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Jordan Wright
February 2, 2020
Mention the name Lauren Gunderson, and you’ll probably get an enthusiastic nod of recognition. As the most produced playwright in America, she has been writing plays about real women whose achievements have been subordinated to those of men. Think of the movie Hidden Figures as a recent example of women whose monumental accomplishments were overlooked, and overshadowed, by the men at NASA.
 Laura C. Harris (center) with Emily Kester, Jonathan David Martin, Holly Twyford and Nora Achrati Photo by Scott Suchman. Gunderson’s play Emilie – La Marquise du Chatelet, reviewed here two years ago https://whiskandquill.com/emilie-la-marquise-du-chatelet-defends-her-life-tonight-wsc-avant-bard and a recent world premiere of her play, Peter Pan and Wendy, here in DC https://whiskandquill.com/peter-pan-and-wendy-shakespeare-theatre-company-at-sidney-harmon-hall, have more than endeared her to local audiences.
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In Silent Sky, Gunderson enlightens us with the ground-breaking theories of a young, female astronomer who, against all odds, made radical discoveries that shook every astronomer’s concept of the vastness of space. Henrietta Swan Leavitt had a degree from Harvard in astronomy. Yet when she was hired to work in this renowned observatory in the early 1900’s, she was not permitted to observe the galaxy through the Great Refractor telescope. No woman could. Instead, she, along with two other female computers called “Pickering’s harem” by the male department head, were tasked with looking at photographic plates to ascertain the position and classification of stars. (Until the mid-20th century the word “computer” referred to a person who carried out calculations – long before computing machines were invented.)
 Holly Twyford, Laura C. Harris and Nora Achrati – Photo by Scott Suchman. Squirreled away in a tiny office and separated from the male astronomers, Leavitt alone achieved a system of mapping the Milky Way by relating the blinking of the stars to music and recognizing that pulsing stars have a pattern. This at a time when Einstein’s theory of relativity had just been published.
Gunderson focuses on Henrietta and her feisty co-workers, Annie Cannon and Williamina Fleming, toiling away in obscurity. It was a time when young women rarely pursued a career and still did not yet have the right to vote. Her only sibling, Margaret, chooses marriage, children, and a life in the church, despairing as Henrietta delves deeper into her work far from home and to the exclusion of her family.
 Laura C. Harris – Photo by Scott Suchman. Wonderful nighttime skies filled with starlight and a bespoke period stage set, complete the picture and add to the powerful story of the women’s mutual support and the parallel thread of Henrietta’s burgeoning romance with Peter Shaw, who falls in love with her passion and intellect, and provides a lively background to this brilliant astronomer’s extraordinary life and eventual worldwide recognition.
Starring Laura C. Harris as Henrietta Leavitt; Nora Achrati as Annie Cannon; Holly Twyford as Williamina Fleming; Emily Kester as Margaret Leavitt; and Jonathan David Martin as Peter Shaw.
 Jonathan David Martin and Laura C. Harris – Photo by Scott Suchman. Directed by Seema Sueko with Scenic Design by Milagros Ponce de León; Costume Design by Ivania Stack; Lighting Design by Rui Rita; Sound Design and Original Music by André J. Pluess; Choreographed by Karma Camp; Hair and Makeup by Anne Nesmith.
Wonderful performances by a tight-knit cast. Don’t miss it!
Through February 23rd at Ford’s Theatre, 511 Tenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information visit www.Fords.org or call the box office at 202.347.4833.
Jordan Wright
February 4, 2020
Irish author and playwright C. S. Lewis wrote The Great Divorce in 1945 during World War II. He had already abandoned the Church of Ireland, the religion he was born into, become an atheist for several decades, and by the time he wrote this, he had converted to the Church of England. It was a long journey influenced by his good friend J. R. R. Tolkien. The play is a stark, often humorous, moral wrestling about God, personal responsibility, and who’s going to Heaven and who’s going to Hell. It is said to be Lewis’ idea of the purification of venal sins after death in purgatory.
