelty, and the bitter knowledge that every one of us is expendable at any time. Some of the finest moments of the production are when the killers matter-of-factly take pictures of their victims with cell phones.
Nikkole Salter is a superb Lady Macbeth, full of energy, pride, and deep sensuality. One of the best moments of the production comes when she withdraws from Macbeth’s growing cruelty. For her, the excitement of the murder was in the anticipation; once the deed is done, she falls apart.
Jesse J. Perez brings us Macbeth as Everyman; he hesitates at first, but is shamed into action by his wife’s intimation that to flee from regicide is less than masculine. (This to Macbeth, who in the first scene is described as a ruthless, successful warrior.) He is a pawn in a political as well as a marital sense, and this diminishes the power of his personality somewhat. However, this is precisely the point. The assassin of today is restless, incendiary, true; but he smiles like a game-show host and grins ghoulishly, like a host at a party of the dead.
The production is set in present and future Africa. The costumes are full of exotic colors and textures. Most of the women wear hijabs. The men wear army uniforms and berets. Director Tommy has created a visually magnificent universe of wildly diverse images, which grow and multiply on the stage as if by magic. The golden and green scenic design, the sumptuous clothing, and the unpredictable sounds of shooting and torture keep us on edge and yet strangely mystified. Lady Macbeth is dressed to kill in elaborate head-dresses and elegant gowns. In a sense, she and her husband exchange places; he, once guilt-ridden, is now ever more steeped in blood. She, mad with guilt, becomes ghost-like and insubstantial.
The Three Witches, played with style and bravado by Tim Getman, Naomi Jacobson, and David Bishins, are government operatives, who spy on the Macbeths as they fulfill the objectives of their Machiavellian Master/Mistress, Hecate (Stephen Elrod). They are after the resources of Macbeth’s unnamed African country, and are willing to commit any crime, even the murder of children, to get what they want. The characterization of Hecate has been given a stunningly unusual modification which I will not give away, but which adds to the “ripped from today’s headlines” approach to the play. (Russian accent, anyone?)
Two performances stand out: Myra Lucretia Taylor as the Porter and Doctor, down to earth and determined, brings a refreshingly unpretentious humor to her roles. Marcus Naylor’s Macduff is deeply emotional, allowing us to connect to his sorrow and empathize with his character.
Petronia Paley as Duncan has dignity and authority, along with an air of compassion which makes her murder even more horrifying. Malcolm (Corey Allen) and Donalbain (Nicole King) turn to one another with a heartrending desperation as they realize they will likely be blamed for Duncan’s death. Nilanjana Bose as Lady Macduff has a lovely scene with her little daughter (Trinity Sky Debreu) before all hell breaks loose. Banquo (McKinley Belcher III) and son Fleance (Brett Johnson) spar with each other in a display which suggests great affection between father and son as well as physical dexterity.
The Scottish Lords Ross (Sophia Ramos), Lennox (Horace V. Rogers) and Angus (JaBen Early), excellent performers all, are sometimes overwhelmed by the chaos that surrounds them. Politics and violence seem to flatten their characters out somehow, as if mere actors cannot compete with the noise, theatrics, and constant brutality. This is probably inevitable in a production which emphasizes politics over personal relationships. Sometimes the wonders of Shakespeare’s language are overshadowed by the ever-changing spectacle.
Jesse J. Perez and the cast of Macbeth. Photo by Scott Suchman.
The onstage movement and visual inventiveness of the production are remarkable. Credit goes not only to Director Liesl Tommy but to the Ensemble, Stephen Elrod, Nicole King, Scotland Newton, Kelsey Rainwater, Christopher Michael Richardson, Brayden Simpson, and Anu Yadav. Scenic Designer John Coyne, Lighting Designer Colin K. Bills and Costume Designer Kathleen Geldard have been rightfully praised for their imagination and technical wizardry. Sound Design and Original Music by Broken Chord complement the visual aspects of the production with exceptional skill. Special mention must be made of Fight Directors/Action Choreographers Rick Sordelet and Christian Kelly-Sordelet, whose work is outstanding.
The question remains; what is the experience of the play, what is it like to see it? Visually and aurally, it is a feast for the senses. The acting has moments of notable intelligence and insight. But the theme of chaos overwhelms the text itself, which becomes almost flat and unremarkable. This makes it more difficult to identify with the characters. The advantage of Shakespeare in a contemporary setting is obvious; we are fully alert to each development because we are not lulled into complacency by the familiar Elizabethan environment. But to introduce an audience to a created world, the world we are presented with must make internal sense.
Here, the production can sometimes be confusing. Where or when are we exactly? Did Lady Macbeth really go to Harvard? Isn’t a Harvard t-shirt better left to the actress’s preparation than included in the production itself? Some of the casting of women in male roles feels arbitrary, as much as I applaud the concept. Sometimes the inclusion of modern elements can seem jarring. And when an actor says, “O Scotland, Scotland…” it is hard not to wonder whether the line should be cut or changed.
