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Jordan Wright
November 28, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Natalie Berk as Juliet and Alex Mills as Romeo - Photo Credit: Graeme B. Shaw When Artistic Director Paata Tsikurishvili asked in his intro, “How many of you have been to a Synetic production before?” and half the audience’s hands shot up, even he was as surprised as the rest of us converts to this exciting brand of physical theatre. My seat neighbors, a mother and daughter who were Paraguayan, asked me if the play was silent. I could hardly wait to see their reactions after the show. (In a small world moment they were just as amazed to see a fellow countryman in the production.)
A giant swaying pendulum is the symbol Synetic Theater presents to describe the inconvenient passage of time in its recent remount of their celebrated and multiple Helen Hayes-awarded production of Romeo and Juliet. Time, as shown by the inner workings of a clock with its individual gears heaving forth and trapping the players in its relentless grip, becomes a metaphor for life. It is a powerful and intriguing image – a ‘time monster’ that gobbles up both the innocent and the guilty – and it is repeated throughout as the characters spin in and out among the moving parts.
As the last in Synetic’s “Speak No More” trilogy of silent Shakespeare plays, it is a clear departure from the more grisly Othello and Macbeth that preceded it. So it is refreshing when in place of the clash of swords the only sound the audience hears echoing off the back seats are kisses. There are kisses of endearment from the Nanny to Juliet, Juliet’s father Lord Capulet to her, and Friar Laurence who plants a paternal kiss on Romeo’s pate. And yes, you can hear each one. But the kisses and lovemaking between Romeo and Juliet are the most unforgettably electrifying exchanges.
In a radical interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic tale, Synetic explores the physicality and raw emotionality of Romeo and Juliet’s love. At their first meeting they mirror each other’s emotions, swaying together as they fluidly synch their movements.
With flashing spotlights alternating from all sides of the stage, we witness the lovers arriving in their bedchamber after their wedding vows. The scene progresses to a single-beamed and scrim-silhouetted vignette of a languorous and erotic danse d’amour. Director Paata Tsikurishvili opts to play up the lovers’ passions, drawing the audience in with the use of sensuality and playfulness. Yet ever present are the insinuating gears, twisting and turning, screeching and clacking, marking time for the fated lovers.
When Ryan Sellers makes his entrance as the villainous Tybalt, using arrogance and swagger, he transforms the masked ball scene in the second act from one of merriment and celebration to one of impending danger and we see the tension between the families arise as Lord Capulet steps in to put an end to his fight with Romeo.
The street scene in which the Nurse (played by the enchantingly feisty Irina Tsikurishvili) goes to deliver a message to Romeo and meets up with Mercutio is also fraught with raw sexuality. Phillip Fletcher (Mercutio) comes off as a delicious scoundrel in a lengthy battle between the sexes. But she gives as good as she gets and his abuse is trumped in a complex fight scene between the two with the Nurse coming out on top with a wink and a nod to women power.
The gorgeous Fredericksburg, VA actor Alex Mills brings a sexy vitality to the role of Romeo in perfect counterbalance to the exquisite Natalie Berk as Juliet, who embodies the quintessence of innocence with her delicate lithesome grace. To support the dancers with powerful background music Sound Designer Irakli Kavsadze interweaves mesmerizing electronica and waltzes along with Gregorian chants to transition scenes from violence to passion.
If you’ve never seen Synetic Theater’s productions, and apparently there are a few who haven’t, don’t miss this one.
Through December 23rd at Synetic Theater, 1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA in Crystal City – For tickets and information call 1 800 494-8497 or visit www.synetictheater.org.
Jordan Wright
November 7, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Robin Zerbe (Irma) & Doug Sanford (Mengele) - Photo credit to Doug Olmsted “Evil can be most appealing, even when it comes packaged so attractively,” declares the sage defense attorney (David Adler) to the young prosecutor, referring to the captivating Irma Grese, known as the “Blonde Angel of Auschwitz”.
