Out of the darkness of a frigid Alaskan winter, comes a sweet story of an enchanted, forest-dwelling wild child and her effect on a childless couple making their way in the forbidding landscape. Molly Smith directs this premiere – the last of the season’s ‘Power Plays’ series at Arena Stage. Smith’s connection to Alaska runs as deep as the snow drifts. She began her theatre career opening Perseverance Theatre in Juneau in 1979 and was Founding Artistic Director there before coming to Arena twenty years ago. To put it mildly, this is personal.
As Arena’s Artistic Director her influence is felt in all of her theatrical choices. Smith’s commitment to this particular project is reflected in the length of time it took for it to go from page to stage – four years from the time the decision was made for John Strand to write the book based on Eowyn Ivey’s children’s story based on a Russian fairy tale.
L to R) Alex Alferov (Garrett) and Christiane Noll (Mabel) in Snow Child. Photo by Maria Baranova.
Set in pre-statehood Alaska of the 1920’s, a young suburban couple, Jack (Matt Bogart) and Mabel (Christiane Noll), makes the brave (reckless?) decision to homestead a 167-acre parcel in a wilderness where their nearest neighbors are an hour’s trek away. The prerequisites to ownership are to farm the land for at least five years. They seem determined. But can they survive the brutal winters and the loss of their child so unbearable it will break them apart?
(L to R) Matt Bogart (Jack), Fina Strazza (Faina) and Dorothy James (Ensemble/Fox) in Snow Child. Photo by Maria Baranova.
In a brilliant feat of casting Fina Strazza plays the illusive snow child, Faina. Strazza is utterly captivating as are the puppets – a giant Dapple Grey horse, a Tundra swan and Faina’s ‘familiar’, a curious white fox – designed by Emily Decola. They are the perfect foil for the couple’s rough-hewn neighbors, George (Dan Manning) who makes moonshine, his wife Esther (Natalie Toro) and their son, Garrett (Alex Alferov) who vacillate between being good neighbors (who doesn’t like moose meat stew?) and imagining they will take over the homestead when Jack and Mabel quit trying.
(L to R) Dan Manning (George), Alex Alferov (Garrett), Natalie Toro (Esther), Christiane Noll (Mabel) and Matt Bogart (Jack) in Snow Child. Photo by Maria Baranova
Bob Banghart and Georgia Stitt composed 24 numbers for this heartfelt musical ranging from tender, melancholy ballads to upbeat songs (porch clogging, anyone?) – all to the tune of bluegrass accompaniment. Expect to enjoy a score filled with mandolin, fiddle, banjo, piano, spoons and guitar led by conductor/percussionist/keyboardist William Yanesh. Shawn Duan creates the spectacular stage-wide projections evoking the aurora borealis as well as the alpenglow against Alaskan mountain vistas. Cue the snow! Lots of it.
Pack your bags. We’re going to Alaska! Highly recommended.
With lighting by Kimberly Purtell, sound by Roc Lee, set designs by Todd Rosenthal, costumes by Joseph P. Salasovich, and musical supervision and orchestrations by Lynne Shankel.
Through May 20th 2018 in the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St., SE, Washington, DC 20024. For tickets and information call 202 488.3300 or visit www.ArenaStage.org.
When Irish playwright Samuel Beckett’s existentialist masterpiece, Waiting for Godot, was first produced in Paris in 1953, it was a time of high intellectualism and experimentation in the Arts. Modern art was blossoming and writers like James Joyce, Jean Genet and Eugene Ionesco were exploring new ways to communicate with audiences. They and many others began to reinvent the dynamic and break the mold of what the theatre arts had known. The ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ they created challenged the status quo to examine the human condition as a comic tragedy on the futility of life and the frailties of mankind. Beckett saw it as a fool’s game and chose two penniless drifters to advance his notions.
Marty Rea as Vladimir and Aaron Monaghan as Estragon. Photo Matthew Thompson.