On the other hand, perhaps this sensation of dislocation and chaos is exactly what Director Tommy intended us to feel. By supporting the vision of emerging directors, we acclimate our beloved Shakespeare to the landscape of a new generation and a young century.
Running Time: Two hours and 50 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission.
Macbeth plays through May 28, 2017, at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Sidney Harman Hall – 610 F Street NW, in Washington, D.C. For tickets, call the box office at (202) 546-1122, or purchase them online.
Blood will have blood—so go the grim words of Macbeth as it dawns on him that murder is not as simple as he once thought. When it comes to battling and bloodshed, Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production delivers. But rather than depicting kings and battles from Shakespeare’s day, Tony-award-winning director Liesl Tommy has turned this story into one that provides powerful lessons for today.
Jesse J. Perez as Macbeth and Nikkole Salter as Lady Macbeth. Photo by Scott Suchman.
This Macbeth is set in a Scotland that has been reimagined as an African country toeing a fragile line between peace and civil war. The play opens to the chaos of war: a cacophony of battling, bloodshed, and betrayal that mirrors the later developments of the play. There is a stark distinction between nobility and the common people, as everyone connected to and including Queen Duncan (Petronia Paley) wears a soldier’s uniform—always, it seems, ready for battle. The majority of the cast is made up of people of color; noticeably, the only caucasian cast members are the Witches (David Bishins, Tim Getman, and Naomi Jacobson) and Hecate (Stephen Elrod). What unfolds is a remarkably timely story: rather than beings with superpowers, the witches are actually Western intelligence operatives manipulating Macbeth into destabilizing the political structure of this country in order to gain easy access to its natural resources.
Jesse J. Perez’s Macbeth is strident and dynamic from the moment he steps onto the stage. No weak-willed puppet pushed along by his wife, he and Lady Macbeth (Nikkole Salter) make for a formidable couple whose unraveling is riveting to watch. Once Macbeth and his wife gain the throne, they appear, sparkling and glamorous, ready to greet their subjects for a dinner of the high elite. But for Macbeth, tormented by his desire to hold on to his power, this is not enough—he turns more and more to people outside his military elite for help in carrying out his increasingly twisted orders.
Two street urchins (Brayden Simpson and Anu Yadav) carry out the murder of Banquo. McKinley Belcher III captures both the tender moments Banquo shares with his son Fleance (Brett Johnson), and the cold-blooded ghost out for revenge on Macbeth, his former friend. Marcus Naylor plays Duncan’s trusted officer Macduff, who defends his queen, his family, and his country with fierce passion, inspiring Malcolm (Corey Allen) to come out of hiding and seek his birthright. Myra Lucretia Taylor’s Porter injects some much-needed comic relief into the otherwise gut-wrenching events of the play.
Jesse J. Perez and the cast of Macbeth. Photo by Scott Suchman.
Liesl Tommy’s concept is remarkable in its execution. Scenic Designer John Coyne has created a world that shifts between the glamorous and austere: tall granite walls give a stark, militant feel, but a vein of gold runs through the length of the back wall. Lighting Designer Colin K. Bills’ technique of injecting “natural” light through high, unseen windows give the set a prison-like feel, while his LED light poles shift around the set to create the visual effect of anything from a guerrilla battleground to a red carpet appearance. Broken Chord’s dissonant original music and sound design keep the atmosphere firmly on edge; in particular, they use the distant sound of a baby crying to underscore Lady Macbeth’s childlessness and eventual descent into madness.
STC’s production is not for the faint of heart. But it is one that we all need to see: in a country where even now we are debating how much we as a nation should engage in the world, this Macbeth offers a chilling narrative of how this influence, and the siren call of power, can be used for evil.
Running Time: Two hours and 50 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission.
Macbeth plays through May 28, 2017, at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Sidney Harman Hall – 610 F Street NW, in Washington, D.C. For tickets, call the box office at (202) 546-1122, or purchase them online.
I first encountered Hooded, or Being Black for Dummiesfive months ago, when it was presented at The Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival.
Hearing the play at that first public reading was an electrifying experience.
Now this dark comedy—the third in a series about coming of age in America—is having its world premiere as a fully-staged production at Mosaic Theater Company of DC. And it is even more riveting today as it descends, fully nuanced and multi-dimensional, through the layers of sitcom into an underworld that is mythic in its contradictions and conclusions.
Jeremy Keith Hunter (Tru) (center) and members of the ensemble of Hooded, Or Being Black for Dummies. Photo by Stan Barouh.
While the previous plays in the series (Milk Like Sugar and Charm) focused on African-American kids living in urban settings—fenced in by poverty and bias—this one looks at the racial and cultural divisions that separate the worlds of the mostly-white suburb and the entirely-black ‘hood.
The play begins in the affluent suburb of Achievement Heights, where Marquis, an ambitious preppie, meets Tru, a presumed dropout from Baltimore. Both boys are African-American, but Marquis wears the uniform of privilege while Tru sports the outlier’s hooded sweatshirt.