It is important to place a good deal of weight onto this observation as Irma, comrade and lover to the notoriously barbaric Dr. Josef Mengele, is revealed to be a very complex villainess indeed. Drawn from the life and courtroom testimony of the notoriously sadistic Nazi guard, the drama becomes a psychological study on the fallibility of appearances and perceptions.
Using archival footage of Adolf Hitler greeting his fanatical countrymen from inside a convertible Mercedes, German recruitment posters from the 30’s and 40’s, and video of Nazi-saluting Hitler-Jugend, the Aryan youth movement trained in anti-Semitism, Director Bruce Folmer creates a haunting backdrop to open this chilling play. Coupled with visual compiled by Folmer, there is stunning audio. A German folk song plays cheerfully against the screech of a train grinding to a halt, evoking the horror about to befall its innocent Jewish passengers. Ninety-six people in a railroad car meant to hold eight horses, was standard operating procedure in this unthinkable transport.
Standing at attention before a large crimson and black Nazi flag, Irma, a paragon of SS fervor and shining example of The Third Reich, is revealed to the audience. Jack-booted and outfitted with Luger pistol and horsewhip – her beauty lies in stark contrast to the evil she represents. She is twenty years old. She will be assigned to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp before being transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp where she had an affair with Mengele. Later she was sent to Bergen-Belsen where she was ultimately captured by the British Army at twenty-two and sent to prison for her crimes.
 Robin Zerbe (Irma) & Luba Hansen (Olga) - Photo credit to Doug Olmsted Barely out of her teens, Irma oversaw 30,000 women. Her duty to The Reich was selecting victims condemned to the gas chambers known euphemistically as “bakeries”. At her trial in Luneberg, Germany in 1945, she is accused of war crimes so brutal and sadistic, as to terrify the Devil himself. Abandoned by her parents, her younger sister Helene, who dutifully visits her in prison, testifies to her cowardliness in the schoolyard and her former innocence.
The script, when it is in the courtroom, adheres faithfully to actual testimony at trial. But it is in the exploration of the complexities of evil and its shifting effect on the characters that this play becomes the gripping drama that it is.
Robin Zerbe reflects the twisted psyche of the amoral Irma convincingly. She chills us to the bone when she declares, “At Ravensbruck they had great teachers! There were two types, those that killed and those that were to be killed!” Zerbe fashions a beguiling Salome, as unapologetic as a kitten and as deadly as an adder, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Juxtaposing Irma is the pure-hearted Helene played by the porcelain-skinned Deanna Gowland who presents us with a delicate dirndl-clad Heidi more acceptable to our Teutonic memory. Gowland shows she is up to the task, with a subtle portrayal that reflects a promising future treading the boards.
The “nightmare” aspect in the titling arrives in the final act when the young prosecutor (Casey Jones) dreams of Irma. Jones does a good job of depicting a man in conflict, alternately displaying disgust and bewilderment. Charmed by her beauty, repelled by her acts, he is tormented by her influence on him. Also notable is Doug Sanford, who gives a performance rich with swagger as the chillingly manipulative monster, Josef Mengele.
 Robin Zerbe (Irma), Casey Jones (Prosecutor) & David Adler (Defense Attorney) - Photo credit to Doug Olmsted Additional credit should go to Carol Strachan as British accent coach and Robin Zerbe, whose many years living in Germany allowed her to nail not only the accent, which she taught to her other cast members, but the gesticulations and inflections that were spot on.
With Angel: A Nightmare in Two Acts Port City Playhouse continues its well-earned reputation for successfully tackling serious and difficult topics by delving into highly-charged racial, social and political material. They consistently prove their merit while serving as a beacon to community theatre.
At The Lab Studio Theatre at Convergence, 1819 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302. Performances continue on these dates – November 11, 12, 15, 18 and 19 at 8:00 pm and November 12 and 19 at 2 pm. For tickets and information call 703 838-2880 or email PortCityInfo.com for reservations or visit www.portcityplayhouse.com.