As a highly stylized foray into the surreal – delivered in compact, visceral dialogue – Beckett’s fools, the supercilious Vladimir (the incomparable Marty Rea) and the dismissive Estragon (Aaron Monaghan in a master class performance), slowly go mad waiting for Godot to arrive. They wait in the misguided hope that Godot will save them from their misfortunes. As the two men struggle to define their reasons for living, the dialogue toggles back and forth between anger at their circumstances and hilarious attempts to make light of their gloom. Frequent references to nature – the tree, the stone and the bog – serve to anchor them to earthbound realism as they themselves continue to go madly off the rails. “There’s nothing to be done,” asserts Estragon while considering hanging himself. “I resumed the struggle,” responds Vladimir in a clear but Tigger-like non sequitur. (You may succumb, as I did, to seeking out the symbolism in every line.)
Garrett Lombard as Lucky, Marty Rea as Vladimir and Aaron Monaghan as Estragon. Photo Matthew Thompson.
To comprehend, and this is the intellectual exercise of Beckett, much of their vacillating emotional state is topsy-turvy – a clear definition of the avant garde movement. One minute they embrace the secular – a moment later the spiritual. Other times the two jolly each other up with a sort of Abbot and Costello routine of “Who’s on first?” – a running banter that defines the absurdity and futility of their predicament. There are times when you can imagine you are overhearing a couple of old sots at four o’clock in the morning in an Irish pub.
As counterbalance to their predicament, Pozzo (Rory Nolan in a larger than life portrayal of the inbred landed gentry), appears with his forlorn servant, Lucky, a sort of idiot savant played masterfully by Garrett Lombard. Altogether the men cling to the hope that they can save one another from the vicissitudes of life.
C. Conneely as Boy, Marty Rea as Vladimir and Aaron Monaghan as Estragon. Photo Matthew Thompson.
This outstanding production is directed by Tony Award-winning Garry Hynes and presented by Druid, the illustrious Irish theater company.
Francis O’Connor gives us a modernistic set design that brings to mind the surrealism of Rene Magritte and Salvatore Dali.
With lighting by James F. Ingalls, scenic and costume design by Francis O’Connor and sound design by Greg Clarke.
Highly recommended. Bring your thinking cap and your sense of humor.
Through May 20th at The Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC 2004. For tickets and information visit www.ShakespeareTheatre.org or call the box office at 202 547-1122.
I find it surprising when a local tells me they’ve never attended a performance at our city’s 84-year old, multi-award-winning The Little Theatre of Alexandria. Built in the 1960’s on the schoolyard grounds of the historic Alexandria Academy, the two-story brick building boasts a walled garden abloom with plants and flowers from Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. Surrounding the garden is a stunning wrought iron fence and gate circa 1873 from the White House. Until they had their own theater, the actors performed in Gadsby’s Tavern and other locations around Old Town, where they have produced over 360 plays and shows. If you’re looking to impress friends or out-of-town guests who have never experienced its delights, see this clever production under Frank Pasqualino’s astute direction with a wonderfully quirky cast who breathe fresh life into a comedy better known as a cinematic vehicle for veteran Hollywood actor, Jimmy Stewart.
Andy Izquierdo (Elwood P. Dowd) ~ Photos are by Matt Liptak.
Harvey is a story of an eccentric man, Elwood P. Dowd (Andy Izquierdo), who imagines a 6-foot white rabbit, Harvey, as his best friend. Harvey is what is known in Celtic mythology as a “pooka”, a mystical and mischievous spirit in animal form. American playwright Mary Chase, who won a Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Harvey, was touched by a stranger’s post-war sadness and wove the image from her Irish heritage into this tale of an American family.
Meet Ovid-spouting Elwood – a tippler who lives with his socially correct sister, Veta Louise Simmons (Rachael Hubbard) and her daughter, the pretty, yet unmarried niece, Myrtle Mae Simmons (Catherine Gilbert). Due to Elwood’s frequent forays to local bars with his fantastical imaginary friend, the family becomes the targets of gossip in their small Western town. This grinds on the ladies’ last nerve and they conspire to commit him to the local sanitorium, Chumley’s Rest. Only then can they take ownership of Elwood’s house and, with the scandal tamped down, Myrtle Mae can at last find a suitable spouse. At least that’s their plan.
Catherine Gilbert (Myrtle Mae Simmons) and Rachael Hubbard (Veta Louise Simmons) ~ Photos are by Matt Liptak
But as well-laid plans often do, this one goes south when, due to the ineptitude of the sanitorium’s chief psychiatrist, Dr. Chumley (Chuck Leonard) and his awkward and equally inept associate, Dr. Sanderson (Richard Isaacs), Veta becomes the one committed in a case of the mistaken psychopath.