Tru tries to straighten out his “white niggah” friend by writing Black for Dummies, a guide to behavior and speech in the “real” Black world. The manual, a guide to inner-city ritual and racial identity, is a mishmash of stereotypes, some hilarious, and some scary.
The production has the power of fireworks, exploding the complacency that has most of us—on both sides of the cultural border—locked in our own perceptions.
Curious to find out what went into creating this extraordinary production, I joined Serge Seiden, Mosaic’s seasoned Co-Founder and Director of the play, and Vaughn Ryan Midder, its Associate Director, at one of the final rehearsals.
Ravelle: What attracted you to this play?
Serge Seiden. Photo by Fern Seiden.
Serge: I was drawn by its complexity, both in what it has to say—about growing up black in America—and by the difficulty of producing it so that the issues come alive.
On the surface, Hooded may look simple. There’s a cast of eight, a narrator—Officer Borzoi, a Simon Legree in blackface—and a handful of scenes. But it’s a huge show. There are many elements that have to be incorporated into the overall design to make it work.
In fact, it’s like a musical. There are major scene changes, dream sequences, fight scenes and love scenes, lighting and sound cues. Even the things that sound superficial—such as the surtitles and the video projections—are enormously complicated.
Technically, the play presents many challenges.
Thematically, the biggest challenge is establishing a balance between the comedy on the surface and the potential tragedy that’s just below.
Vaughn: What drew me is the similarity to my own life, and to that of so many African-American young men. I can relate to both boys, since I’ve lived in both worlds. My parents were college-educated and I grew up in a beautiful, mixed-but-mostly-white town in Connecticut.
But when I was 14, we moved to Baltimore, to a neighborhood that was entirely African-American. So I experienced the same culture shock as Marquis. And I could have benefited from a guide like Black for Dummies, since I wanted to fit in, but didn’t know how to do it.
Have you worked together before? How did the two of you connect?
Serge: I’ve been been involved in theatre since 1988, and have been on and off stage—as a professional actor, a stage manager, a literary director and now managing director—ever since.
I met Vaughn when I was directing him in When January Feels Like Summerat Mosaic last year. I knew then that he was very talented. And I knew that I wanted to work with him again.
Vaughn Ryan Midder. Photo by Jeremiah Quarles.
Vaughn: I graduated from the University of Maryland three years ago. Although I did some directing at The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, I thought of myself principally as an actor. But on the final night of When January Feels Like Summer, Serge took me aside and said, “You’re an amazing director.” It was a tribute I was not expecting.
A few months later, he called me in to do a cast reading of Hooded. I was so taken by the play—and by the extent to which it mirrored my own experience—that I asked for a directing job. And to my amazement, I got it!
How does the collaboration work?
Serge: Theatre is collaboration as an art form. We collaborate on everything. There’s no sense of “ownership” between us. Vaughn and I work together on every aspect of the production. Our job is to tease out what makes sense. And to trust our instincts.
Vaughn: Trust is the most important element in any collaboration. One of the greatest discoveries for me was finding that Serge actually trusted what I had to say. And I in turn have learned tremendously from him.
Does collaboration mean the prima donnas and impresarios of the past are gone?
Serge: Although there are still some theatres where prima donnas rule, Mosaic is not one of them. In fact, Hooded demanded more ensemble acting and design than most plays I know of.
Vaughn, what’s your take on the central characters?
Vaughn: I find the two mothers—one visible and one not—the most interesting.
The white mother, Debra, thinks of herself as a “white saviour.” She has adopted Marquis, an African-American child, but assumes that all other black boys are dirty and deprived.
She assumes that Tru, the inner-city black, is a high school dropout and the son of a single mother who works multiple jobs and is too ignorant to be a good parent. In fact, Tru’s unseen mother is really a hard-working woman who has raised a smart kid. And she’s probably married.
Marquis and Tru may sound like polar opposites, but in fact they’re just 14-year-olds. Tru has more street smarts, but he needs to learn a lot more.
In a way, the manual, Being Black for Dummies, is a rough draft. Both kids need to learn the rules of each other’s worlds. But even then, both will be subject to other people’s ideas about who they are, rather than their own.
Was there a lot of wizardry in this production?
Serge: This play demanded a lot of magic behind the scenes. We were very lucky to have Brayden Simpson as our chief magician and company manager. Brayden brought everything together, helping to bring Vaughn into the production and working with the incredible designers—David Lamont Wilson on sound, Brittany Shemuga on lighting and Ethan Sinnott on sets—who set new standards in collaboration.
Vaughn: Some people might be uneasy about the surreal moments in the play, the smoke and mirrors and noise and sheer physicality that makes much of the play so funny. But it’s the comedy—the ability to reach for laughs at the most awful things—that allows the conversation about race and identity to take place.