Jordan Wright
November 7, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Rachael Hubbard as Belinda and Lars Klores as Frederick - Photos by Shane Canfield From the classic genre of dry-as-a-martini British sex farces (think BBC’s To the Manor Born, Benny Hill or Are You Being Served?) British playwright Michael Frayn’s classic Noises Off comes to The Little Theatre of Alexandria. Devised as a play-within-a-play-within-a-play, the audience is in on the joke…and an adorably risqué joke it is…filled with snappy repartee, double entendres and a constant stream of ludicrous misinterpretations.
As the curtain rises we are treated to a seemingly serene drawing room in the English countryside. The manor’s newly wedded couple Phillip and Flavia Brent are honeymooning in Spain. But we are actually viewing the stage at the Grand Theatre in Weston-super-Mare where Lloyd Dallas, the director of a motley troupe of British actors, is staging his final dress rehearsal and it is most assuredly not going according to script with six neurotic actors, one frustrated director and two overworked stagehands threatening to undermine a smooth opening.
 John Crowley as Timothy and Bruce Alan Rauscher as Lloyd - Photos by Shane Canfield Actress-as-housekeeper Dotty Otley aka Mrs. Clackett cannot keep her props in order – ditto for her timing. The proper sequence of picking up a plate of sardines, replacing a phone receiver or a taking a folded newspaper off set are far too vexing for her and the paternalistic director tries to soothe the perpetually flummoxed actress. However being flummoxed is the order of the day for this hapless group of has-beens who are all sweetly sensitive to each other’s foibles. When Belinda Blair, playing newlywed Flavia Brent and thinking the rehearsal is just a technical run through, declares, “I just love ‘technicals’. Everyone’s so nice to everyone!” it’s a swell insider’s joke.
Enter yet more flummoxed actors to this madcap romp in the form of family solicitor Roger Tramplemain aka actor Adam Downs and his frothy little minx Vicki aka actress Brooke Ashton both hell-bent on an illicit out-of-the-office tryst. The duo explain their unannounced arrival by telling Mrs. Clackett, aka the more aptly named Dotty Otley, that the owners are selling the house and Vicki is there to explore the posh digs. But their coitus is ‘interruptus’ when the stage becomes a high-speed wacky whirlwind of slammed doors and miscues as they try to hide from the unexpectedly early return of the home’s honeymooning owners and an opportunistic burglar played by an actor whose booze-fueled missed entrances require a trio of understudies.
 Kat Sanchez as Brooke, Gayle Nichols-Grimes as Dotty, Ron Bianchi as Selsdon, John Crowley as Timothy, and Rachael Hubbard as Belinda - Photos by Shane Canfield There is plenty of opportunity for things to go horribly wrong and they do in spades with sloppy timing, muffed lines and faulty scenery as the order of the day. When Freddie as Actor-in-Perpetual-Crisis-Mode flubs his lines for the umpteenth time, Dallas suggests, “I think this show is beyond the help of the director himself!”
By Act III the play is in its third month and the cast’s backstage romantic high jinks have reached a feverish pitch. In a clever reverse the set becomes the theatre’s backstage and the audience, yes, that’s still us, is treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the complexities of stagecraft and the everything-that-can-be-misconstrued-and-is nature of the cast’s amorous adventures. The beleaguered Dallas tries vainly to keep all his actor-ducks in a row while carrying on simultaneous affairs with both Poppy the Prop Girl (Elizabeth Heir) and Brooke the deliciously corseted and gartered Minx. That the action takes place in stage whispers and arm-flailing pantomime while the show goes on out of view, is screwball comedy at its finest.
 Adam Downs as Garry and Kat Sanchez as Brooke - Photos by Shane Canfield In real life the seasoned cast of this zany production is more than up to the task. In particular, Bruce Alan Rauscher who provides anchor with his superciliously solicitous portrayal of Dallas; Kat Sanchez, a thoroughly engaging morsel of ingénue eye candy; and Adam Downs as Lejeune, her floundering Venus flytrap. Gayle Nichols-Grimes sets the Mrs. Malaprop tone with true aplomb as the put-upon housekeeper, Rachel Hubbard rocks the eternally sympatico Belinda Blair, and Lars Klores does some mighty scene-stealing as husband Freddie.
Thank ‘real life’ director and LTA veteran, C. Evans Kirk, for bringing us this frothy bowl of sexy Brit wit.