 Carol Halstead in “The Great Divorce” ~ Photo courtesy of Fellowship for the Performing Arts First, you must accept the premise that God is omnipotent, all-seeing and all-knowing. If you’re already on board with that, you can follow along as 24 different characters, portrayed by four actors, take you on a journey. The characters leave Grey Town by bus to find themselves in a sort of limbo between Heaven and Hell challenged by guides and spirits who debate their stories. The Narrator, described as a poet and a stand in for Lewis, describes their passage. The participants are all on their way to Evil as they pass through a cosmic radiant abyss to arrive at their destination.
Some are angry at the world, while others are self-righteous or self-entitled disbelievers. Some beg to return to Earth, while others see an opportunity for redemption, if they stay. As they stumble around, limping on grass that has become spiked shards, they begin to intuit their fate. As the apostate priest, George Macdonald states, “Good and Evil when they are fully grown, seem the same.” But when he states that, “All who are in Hell, choose it,” the audience responds in audible agreement.
 The Great Divorce – Joel Rainwater ~ Photo courtesy of Fellowship for the Performing Arts The play is known to be a response to the popular view expressed in William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in which the poet imagines a point at which the differences between good and evil will somehow be resolved. This concept is what inspired Lewis to write of their final divorce.
With Jonathan Hadley, Tom Souhrada, Joel Rainwater and Carol Halstead.
Produced by Ken Denison; Directed by Christa Scott-Reed, Adapted by Max McLean; Scenic Design by Kelly James Tighe; Projection Design by Rachael Cady; Costume Design by Nicole Wee; Lighting Design by Geoffrey D. Fishburn; Original Music & Sound Design; John Gromada.
Through February 9th at the Michael R. Klein Theatre at the Lansburgh Theatre at 450 7th Street NW, Washington, DC, 20004. For tickets and information and a list of U. S. tour cities visit www.FPATheatre.com or call the box office at 202.547.1122
Jordan Wright
February 4, 2020
Waitress Sheri doesn’t seem like the perfect match for a Muslim cab driver from Egypt. She’s a free-spirited Caucasian with a potty mouth and a string of lovers who dumped her, and he keeps the Koran beside his bed. And, though he claims to be casual about his faith, they discuss God on their first date. After a bit of whisky, she announces, “In a few minutes I’m gonna be a cinch to bang.” Musa eagerly takes her up on it.
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 Freddie Bennett ~ Photography by CHRISTOPHER BANKS There is a spirit figure in the story, around which themes of religion, gender roles and the complexities of modern life in America and the Middle East, are hung with reverence. Abdallah is Musa’s friend, a fixer for newly arrived immigrants to the U. S. Through his business he makes enough money to fulfill his dream to travel to Mecca to join other pilgrims to make the Hajj. While there, he takes a boat that capsizes, and he is lost at sea. But Sheri sees his ghost in Musa’s apartment, and he reappears at critical moments as a man whose deep faith guides his journey.
 Sanam L. Hashemi and Rachel Felstein ~ Photography by CHRISTOPHER BANKS Things go sideways when Musa’s fiancée unexpectedly returns a few days early after meeting with his parents in Egypt to plan their upcoming nuptials. Entering the apartment, Gamila finds Sheri in his bed. Blindsided by the knowledge that he is engaged, Sheri freaks out and all hell breaks loose between the two women. As an educated and devout Muslim American, Gamila, is shocked to find out that Musa is shacking up with a woman and the two have it out.
 Ahmad Kamal and Rachel Felstein ~ Photography by CHRISTOPHER BANKS The crux of this dilemma is if Musa will choose Sheri or Gamila? And will either woman forgive him? “I can be who I want with her,” he tells Gamila. When she protests that he is denying his faith and her love, he tells her, “I don’t want roots, customs, traditions and family. I don’t want the rest of my life to be what I know.”