(L to R) Dylan Morrison Myers (Hunter), Keith L. Royal Smith (Marquis), Jeremy Keith Hunter (Tru), and Josh Adams (Fielder). Photo by Stan Barouh.
Serge, Looking backward—I know you went from politics to theatre, unlike our current national leader, who went the other way. How did that happen? And is politics still part of your life?
Serge: I came to Washington in 1985 to work as a legislative correspondent for Senator George Mitchell, but I had always found the theatre exciting and mysterious. When I mentioned this to my upstairs neighbors—the actors Isabel Keating and Michael Russotto—they suggested that I usher at Studio theatre, where they were both training. I did.
Two years later I quit my job on the Hill for a docu-musical called Dance Against Darkness: Living with Aids, produced by DC Cabaret. That led to a career in theatre, much of it at Studio.
I joined Ari Roth in the founding of Mosaic in 2015, with the express goal of combining my love of theatre with the pursuit of social justice. So yes, I’m still involved in politics, though practicing on a different stage.
Vaughn, Looking forward—You’ve just come off a major role in Milk Like Sugar, which is bound to reap awards. Are you still interested in acting? Or is directing your new career?
Vaughn: Right now, I enjoy both. I’ve just gotten my Equity card, and I’m very excited about what the future holds. Directing is more work—longer days, weeks and months—but it’s over once the play opens.
I’ve learned a tremendous amount from Serge, and am very grateful that I had the opportunity to direct a play that literally spoke to me from the heart, and echoed my own life.
Running Time: One hour and 40 minutes, with no intermission.
A Few Good Men at Off The Quill: Peter Orvetti, Andy De, Adrian Vigil, Leanne Dinverno, James Heyworth, Donald R. Cook, Roderick Bradford, and Michael J. Dombroski.
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and PerestroikaCo-Produced by Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center: Jonathan Bock, Kimberly Gilbert, Mitchell Hébert, Thomas Keegan, Sarah Marshall, Jon Hudson Odom, Tom Story, Dawn Ursula.
Equusat Constellation Theatre Company: Michael Kramer, Karina Hilleard, Kathleen Akerley, Ross Destiche, Michael Tolaydo, Laureen E. Smith, Ryan Tumulty, Colin Smith, Emily Kester, Tori Bertocci, Gwen Grastorf, Ashley Ivey, Ryan Alan Jones, and Emily Whitworth.
Promised Land at Mosaic Theater Company of DC: Audrey Bertaux, Aaron Bliden, Gary-Kayi Fletcher, Awa Sal Secka, Brayden Simpson, and Kathryn Tel.
The Critic and TheReal Inspector Houndat Shakespeare Theatre Company: John Ahlin, John Catron, Robert Dorfman, Naomi Jacobson, Charity Jones, Hugh Nees, Robert Stanton, Sandra Struthers, and the voice of Brit Herring.
The Sisters Rosensweigat Theater J: Josh Adam, Edward Christian, Susan Lynskey, Susan Rome, Michael Russotto, Kimberly Schraf, James Whalen, and Caroline Wolfson.
The Flick at Signature Theatre: Laura C. Harris, Thaddeus McCants, Evan Casey , and William Vaughan.
When the Rain Stops Fallingat1st Stage: Scott Ward Abernethy, Kari Ginsburg, Sara Dabney Tisdale, Amy McWilliams, Dylan Morrison Myers, Frank Britton, Teresa Castracane.
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HOW WE SELECTED OUR HONOREES
DCMetroTheaterArts writers were permitted to honor productions and concerts, dance, and operas that they saw and reviewed and productions and concerts and dance performances that they saw but did not review. Every honoree was seen. These are not nominations. There is no voting.
The staff is honoring productions, performances, direction, and design in professional, community, university, high school, and children’s theatres, and are also honoring the same in musical venues. We are honoring work in Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia, Philadelphia, PA, New Jersey, and Delaware.
Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Theatre is a revelatory theatre experience. Director Alan Paul’s version of Romeo and Juliet has a complexity and richness that reaches deep into the meaning of the play. Romeo (Andrew Veenstra) and Juliet (Ayana Workman) light up when they are together. Their connection is electric and visceral, like certain barely understood passions which seem to fascinate and frighten those who, for better or worse, do not share them.
The cast of ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ Photo by Scott Suchman.
In a way, as Joseph Campbell has said, in The Power of Myth, with Bill Moyers, they have entered into the hero’s journey:
They’ve moved out of the society that would have protected them, and into the dark forest, into the world of fire, of original experience. Original experience has not been interpreted for you, and so you’ve got to work out your life for yourself. Either you can take it or you can’t. You don’t have to go far off the interpreted path to find yourself in very difficult situations. The courage to face the trials and to bring a whole new body of possibilities into the field of interpreted experience for other people to experience—that is the hero’s deed.