At The Little Theatre of Alexandria 600 Wolfe Street through November 26th. For tickets and information call 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com.
Jordan Wright
October 27, 2011
Special to Indian Country Today Media Network
 Opening ceremonies at Patuxent River Park's American Indian Festival - photo credit Jordan Wright On an autumn afternoon with the sun at its apex in a clear blue sky, we traveled down a country lane to Maryland’s Patuxent River Park. Silhouetted against the deep green of the pines and American holly, the trees had begun their brilliant burst of color, the crimson of the dogwood, the lemon yellow of the tulip poplar and the pumpkin orange hue of the sugar maple. A tantalizing aroma of venison stew and fry bread hung in the cool crisp air, and cars had begun forming long rows in the freshly mown fields.
 Park Service Naturalist Beth Wisotzsky with baby owl - photo credit Jordan Wright Set on 7,000 acres of protected woodland and watershed, the park meanders along twelve miles of the Patuxent River – a picture of wild natural beauty set on formerly owned Piscataway Indian lands. At the park’s Visitors Center are Indian projectile points, axe heads, and artifacts from colonial times that have been uncovered throughout the sanctuary. As part of the site the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary with its lush vegetation and noted bird sanctuary is a haven for naturalists, especially during fall wildfowl migration.
 Primitive Life Skills instructor, Daniel "Firehawk" Abbott teaches friction fire - photo credit Jordan Wright The event, billed as 3rd Annual American Indian Festival is not what you’d call a traditional pow wow. It has been created as a promotion and celebration commemorating American Indian and Alaskan Native Heritage Month. The Maryland Natural and Historical Resource Division, who hosted the festival with the Clearwater Nature Center and Watkins Nature Center, directs its attention to non-Natives, reaching out through teaching and hands-on instruction in traditional and modern Native American dancing, artisanal crafts, sports and music. Over 2,000 attendees had gathered, eager to learn everything from weaving and archery to tips on how to research their Native American roots.
“We like to have a lot of hands-on participation and no competition, just cooperation and the sharing of knowledge and lore,” says Karen Marshall the event’s coordinator in Prince George’s County for the National Park Service. “The park service makes sure that all activities are staffed and directed by members of the Indian community,” she adds.
 Fry bread taco - photo credit Jordan Wright  Steven Hill stirs the Ojibwe Corn Soup - photo credit Jordan Wright A large central stage held two groups of performers who sat facing each other in small circles while the Buffalo Hill Singers chanted in unison to the throbbing drumbeats of the Youghtanund and Turtle Creek Drummers, their incantations giving rhythm to the movements of the hoop and jingle dancers. The audience gathered around tapping and bobbing along to the beat.
During the day several nationally known Native Americans were featured in the program including emcee and hoop dancer Dennis Zotigh, of the Kiowa Santee Dakota and Ohkay Owingeh tribes; author and horse trainer Dr. Ray Charles Lockamy Cherokee; genealogist and family historian Margo Lee Williams, Cherokee; and NMAI advisor and local Native American tourism promoter Rico Newman, Piscataway Conoy tribe, who demonstrated the art of beading and finger weaving. Families wandered around the exhibitions or sat near the stage enjoying traditional foods, storytelling and bareback horse riding demonstrations.
 Awaiting entry to the tipi - photo credit Jordan Wright  Dr. Ray Charles Lockamy weaves tales of his youth - photo credit Jordan Wright “It’s very important to have a first person interface with those that are knowledgeable in tribal practices and lore and to learn about Indians where they are rather than watching TV or reading books,” advises Dennis Zotigh who works with the National Museum of the American Indian on Native cultural events.
The Clearwater Natural Dye Group brought a spinning wheel to spin wool from the oldest breed of sheep in North America. And there were samples of the Navaho Churro sheep’s wool tinted with natural plant dyes that had been extracted from Osage oranges, achiote and onion skins to create a myriad of soft-hued colors for the weaving of clothes or blankets.