 Ahmad Kamal and Rachel Felstein ~ Photography by CHRISTOPHER BANKS As the Production’s Dramaturg Salma S. Zohdi tells us, “Each character seeks pilgrimage, albeit in different ways. Both Musa and Sheri seek spiritual pilgrimage, yet Gamila seeks a homeward bound pilgrimage. A specific common thread connects all the Muslim characters’ emotional voyage, and that is overcoming the challenges of being a Muslim immigrant.”
 Ahmad Kamal and Sanam L. Hashemi ~ Photography by CHRISTOPHER BANKS A part of Mosaic’s “Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival”, the play is written by Yussef El Guini and directed by Shirley Serotsky. The story is a powerful and passionate glimpse into the perils of the Muslim experience in America. Like the region’s desert sands, that experience is not static, it is always shifting.
Hauntingly beautiful Egyptian music by singer Mohamed Mounir backgrounds the play.
Featuring Ahmad Kamal as Musa; Rachel Felstein as Sheri; Freddie Lee Bennett as Abdallah; Gerrad Alex Taylor as Tayyib; and Sanam Laila Hashemi as Gamila.
Set Design by Nephelie Andyonadis; Lighting Design by Brittany Shemuga; Costumes by Danielle Preston; Sound Design by Roc Lee.
Post-show discussions and talkbacks are free to the public. Visit the website for times and dates.
Through February 16th at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002. For tickets and information visit www.MosaicTheatre.org or call the box office at 202.399.7993 extension 2.
Jordan Wright
February 3, 2020
How do you make a story about a woman having a nervous breakdown palatable to musical theatre audiences? First, you make the characters poignantly identifiable – Dan, a loving husband and father devoted to keeping his family intact; Natalie, a teenage daughter living in the shadow of her dead baby brother and fighting her own demons; Henry, her boyfriend committed to seeing her through her pain; and Gabe, the ghost of the dead child who haunts Diana in her darkest moments. Such a deeply emotional story might seem highly unlikely to resonate with theatregoers, but it does. Thanks in large part to the unforgettably beautiful score by Composer Tom Kitt with Book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, the show is impossible to resist.
 Brandon Victor Dixon, Rachel Bay Jones, and Michael Park – Photo by Jeremy Daniel Ignoring the needs of her family, Diana is prescribed more and more pills to dull the memory of her loss and heal her break with reality. Her struggle to keep it all together for the sake of her family, is thwarted by Gabe’s constant demands to be remembered. In the song, “I’m Alive”, he tells his mother he must never be forgotten.
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 Khamary Rose, Rachel Bay Jones, and Brandon Victor Dixon – Photo by Jeremy Danie As she slowly descends into a manic state, Diana begins to question the pills, the therapy, and even her psychiatrist, whom she once pictured as a rock star. “What happens if the break was not in my mind or my blood, but in my soul,” she asks Dan after another “visit” by Gabe. While Dan wonders, “Why would you want to remember the things that hurt you?” In her manic state questions like these are impossible to contemplate, even more difficult to explain.
 Maia Reficco and Ben Levi Ross – Photo by Jeremy Daniel Thirty-six numbers turbo-charge this sing-through with joy and pathos, passion and pain performed by some of Broadway’s biggest Tony, Grammy and Emmy-Award-winning stars. I would see it again and again.
Starring the extraordinary Rachel Bay Jones (Original Heidi Hansen in B’way’s Dear Evan Hansen) as Diana; Brandon Victor Dixon (Emmy and Grammy nominated Judas in NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live) as Dan; fierce vocalist and newcomer Khamary Rose as Gabe; Maia Reficco as Natalie; Michael Park (Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen) as Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine; and Ben Levi Ross (National Tour of Dear Evan Hansen) as Henry.
 Rachel Bay Jones and Michael Park – Photo by Jeremy Daniel. Highly recommended. Five stars!