The Capulet family has been interpreted in a novel way that makes them infinitely more human. Lady Capulet (Judith Lightfoot Clarke) has an air of elegance, but underneath she is a complicated woman who loves Juliet but is caught in the middle when her husband (Keith Hamilton Cobb) rejects his daughter. Cobb as Capulet has considerable authority, but he also holds Juliet in the air with love, as if she were still a little girl. Both are deeply attached to Tybalt (Alex Mickiewicz) and the devastation his death wreaks on them renders them both much easier to understand. Clarke, Cobb, and Mickiewicz all give formidable performances, and seem like members of a real family. Inga Ballard’s Nurse is a true mother to Juliet, and she finds many different aspects to the Nurse’s character; pride, humor, anger, and despair. Ayana Workman is an incandescent Juliet; at first fragile, but then infused with power due to the strength of her love.
(Andrew Veenstra (Romeo), Ron Menzel (Friar Laurence), and Ayana Workman (Juliet). Photo by Scott Suchman.
Timothy Carter (Montague) and Emily Townley (Lady Montague) capture perfectly the helplessness and fury of parents who lose a child. Andrew Veenstra’s Romeo is the quintessential romantic hero. He is especially moving as he falls apart under the pressures of exile.
The first scene takes place in a dark red tavern. The Capulets and Montagues are like boys from a rough neighborhood who have turned to gang warfare. Friar Laurence (Ron Menzel) is like a Boys’ Town counselor, or a Jesuit serving in a troubled neighborhood. His relationship with Romeo is powerful and full of conflicting emotions.
Although both the Capulets and Montagues are wealthy, they seem to lead a hair-trigger existence–on the edge of exploding any minute. This is a world spinning out of control.
Jeffrey Carlson is a sardonic Mercutio, his blond hair standing up all over his head, his eyes snapping with intelligence and wit. Jimmie “J.J.” Jeter is a wonderfully comic Benvolio. James Konicek’s Escalus is dressed like a modern mid-level manager, but he is a commanding presence when needed. As Paris, Juliet’s would-be husband, Gregory Wooddell has a winning smile and an air of insouciance that is unusually effective in this difficult role.
The Nurse has particularly bright and comic moments with Peter (Shravan Amin). Chris Genebach as Gregory/Friar John, Elan Zafir as Sampson, and Ross Destiche as Balthasar all perform with truthfulness and skill. Rakeem Lawrence in the pivotal role of the Apothecary has a poignant scene with Romeo. The Singer (Jordan Aragon) and the Ensemble; Jasmine Alexis, Shravan Amin, Jordan Aragon, Elise Kowalick, Rakeem Lawrence, Calley Luman, Rafael Sebastian, Ryan Sellers, and Brayden Simpson are all to be commended for first-rate performances.
Alex Mickiewicz (Tybalt), Jeffrey Carlson (Mercutio), and Andrew Veenstra (Romeo). Photo by Scott Suchman.
Dane Laffrey’s Scenic Design fulfills Director Paul’s vision beautifully—there is even a Madonna who presides over Friar Laurence’s cell. Kaye Voyce’s costumes are refreshingly simple and unpretentious for Romeo and Juliet, and more formal for the older Capulets. Lighting Designer Jen Schriever, Sound Designer/Composer Daniel Kluger, and Choreographer Eric Sean Fogel’s work is consistently excellent. Fight Choreographer David Leong has staged some of the most exciting fight scenes I have ever seen in any production.
In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell wrote:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man
Of course, the question then becomes, “How can Romeo and Juliet’s tragic fate be considered a victory?”
Northrop Frye has said:
[N]othing that breaks through the barriers of ordinary experience can remain in the world of ordinary experience….Our perception of this helps us to accept the play as a whole, instead of feeling only that a great love went wrong. It didn’t go wrong: it went only where it could, out. It always was, as we say, out of this world.
Romeo and Juliet are heroes of consciousness. Their extraordinary love, a shining light in a broken world, points the way to compassion. The modernity of this production brings their story close to our hearts.
Romeo and Juliet plays through November 6, 2016, at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Lansburgh Theatre – 450 7th Street, NW, in Washington, DC. For tickets, call the box office at (202) 547-1122, or purchase them online.
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‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company reviewed by Patrick (PJ) McMahon on DCMetroTheaterArts.
At a point in Mosaic Theater’s Promised Land—a powerhouse of a play performed inside an intimate space that’s more like a concrete bunker than a black box—we see the searing image of people fenced out. Refugees, huddled masses depicted by a cast of seven, stand backlit upstage of a chain-link fence, their pleading arms upraised in shadow against a translucent screen. We hear no words yet the transcendent impact of that image rends the heart.
The cast of ‘Promised Land.’ Photo by Stan Barouh.
And who could have guessed that on the very day this play would open in the rehearsal room at Woolly Mammoth, Pope Francis would chide off the cuff ex cathedra:
A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.
Turns out, as Promised Land makes plain, it’s not Jewish either.