A former dairy barn became a rustic backdrop for park service naturalists and their “Birds of Prey” exhibit featuring a tiny owl, an American bald eagle and a kestrel along with other local species. Scattered around the grounds were long tables staffed by Scout troops and a host of volunteers teaching families how to make cornhusk dolls, weave baskets and string beads as keepsakes.
 Head Dancer - photo credit Jordan Wright Contributing to a day rich in culture Daniel “Firehawk” Abbott, of the Nanticoke Tribe of Eastern Maryland, a teacher of primitive life skills at Historic Jamestowne in Virginia, was in period deerskin clothing. Encamped beside a wooded area he demonstrated the technique of friction fire and other native skills while families, perched on hay bales, listened raptly. Abbott brought his astonishing private collection of Mid-Atlantic Coast artifacts reflecting an extensive array of museum-quality prehistoric tools, weaponry, animal pelts, basketry, ceramics and model prehistoric shelters for visitors to marvel at and to experience hands on.
Cantering through a field on his chestnut horse, Dr. Ray Charles Lockamy pulled up sharply and dismounted before his awaiting audience. He began to weave stories of his upbringing and the horse in Indian life, explaining its use as both protection from danger (by crouching under its belly) and its use in hunting.
While atop a grassy ridge, an archery range was popular with bow and arrow fanciers who lined up to receive instruction, children waited their turn to clamber inside a tipi. Bob Killen of the Pocomoke Indian Nation, builder of the 14-foot tipi, patiently answered questions about Indian life in the Chesapeake region. Storytellers Zak “Between Two Worlds” and Joseph “Stands With Many” invited others to join them around the fireside with Native-spun tales of how bats came into our world and other curious descriptions of the origins of animal life.
 Cherokee historian and genealogist, Margo Williams - photo credit Jordan Wright  Redbird Flutes handmade by Roger Bennett - photo credit Jordan Wright Closer to the artisans and vendors musical strains could be heard from Master Flute Maker, Roger Bennett of Redbird Flutes and well-known performer and flutist Ron Warren. Shango Chen ‘Mu and ‘Mahdi played a mystical form of World Music with Tibetan bowls, flutes and a modern steel drum called the Hang.
As the day came to a close and artisans packed up their wares, folks drifted back to their modern day vehicles carrying with them their newly made crafts and a wealth of newly acquired knowledge of Native life. We all left with a stronger sense of community from a peaceful afternoon spent in the woods sharing Native American culture.
For information on Patuxent River Park and the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary in Upper Marlboro, MD visit http://www.pgparks.com/page332.aspx
Jordan Wright
October 10th, 2011
Indian Country Today Media Network
 Piscataway Sculpture - Photo credit to Jordan Wright When the harvest moon rises over the Potomac in early autumn, it is a slow aqueous climb that silhouettes the shoreline and turns the river’s blue-green waters into the color of molten obsidian. Under the same amber moon in 10,000 B.C. prehistoric people plied the waters in dugout canoes carved from tulip poplar and built their bonfires along the coastal marshes. They combed the primordial forests hunting for fish and game not unlike the Piscataway tribes who have called these lands their home for over 500 years and whose history still threads through the region like the rivers and creeks that crisscross the land.
The Beaver Clan, as they are known, inhabit a modern world in an area of Southern Maryland, graced with thousands of protected acres of woodland and coastal waters lining the Potomac, Anacostia and Patuxent Rivers and on out to the Chesapeake Bay. It is rich with the history of tribal occupation and the early colonists. Whether you travel by foot, car, bicycle or kayak these are some of the ways the modern explorer can sense, see and relive Maryland’s ancient past while enjoying its fall colors.
 American Indian Heritage Day dancers at Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum Prince George’s County
Late this summer archeologists completed a major dig in the Zekiah Swamp that lies beside Mattawoman Creek, south of Waldorf, MD. Their stunning discovery was the long-lost Zekiah Fort, built in the 17th Century for the Piscataway by Governor Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore, it was used to protect the tribe from incursions by the Susquehanna, Seneca and Iroquois.
