Andrew White - Page 11

Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell have established Happenstance as one of the most inventive, genuinely spontaneous companies in town. Their sources of inspiration are diverse, likewise the shows that develop (literally) before our eyes. Based on the principle of physical improvisation, their brand of Devised Theater (quite distinct from that bane of critics, the "work in progress") can give you the delight of witnessing artists in the process of discovery, development and revision. The results are often confusing and challenge us to abandon our innate desire to make sense of things, inviting us simply to let the ensemble go about their wonderful work.

Opening as it does at the tail end of the Lenten season, Keegan Theatre seems to be offering 'Behanding' as a welcome antidote to the awe and reverence of the season (are you dreading the family Seder before it's even started? Sick to death of Easter eggs and plastic grass? Suffering from Pope Francis fatigue already? Have we got a show for you …). Although not without its moments of drag and indecision the production is still guaranteed to leave you rolling in the aisles at the utter shamelessness of it all.

Lee Blessing's Cold-War drama 'A Walk in the Woods' is given a beautiful new staging by Bethesda's Quotidean Theatre, with a stand-out performance by Brit Herring as the American negotiator.

The National Theatre of Norway's modern, pared-down 'Hedda Gabler' recently at the Kennedy Center, as part of the Nordic Cool festival, caught some local print critics off guard. There has been some grumbling about the lack of Victorian-era sociological context. This complaint assumes Hedda's problems belong to a bygone era, and have little to do with us--ridiculous. Moreover, audiences and artists alike don't deserve the cod-liver oil treatment. We don't expect jazz musicians to give us note-for-note renditions of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five recordings, no matter how great they were. So we should stop demanding that actors remain forever under the thumb of antiquated scripts whose dialect is so different from our own. We need to be able to breathe new life into the classics, experience Hedda as our contemporary, and this production does so brilliantly.

The year, roughly speaking, is 1300; the city, definitely Rome. An ambitious political exile from Florence, stripped of everything he ever owned or hoped to achieve, stews in the Eternal City disgusted with the civil wars and political infighting around him. All he has to his name is a solid classical education and a gift for writing poetry in the language of the streets--Italian. Finding himself with a lot of time on his hands, Dante Alighieri nurses his pain and his burning desire for revenge, and converts them into nothing less than a classic of World Literature.

If I could grab you by the shoulders, Dear Reader, look you square in the eye and tell you “See this play—now!” I would. Forum Theatre's accomplished and deeply moving production of Bill Cain's “9 Circles,” now at the Round House Theatre's Silver Spring stage, is that good. And that necessary.

Do you have a restless kid who's looking for a little adventure? Do you still have that restless spirit yourself? Flying V's production of Zachary Fernebok's swash-buckling romantic comedy, "The Pirate Laureate of Port Town," could be just what you're looking for. Now showing in Bethesda, Maryland's Writer's Center, it's a great cure for the winter blahs!