The play by Shachar Pinkas and Shay Pitovsky tells multiple and interwoven stories of survivors of civil war in East Africa looking to Israel for asylum, i.e., some semblance of the national sanctuary that was made home to survivors of the Holocaust in Europe. It begins as the seven members, utilizing the theatrical form of devised documentary, address us directly and barrage us with statistics about the extent of the problem. It’s an onslaught of info that’s more than we can take in—”more than we can take in” being, of course, the point of view of those who want refugees kept out.
The play does not hold back in portraying the prejudice in the policies that have excruciating effects on so many seekers of safety. There is a chillingly smarmy speech delivered by the Mayor of Eilat (“My African friends, please go back to your homeland, we wish you well”) and a chillingly bigoted speech delivered by a contractor (“You might get Ebola from the sight of them, and if they sneeze on you, HIV is inevitable. What do I know about them? Why should they come from Africa?”)
Remarkably, though, the play in performance is suffused with youthful hope, which at moments comes through like an idealistic song sung against a din of despair. We are reminded of that disquieting context by Eric Shimelonis’s stunning sound design, whose vehemence jolts us, makes us jump, between each compelling scene. We cannot escape seeing that sinister world as represented in Andrew R. Cissna’s fierce set (that fence) and climactic lighting. Yet it is the performances of the young cast—especially when enacting refugees’ stories—that stand in starkly humane contrast and move us ever more deeply as the play proceeds.
In multiple roles, under the vigorous direction of Michael Bloom, are Audrey Bertaux, Aaron Bliden, Felipe Cabezas, Gary-Kayi Fletcher, Awa Sal Secka, Brayden Simpson, and Kathryn Tkel. I witnessed each of them embody, in various ways and roles, the interpersonal case for an empathy-based ethos, which experienced as a whole overflowed the stage.
There’s a scene near the end where the actors each stand at a mic and say aloud actual telegrams sent by refugees in search of lost family members. The words of one of them seemed to give voice to the entire endeavor’s undercurrent of hope and longing: “I pray to God that there are no more barriers in the world.”
And later there’s a scene that’s an enactment of a vigil last May at which two rabbis, both women, spoke. Their words seemed the very heart of the play:
God repeated the commandment to protect the stranger at least thirty-six times because it’s a really hard thing to do. Now that we are in our own land, it is something that takes real faith in God, and embracing discomfort — in a way that keeping kosher or Shabbat does not.
But it is the real test of the Jewish soul. As Jews, we have suffered so much and so we have a great responsibility toward strangers. The refugees here need our protection, kindness and humanity. This is our religious and moral responsibility.
There is a palpable sense in which Promised Land—which was conceived and created in Tel Aviv at Israel’s national theater by an ensemble of young professionals—is fittingly played here by actors who are all close in age playing characters both older and younger than themselves.
As the third offering in its Voices of a Changing Middle East Festival, Mosaic Theater has brought us the invigorating voice and vision of a new generation of theater makers who see themselves as peacemakers and bridge builders.
Kathryn Tkel and Awa Sal Secka. Photo by Stan Barouh.
Promised Land bears a title the brittle irony of which is little lost here in DC, and it must have been harsh to hear in Tel Aviv. But this is a nervy and unexpected work. In its inception it looks to the future, not the past. In its performance it could help move us there.
Running Time: 70 minutes, without an intermission.
Promised Landplays through February 28, 2016 at Mosaic Theater Company of Washington performing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company – 641 D Street, NW, in Washington, DC. For tickets, call the box office at (202) 393-3939, or purchase themonline.
After the run at Woolly, the cast will take a concert version of the show to George Mason University March 1 and to American University March 2.
LINKS: Review of ‘Promised Land’at Mosaic Theater Company of DC by Robert Michael Oliver on DCMetroTheaterArts.
The poetic dialogue of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning classic Fences reached maximum intensity at Everyman Theatre Friday night, reigniting the sparks of passion as it did 32 years ago when it first premiered but now with deeper and richer sheen.
Brayden Simpson (Cory), Joy Jones (Rose), and Alan Bomar Jones (Troy). Photo by Stan Barouh.
Craftily calibrated under Clinton Turner Davis’s direction (who worked backstage in the original Broadway production of Fences, featuring James Earl Jones), Wilson’s groundbreaking play is impressively revived with great attention to realistic detail from start to finish. Even before the lights ascend (designed by Nancy Schertler) and the characters emerge, eyes are immediately drawn to James Fouchard’s remarkably true-to-life set design, featuring the backyard of a modest two-story home, complete with a porch and a fence that is under construction.
One of 10 iconic plays that together form Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle (or, more alliteratively, his Century Cycle, as each one chronicles a decade in 20th-century African-American life), Fences has as its focus the lives of the Maxsons, a working-class African-American family dealing with a country in transition during the late 1950s.
Troy (Alan Bomar Jones) began life with great potential and great handicaps. His mother walked out on his abusive father. Troy ran away from home at 14 but became a star in the Negro Leagues. Then, racism halted his baseball career.
Now, a garbage collector, Troy still strives to live the American dream. He is married to the sensible and steadfast Rose (Joy Jones) and is the father of a teenage son who has great athletic potential.