The location of the fort offers living proof of Piscataway existence in the region since 1200 A.D. The researchers unearthed Native American pottery and glass trading beads side by side with arrowheads made from English brass, a 17th-century English clay pipe, and a silver belt hanger for an English soldier’s sword. Currently the secret location is under the aegis of St. Mary’s College and the Smallwood Foundation, who as co-sponsor of the excavation, hopes to purchase and protect the 95-acre site.
Along Indian Head Highway just outside the Washington DC area the Bryan Point Road takes you to the Accokeek region where according to Captain John Smith’s map of 1612 the village of Moyaone and Mockley Point the principal place for the Tayac and capitol of the Piscataway Nation. Along the road you’ll pass the Alice Ferguson Foundation at Hard Bargain Farm Environmental Center where Alice Ferguson began excavations on her property in 1935 documenting prehistoric encampments through cutting tools, axes, “atlatls” (forerunner of the bow and arrow), pottery, pipes, post mold remnants revealing early stockades and over 600 human skulls in a single ossuary.
On the same road are the Accokeek Foundation, stewards of the 5,000-acre Piscataway Park, and the National Colonial Farm alongside the Potomac River with a view to George Washington’s Mount Vernon home on the Virginia side. Visitors to the farm and park can traverse upland woods and fenced fields dotted with heirloom breeds of cattle, sheep and pigs. At the river’s edge an historical marker describes the history of the Piscataway whose name translates to “where the waters blend”. It overlooks a large field with a burial site and sweat lodge beyond used by the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes and accessible across the wetlands by a wooden boardwalk. Six marked trails provide spectacular views of the river and woodlands. The foundation hosts monthly events to acquaint the public with Native American and colonial traditions with gardening and cooking classes and environmental film screenings. The park and the surrounding area are home to beavers, bald eagles, deer, fox, wild turkey, egrets, osprey, great blue heron and many more of the area’s species. Fishing and boating are permitted at the park.
Charles County
In the nearby town of Waldorf is the home of the Maryland Indian Cultural Center and Piscataway Indian Museum run by the Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians and directed by tribal chief, Natalie Proctor and her husband Maurice. The five-acre museum site is on an original Nike Missile site. “Moondancer”, a sculpture created by local artist Jim Pollack from old missile parts, reigns beside the fire pit and sweat lodge. The wonderfully informative museum houses hundreds of artifacts from local as well as national tribes and includes descriptions of tribal life in Southern Maryland. A longhouse, the preferred habitation of the local tribes, has been constructed inside the museum. 16816 Country Lane, Waldorf, MD. Visits to the museum are by appointment or during festivals. Call 240 432-5446.
Indian Head, poised at the confluence of the Potomac and the headwaters of the Mattawoman Creek yields further exploration by kayak, standup paddleboat (SUP) or the pedal-driven Hobie kayak along the banks of the Potomac River or on the 23-mile Mattawoman Creek. The nearby Indian Head Rail Trail, designed for walking or cycling, is a 13-mile paved trail one half-mile from the town’s center.
Up The Creek Rentals in Indian Head is open weekends or by reservation during the week and rents all the above equipment. Call 301 743-3733 or 301 743-3506. www.upthecreekrentals.com.
The village of Port Tobacco, once Maryland’s largest seaport and the original site of the Indian settlement of Potomaco is Saint Ignatius Church overlooking the mouth of the Port Tobacco River on a 120-foot bluff. Founded in 1641 it is the nation’s oldest active parish. Inside a unique stained glass window depicts the baptism of Chief Kittamaquund (the “Great Beaver”) – the first Native American Chief to be baptized in the Catholic Church. Piscataway graves can be found in the church’s cemetery and the restored Port Tobacco Courthouse has a small collection of Indian artifacts.
Calvert County
A few miles west of the Chesapeake Bay is the 560-acre Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum in St. Leonard. In 2007 the park recreated an Indian village in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Captain John Smith’s landing and exploration of the bay and its tidal tributaries. The village, situated beside the Patuxent River, consists of four longhouses, a central fire pit and racks for smoking fish and meat. A cell phone audio tour is available. Activities such as the making of stone tools and clay pots as well as evening campfires are held throughout the year on “Village Days” and the park’s annual American Indian Heritage Day.
