Horror Play To Be Staged at Historic Congressional Cemetery In Washington, DC

Lýkos Ánthrōpos by Bob Bartlett will be staged at the Historic Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC on Thursdays through Sundays from October 31 - November 24, 2024.

Maryland-based playwright and long-time professor of theatre at Bowie State University, Bob Bartlett, is no stranger to staging his work in unusual locations. A few years ago, he premiered his time-bending romantic comedy, The Accident Bear, which sold out its five-week run to critical acclaim, at a working coin-operated laundromat in historic downtown Annapolis, Maryland. During Covid he staged his play Three Strangers Sitting Around a Backyard Firepit at Two in the Morning Listening to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska in his central Maryland backyard, and last summer premiered his latest play about browsing for love and vinyl in the digital age, Love and Vinyl, in a record store in Annapolis (and which just had runs in Austin and Dallas, TX and which is coming to Washington, DC in January of 2025). The wildest of all of his recent theatrical adventures, Lýkos Ánthrōpos, his play about lycanthropy was recently staged in the woods of central Maryland, and required audiences to park at night in a field and walk into the woods to watch an interaction between a werewolf and his victim, and which now shifts to a fall run at Washington, DC's historic Congressional Cemetery.

The Helen Hayes Award-winning Bartlett says the idea to create site-specific theatre, which he believes has the potential to engage audiences in more immediate ways than theatre staged in traditional spaces, came while he was living in a downtown walk-up on Maryland Avenue in Annapolis over a decade ago. "I've always been drawn to theatre produced in unique locations," he notes. "And more than simply Shakespeare in the park." Always on the lookout for compelling locations where acts of theatre and storytelling can happen, Bartlett often writes with specific spaces in mind. "I'd long dreamed of inviting audiences to walk into the woods to see one of my plays happening in a clearing." His dream happened in the fall of 2022 on a farm near his home in Davidsonville, MD, and now moves to the famed cemetery in the nation's capital.

Bartlett wrote and researched Lýkos Ánthrōpos while on a month-long writing residency in Rhodes, Greece in the summer of 2022. That trip afforded him the time to explore the origins of lycanthropy to ancient Greek mythology, which finds its way into his two-hander about an older and younger man who meet in the woods each full moon. "Hollywood," he proclaims, "fails werewolves, other than fewer than a handful of fabulous films, including John Landis' 1981 An American Werewolf in London and the Universal masterpiece, The Wolfman, starring Lon Chaney Jr." He adds that he "set out to write an opaque and even poetic exploration of lycanthropy, and its attendant psychological horror and uncontrollable bestial violence." When audiences come upon the performance location at the cemetery, they will sit around a circle of lights, an altar of sorts at its center, and death metal music pounding from the nearby woods.

"The opportunity to share the play with audiences at Congressional Cemetery," he adds, "is truly special and unexpected; opening the run of the play on Halloween and a full moon is writ in the stars."

"At Congressional," adds Anthony Orlikoff, the Cemetery's Director of Programming, "we are always striving to engage our community with positive experiences while also supporting the arts in many ways, including with theater. With Soul Strolls an already successful immersive theater experience at the cemetery, we believe that Lýkos Ánthrōpos is a perfect fit for additional opportunities to enjoy and support the arts this fall."

About Congressional Cemetery (congressionalcemetery.org)

With its first burial in 1807, Historic Congressional Cemetery is among the oldest institutions in Washington, DC, and is the final resting place of over 70,000 individuals. Their stories are American history in microcosm, all in 35 acres of the nation's capital. Still an active burial ground, it is the only place in Washington where individuals can be buried at a site directly on Pierre L'Enfant's 18th century city plan.

Historic Congressional Cemetery was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2011 and continues to build upon the legacy of over 200 years of American history. The cemetery is administered by the nonprofit Association for the Preservation of Historic Congressional Cemetery and owned by Christ Church and Washington Parish. The association is constantly striving to maintain the historic, cultural, and aesthetic qualities of this natural landscape along the Anacostia River. Hundreds of volunteers each year help preserve the cemetery and further its nonprofit mission.

About Lýkos Ánthrōpos at Congressional Cemetery

"There are your average theatrical adventures, all cozy and warm and indoors on a fall night. Then there are truly theatrical encounters, where you are left to your own devices in the middle of nowhere, with nowhere to go, while the magic unfolds right in front of you. Lýkos Ánthrōpos is just such an evening. See it, I dare you." - Andrew Walker White, DC Theatre Arts

"Be warned, this is not a Halloween haunted house or a family-friendly ghost tour. The 75-minute, two-man drama is a psychological horror with strong language and vivid descriptions of violence." - Susan Nolan, Bay Weekly

Lýkos Ánthrōpos features regional actors Patrick Kilpatrick and Nicholas Gerwitz from the original production and is directed once again by Alex Levy, Artistic and Managing Director at 1st Stage in Tysons, VA.

Because of the uniqueness of the venue/performance space, the production seats only twenty-five guests per performance. The audience is encouraged to bring a fold-up chair or blanket and a lantern to their chosen performance; they will meet as a group and walk together, with a guide, to the performance site at the Cemetery.

Lýkos Ánthrōpos will run Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 8:00 PM from October 31 - November 24, 2024 at 8:00 PM at Congressional Cemetery, 1801 E St SE, Washington, DC 20003.

Lýkos Ánthrōpos runs 75 minutes with no intermission.

Advanced online ticket sales only. Probably not suitable for children. Street parking. Plenty of local bars and restaurants.

Congressional Cemetery
1801 E St SE
Washington, DC 20003

TIX: bob-bartlett.com

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