On Friday nights, Troy downs a pint of gin with his best friend, Bono (Jason B. McIntosh). But, Wilson adds complexities to Troy’s existence, some oppressively looming the characters, some interwoven throughout the play. Troy’s brother, Gabriel (Bryant Bentley), who suffered a serious brain injury in the war, survives on benefit checks, some of which Troy has quietly used to buy his own home. Lyons (Gary-Kayi Fletcher), Troy’s eldest son from his first marriage is a “wanna’ be” musician with big dreams. He always comes begging for money from Troy on payday, and Troy begrudgingly lets him have it.
Troy and Rose’s son, Cory (Brayden Simpson), seems destined for success with aspirations of being a professional football player, but Troy (remembering his own bitter baseball experience) wants that to end. A third child (Indigo Bleu Turner/Gabrielle Nance) will be in the Maxsons’ lives by the play’s end.
Alan Bomar Jones (Troy). Photo by Stan Barouh.
Alan Bomar Jones dexterously commands the lead role, patriarch Troy, with great depth and dynamism. Even in his first scene when he is shooting the breeze with longtime friend Bono (an assuredly affable Jason B. McIntosh) after clocking out on payday, Jones has a latent fervor that is omnipotent. As the audience watches Troy gradually reveal himself to be complicated, and more unsettled, than the opening act may initially suggest, it becomes more evident that Fences is a narrative about someone who is haunted by choices he has made in the past, and struggling among the inequalities of mid-century America and the mistakes he continues to make as he ages. Central to his internal conflict, too, is the sense that he recognizes his faults, but is hindered by his pride from acknowledging them to those closest and dearest to him. Consistently throughout the production, Jones’ performance is absolutely riveting and mesmerizing.
Correspondingly, as his wife, Rose, Joy Jones skillfully counterbalances Troy’s boisterous and, at times, overbearing personality. The two mostly flirt and bicker with one another in the first act, and an easy rapport emanates between the two. Jones does a wonderful job of hinting at the lack of fulfillment that plagues her in her role as the devoted and dutiful wife. As the second act develops and she is comes into explicit conflict with Troy, nuance is mostly jettisoned in favor of icy condemnation and resentment. When Rose goes toe-to-toe with Troy, the confrontation is viscerally compelling and powerfully gripping.
Each of the supporting cast members are all immensely talented, delivering emotive performances in their own unique way. Particularly, noteworthy was Brayden Simpson as Cory, Troy and Rose’s teenaged son, who did a tremendous job of challenging Jones in the later scenes. Similarly, Gary-Kayi Fletcher was delightful as Lyons, Troy’s son from his prior marriage, by infusing his character’s would-be musician ambitions and flawed mooch tendencies with a humorous charm and likeability. Likewise, Bryant Bentley was magnificently convincing and extraordinary to watch as Troy’s mentally incapacitated, horn-holding brother who fancies himself as the Angel Gabriel. Finally, Jason B. McIntosh is warm and solid as Troy’s longtime friend – a cheerful listener who is not afraid to call it as he sees it.
Heartrendingly stirring one moment and hilariously silly the next, Everyman’s production of Fences is an incredibly rousing ride of emotion that will surely inspire compassion, forgiveness, acceptance and love in all.
Running Time: Approximately 2 hour and 30 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission.
Fences plays through November 22, 2015 at Everyman Theatre – 315 West Fayette Street, in Baltimore, MD. For tickets call the box office at (410) 752-2208, or purchase themonline.
Helen Hayes Award winners and DC favorites join internationally recognized artists and strong newcomers in a company committed to telling diverse stories.
Mosaic Theater Company of DC announces 36 actors so-far cast in the 2015-16 inaugural season: “The Case for Hope in a Polarized World.” This far-reaching pool of locally and internationally acclaimed actors represents a commitment to telling the stories most pressing to our communities. These artists, over half of whom are actors of color, join Mosaic Theater Company in one of the most diversely cast seasons in Washington.
Taking the stage this year will be a strong group of known DC favorites, including Helen Hayes Award winners Erika Rose (reuniting this year with In Darfur director, Derek Goldman) and Deidra LaWan Starnes (Intimate Apparel, and Doubt: A Parable), as well as Helen Hayes Award nominees Doug Brown (Our Lady of 121st Street), Bill Grimmette (Blood Knot), Paul Morella (Angels in America), Barbara Rappaport (A…My Name is Alice) and Michael Tolaydo (New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch De Spinoza).
Joining them are a large number of DC favorites including Jeff Allin, Tonya Beckman, Aaron Bliden, Felipe Cabezas, Erica Chamblee, Shannon Dorsey, JaBen Early, Gary-Kayi Fletcher, Sean Fri, Manu H. Kumasi, John Lescault, Jason B. McIntosh, Lynette Rathnam, Jefferson A. Russell, Kathryn Tkel, Baakari Wilder, and Michael Anthony Williams.