The Maryland Archeological Conservation Lab is also located in the park and open to pre-arranged group tours. Over 8 million artifacts are housed here where conservators do restoration and preservation work on site. A Visitors Center provides information on the Paleo-Indians of the region and showcases artifacts from around the state. To plan your visit go to www.jefpat.org.
Jordan Wright
October 24, 2011
Special to www.MDTheatreGuide.com
 Philip Fletcher, Irina Tsikurishvili, and Alex Mill as lago - photo credit to Graeme B. Shaw  Five Stars
Expect the unexpected when Synetic Theater takes on The Bard. For as many dramatic elements – jealousy, perfidy, lust and murder – as Shakespeare has drawn upon for this play, Synetic proposes a paradigm shift with powerful physicality and radically conceptualized artistry. That it is done without the eloquence of Shakespeare’s words does not for one instant compromise its dramatic appeal. It in fact strips bare the Elizabethan dialogue and British accents to reveal the intensity and intricacy of the human condition as poetically as ever.
In continuing their fall Silent Shakespeare Festival, Synetic Theater Director Paata Tsikurishvili and his wife, Choreographer and actress Irina Tsikurishvili, take on the epic tragedy of Othello in their fierce style of classical Russian ballet comingled with Martha Graham modernism, Olympian athleticism and Marcel Marceau mime to produce an experience worthy of Fellini.
On a Cubist-inspired set tricked out with crimson, white and honeycombed black panels of rotating scalene triangles our Othello is introduced as a slave – shackled and shorn and witness to his lover’s murder. With her dying breath she gifts the grieving lover with a pristine white lace handkerchief that re-emerges throughout the drama as a symbol of pure love against a backdrop of duplicitous double-dealing.
In Synetic’s interpretation we are given a trio of messianic Iagos played quite scathingly delicious by Irina Tsikurishvili, Philip Fletcher and Alex Mills. Representing Othello’s nemesis and savior, these multi-Iagos cajole, encourage and undermine Othello at every turn by invoking the id, the ego and the super-ego, while serving as the perfect vehicle to explore the bitter conflicts within their relationship.
 Salma Shaw as Desdemona and Roger Payano as Othello - Philip Fletcher, Irina Tsikurishvili, and Alex Mill as lago - photo credit to Graeme B. Shaw Roger Payano triumphs as the tragic yet sympathetic Venetian Moor. His sensuous muscular body insinuates fiery passion. His suffering is ours yet otherworldly too. He is burning flame and cool control – dominating the dynamic in depicting mankind’s triumphs and foibles.
Combining the responsibilities of costume and set design allow designer Anastasia L. Simes to emphasize and coordinate dramatic themes with vibrant color, shape and meticulous detail. Simes’ imagination is stylish and specific as she echoes the black, white and crimson in the set, props, clothing and punked-out Iago hairstyles.
In a setting worthy of covert ops, roving Iago paparazzi with video cameras surreptitiously collect images of Desdemona (played by the enchanting Salma Shaw) with Othello and Bianca cavorting with Cassio. They edit the film, splicing the lovers into alternate relationships, inferring a reverse love affair between Cassio and Desdemona, and fueling Othello’s murderous rage. With hand-held video projectors the evil crew splashes the dream-like images across the stage allowing us into the nether reaches of Othello’s tortured mind as he hallucinates the lovers’ illicit tryst.
Lighting by Andrew F. Griffin creates an evocative and eerie dimension while an otherworldly electronica of music and sound effects by composer Konstantine Lortkipanidze blend in a harmonic of fire meets ice with a wicked cool vibe.
Synetic encapsulates all that can be achieved in experimental theatre. The collective force of this Othello is a raw and powerful voyage – a totally original interpretation of the bard’s masterwork.
Run time 90 minutes without intermission.
Othello runs through November 6th at Synetic Theater at 1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA 22202. Metro: Crystal City (Blue/Yellow Lines) Parking: Free after 4pm on weekdays. All day on weekends. For tickets and information call 1 800-494-8497 or visit www.synetictheater.org.
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