Directed by Michael Greif (Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen, Rent, Grey Gardens, If/Then and War Paint); Choreography by Sergio Trujillo; Music Direction by Charlie Alterman; Scenic Design by Mark Wendland; Scenic Design Adaption by Paul Tate dePoo III; Costume Design by Jeff Mahshie; Lighting Design by Cory Pattak. Part of Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra conducted by Charlie Alterman.
Through February 3rd at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F St., NW, Washington, DC. For tickets and information call 202 467-4600 or visit www.Kennedy-Center.org
Jordan Wright
January 26, 2020
Sadly, the last performance of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake came on the night before press night, put off till the second to the last performance. So, though you won’t be able to see this ballet in Washington, DC, it’s worth a trip to New York’s City Center where it will be performed through February 9th.
 Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures ~ Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake – Photo by Johan Persson Like many others familiar with Sir Matthew Bourne’s company, New Adventures, and his modern adaptations of classical ballets, I have become a rabid fan. (Don’t tell him I used his title. He’s very modest.) Last year at the Kennedy Center I went totally gaga over his interpretation of Cinderella set in racy London in the 1920’s. https://whiskandquill.com/cinderella-a-new-adventures-production-the-kennedy-center-for-the-performing-arts.
In Bourne’s reimagined Swan Lake, The Swans and many of the other dancers are male. Females include the Queen, the Moth Maiden, Princesses at the Royal Ball, a smattering of nightclub participants, and The Girlfriend. As the consummate Brit, Bourne uses wonderfully opulently British symbolism – sometimes with reverence, though ofttimes tongue-in-cheek as in his nod to the current Queen’s infatuation with Corgis (a mechanical dog prances behind her), the elegantly dressed servants, in tailored black uniforms, and a massive bed with royal crest where we first encounter the Prince.
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For balletomanes who swoon at Bourne’s dazzling productions – here we enjoy the eye-popping elegance of his sets, the 1950’s-1960’s era costumes from sweeping silk dresses with cinched-in waists to Mod period minis and baby doll dresses – these aspects of his highly styled productions are excitement enough. Against the plot of the Prince’s descent into madness and his ultimate rebirth as a fully-fledged swan, they continue to be revolutionary.
 Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures ~ Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake – Photo by Johan Persson As dramatic as this story is, there are some lighter moments including The Butterfly Dance, led by a buffoon in lederhosen who chases after the enchanted butterflies with a net while creepy wood nymphs break up their fluttering fancy, and a hilarious scene in the Royal Box when the Prince brings a young floozie as his guest. The Queen is appalled when the girl’s cell phone goes off during the performance as she tries to cozy up with the Queen with chocolates and utterly inappropriate conversation.
When ultimately the Prince is ostracized, he plans his suicide by pasting his note on a streetlamp. There he encounters the lead swan who both lures him and later sadistically rejects him. It is a dance both tender and feral. In one of the most dramatic encounters of the ballet, the swan engages in a ferocious battle with the other swans to win his love.
 Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures ~ Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake – Photo by Johan Persson This 2018 revival of the 1995 original production features new designs, new lighting design and revised choreography. It is one of the most spectacular ballets you will ever witness – one barely recognizable as the Swan Lake of tutus and feathered headdresses. In this magnificent incarnation, the power and force of the dances achieved through male swans is a mind-blowing game-changer.
Highly recommended.
Director and Choreographer, Matthew Bourne; Music composed by Tchaikovsky; Set and Costume Design by Lez Brotherston; Lighting Design by Paule Constable; Sound Design by Ken Hampton.
Seen while on tour at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts www.KennedyCenter.org , this production now heads to New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street, New York, New York 10019. For tickets and information visit www.NYCityCenter.org.
Jordan Wright
January 25, 2020
Making its DC premiere at Arena Stage under Carey Perloff’s astute direction, A Thousand Splendid Suns brings to life Khaled Hosseini’s poignant and powerful novel of Afghanistan in 1992. After years of bombings by Russian and Taliban forces, creating a crisis of unimaginable destitution and deprivation, Laila’s family is forced to make a decision – whether to flee to the refugee camps of Pakistan or survive amid the ruins of Kabul.