Founding Artistic Director Ari Roth. Photo by Fern Seiden.
“Our mission commits us to bringing communities together,” says Founding Artistic Director Ari Roth. “While hardly a novel approach to making theater in this town, our commitment to diversity feels unique in recognizing that our setting at the Atlas gives us a rare opportunity to fuse local and global engagements—to bring the African and Middle East dramas into a resonance with the explosive conversations on race so relevant to our moment.”
Mosaic Theater Company is proud to feature three artists of international acclaim in the Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival, whose work will be seen in this season’s three solo acts: Wrestling Jerusalem, featuring Jewish-American actor Aaron Davidman, I Shall Not Hate, featuring Palestinian actor Gassan Abbas, and Hkeelee (Talk to Me), featuring Lebanese-American writer and performer Leila Buck.
Managing Director and Producer Serge Seiden. Photo by Fern Seiden.
“With generous commitments from Mosaic’s Board of Trustees, and an ever-growing list of supporters, Mosaic has been able to hit the ground running,” adds Managing Director and Producer Serge Seiden. “Over sixty percent of the actors cast in Mosaic’s inaugural season are members of the Actors Equity Association, and we’ve been able to contract union designers and directors as well. Ari, Jennifer and I are excited to let our artistic team loose on these three beautiful venues at the Atlas, presenting meaningful content to our audiences while maintaining the highest artistic standards.”
Rounding out the season is a collective of talented up-and-coming actors (and future favorites), including Shravan Amin, Freddie Bennett, Audrey Bertaux, Desmond Bing, Silas Gordan Brigham, Jeremy Keith Hunter, Vaughn Ryan Midder, Awa Sal Secka, and Brayden Simpson. It is a season loaded with known and new faces, as well as many prominent women actors and playwrights underscoring the citywide commitment to female artists seen in this fall’s Women’s Voices Theater Festival.
Resident Director Jennifer L. Nelson. Photo by Fern Seiden.
“A good deal of what I love about theater is its capacity to explore and illuminate the rich possibilities of language,” shares Resident Director Jennifer L. Nelson. “Physical, spoken and visual language, it gives us the means to step outside our personal lives and into intimate interaction with others. It is in that interaction that we connect and challenge ourselves and each other to experience more than our personal experiences. That to me is the beauty and significance of theater: bringing members of our community together to share stories on an intimate, visceral level.”
This announcement comes at a momentous time for Mosaic Theater Company, just eight months after its founding and three months after the announcement of the 2015-16 inaugural season. With only two roles yet to be cast in the eight-play lineup (including one role for a child actor in Unexplored Interior), this accomplished ensemble represents the powerful coalition of support and excitement around this new company launching with considerable momentum.
For complete season information, visit mosaictheater.org/season. Additional creative team updates and full cast bios to be announced at a later date.
Mosaic 8 packages are now on sale and may be purchased by calling the Atlas Performing Arts Center box office at (202) 399-7993 ext 2, or by visiting mosaictheater.org.
Casting for the 2015-16 season:
Unexplored Interior
Jeff Allin, Shannon Dorsey, JaBen Early, Bill Grimmette, John Lescault, Erika Rose, Jefferson A. Russell, Michael Anthony Williams, Freddie Bennett, Desmond Bing, Silas Gordon Brigham, Jeremy Keith Hunter, and Baakari Wilder.
______
The Gospel of Lovingkindness
Doug Brown, Erica Chamblee, Manu H. Kumasi, and Deidra LaWan Starnes.
______
Wrestling Jerusalem
Aaron Davidman
_____
I Shall Not Hate
Gassan Abbas
______
Eretz Chadasha: The Promised Land
Aaron Bliden, Felipe Cabezas, Gary-Kayi Fletcher, Kathryn Tkel, Audrey Bertaux, Awa Sal Secka, and Brayden Simpson.
______
After the War
Tonya Beckman, Sean Fri, Paul Morella, Barbara Rappaport, and Michael Tolaydo.
_____
Hkeelee (Talk to Me)
Leila Buck
______
When January Feels Like Summer
Jason B. McIntosh, Lynette Rathnam, Shravan Amin, Jeremy Keith Hunter, and Vaughn Ryan Midder.
Mosaic Theater Company of DC is committed to making powerful, transformational, socially-relevant art, producing plays by authors on the front lines of conflict zones and providing audiences with a dynamic new venue for the dramatizing and debating of ideas including an annual intercultural festival, like our acclaimed Voices From a Changing Middle East series.
With an emphasis on the playwright’s vibrant voice, muscular structures and a powerful collaborative fusion with directors of vision and story-telling integrity, Mosaic plays marry a love of ideas, character, conflict, immediacy, and personal and public resonance, working with the finest actors in our city to create thrilling performances that matter. Our plays speak truth to power and to the private parts of our soul prompting reflection, discussion and uplift, while creating lasting impression; in short, we make art with a purpose and strive for impact.