 (L to R) Nikita Tewani (Aziza/Afoon/Girl), Sarah Corey (Ensemble) and Antoine Yared (Tariq/Driver) in A Thousand Splendid Suns running January 17 through March 1, 2020 at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Photo by Margot Schulman. In Kabul no one is safe from harm, especially the women, who under Taliban rule must follow the most oppressive laws dictated by the local government, laws that forbid women to go outside without a male relative, to paint their nails, the enforced wearing of burkas, the closing of schools for women, that a woman is the property of her husband, and many more inhumane restrictions. I’d forgotten that I had read Hosseini’s book until the point in the play of Laila’s enforced imprisonment by the man who had rescued the teenager from the rubble and now was beholden to him as his second wife. A cruel master to the two women, Rasheed denies Laila, and his first wife, Mariam, any freedoms and the two are treated as indentured servants in his household. At first Mariam is jealous of this younger, prettier, educated girl, but eventually the women bond over Laila’s baby, and Laila devises a plan for Mariam, herself, and the children to escape to Peshawar.
 (L to R) Haysam Kadri (Rasheed), Mirian Katrib (Laila) and Hend Ayoub (Mariam). Photo by Margot Schulman. Mariam’s own story is another tragic tale that begins to unfold in flashbacks of her youth, when her mother, raped by a man of means who abandons her and their child, sends them off to live a life of deprivation in a mountaintop shack. Any child who is illegitimate in Afghan society is an outcast and Wakil and his wife cannot accept Mariam in their household. “Like a compass that always points North, a man’s accusing finger always points to a woman,” her mother warns Mariam whose desire to pursue an education is thwarted by Taliban rule.
 (L to R) Mirian Katrib (Laila) and Hend Ayoub (Mariam). Photo by Margot Schulman. The drama closely follows the book’s plot, that is to say that the violence portrayed in the book is not glossed over, and there are explosive scenes that caused the audience to audibly wince. On opening night Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was sitting behind Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Afghan Ambassador was also in the audience. I couldn’t help wondering how differently each of them would process the most viscerally violent scenes and the raw depiction of male-dominated Afghan society. Thankfully, in this story, there is some redemption. A secret love story that plays out alongside the women’s suffering is resolved at the end.
I can’t say enough about how important this play is in bringing to light the horror of daily life under the Taliban. In some Third World countries this sadistic subjugation of women is still accepted practice.
 (L to R) Mirian Katrib (Laila) and Joseph Kamal (Babi/Zaman/Interrogator). Photo by Margot Schulman. Spellbinding and wondrously acted, it is highly recommended though not suitable for children.
With Hend Ayoub as Mariam; Mirian Katrib as Laila; Haysam Kadri as Rasheed; Antoine Yared as Tariq/Driver; Lanna Joffrey as Fariba/Nana; Joseph Kamal as Babi/Zaman/Interrogator; Jason Kapoor as Wakil; Antoine Yared as Tariq/Driver; Nikita Tewani as Aziza; Ravi Mampara and Justin Xavier Poydras as Zalmai; Sarah Corey, Ensemble; and Yousof Sultani, Ensemble.
 (L to R) Mirian Katrib (Laila), Nikita Tewani (Aziza/Afoon/Girl), Hend Ayoub (Mariam) and Ravi Mampara (Zalmai). Photo by Margot Schulman. By Ursula Rani Sarma; based on the book by Khaled Hosseini; Choreographed by Stephen Buescher; Original Music written and performed by David Coulter; Set Design by Ken MacDonald; Costume Design by Linda Cho; Lighting Design by Robert Wierzel; and Sound Design by Jake Rodriguez.
Through March 1st at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St., SE, Washington, DC 20024. For tickets and information call 202.488.3300 or visit www.ArenaStage.org.
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