The audience can ponder the question. Who is “sane” and who is “insane” and who is to say? In this instance the doctors prove to be nuttier than the patient. What’s key here is Elwood’s happiness and harmlessness vis a vis a society that regards him as a screwball.
Richard Isaacs (Lyman Sanderson, M.D.), Andy Izquierdo (Elwood P. Dowd), and Lindsey Doane (Ruth Kelly, R.N.) ~ Photos are by Matt Liptak
Izquierdo’s Elwood is a wonderful blend of the gestures of straight man Jack Benny and the unruffled dulcet-tones of Mr. Rogers. Other stellar cast members in this three-act comedy include Lindsay Doane as the lovesick Ruth Kelly, RN, Dr. Sanderson’s nurse and love interest; Patricia Spencer Smith as Mrs. Betty Chumley, the sweetly ditzy doctor’s wife; Tony Gilbert as Judge Omar Gaffney, the family’s attorney; Brendan Quinn as Duane Wilson, the doctors’ thuggish attendant; Mary Jo Morgan as Mrs. Ethel Chauvenet, the disapproving society lady; and David Featherston as E. J. Lofgren, a local cabbie.
With set design by Matt Liptak, lighting design by Ken and Patti Crowley, costumes by Jean Schlichting and Kit Sibley, and sound design by Alan Wray.
Tons of laughs throughout all three acts from this terrific cast.
Through May 12th at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street. For tickets and information call the box office at 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com
“Some Say Yiddish is a dying language. But I’m here to resurrect it!” quips Deb Filler, Kiwi comedian and Helen Hayes Award-winning nominee for her twenty-seven character show, Filler Up. In I Did It My Way In Yiddish (In English), Filler schools her audiences in the culture and familiar phrases that formed the backbone of Jewish shtick and that gave rise to American vaudeville. But you don’t have to be Jewish to get in on the fun. In this one-woman show, she provides the word in English in her charming New Zealand accent. If you didn’t already know meshuggeneh (crazy), mensch (a stand-up guy), or chutzpah (brazenness), you will. As the common language among European Jews for over 1,000 years, it tied communities together as they navigated the unknown outside the Old Country. Filler explains in her hilarious intro, “Yiddish is a combination of high German and mucous.”
Deb Filler’s “I Did it My Way in Yiddish (in English)” ~ Photo credit Chris Banks
Framed by her autobiographical story growing up in New Zealand with a stereotypical stage mother and Holocaust survivor and baker father, she regales her audiences with comic tales of her days in New Zealand, later coming to America and winding up in Canada. Stories interwoven from her awkward but seminal teenage years and her kismet-style meetings with celebrities, are captivating.
Filler came of age in the 1960’s during the folk era bracketed by the rise of the Beatles. Encouraged by her mother to perform in child talent contests where she sang and strummed Judy Garland songs, she finds herself at a Peter, Paul and Mary concert in Aukland where she has a chance meeting with the trio who ask her to join them onstage. She does. Though it doesn’t work out as well as she had hoped. The group’s hottest gold record hits that she had practiced religiously in the hopes of usurping Mary’s role in the trio (She was just a kid!), were not offered and she was pressed into singing solo a Judy Garland song.
Deb Filler’s “I Did it My Way in Yiddish (in English)” ~ Photo credit Chris Banks
Along with a fondness for composer Leonard Bernstein, as a teenager she embraced folk music and poet songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Lenny Kravitz – all famous musicians she was fated to meet. She shares those and other humorous stories emphasizing her father’s influence on her life with both love and humor. Some tunes she translates into Yiddish. Imagine “A Hard Day’s Night” in Yiddish. It happens. And so does a chance meeting and bonding over her father’s challah bread with famed composer Leonard Bernstein. Her third Lenny! During the show, Filler screens a heartwarming short she has written, and Francine Zuckerman has directed, on her girlhood meeting with Bernstein.
Her Jewish jokes and musical interstices are coupled with guitar-accompanied sing-alongs. Who doesn’t remember these classic pop songs? Pretty soon she has won the audience’s affection and this folk-singing comedian and water activist proves that if you can just flow with the vagaries of life, you too will find your niche. (Look for her this summer in the upcoming FX TV series, Shark Lords.)
A heartwarming show filled with laughter and joy. You’ll be kvelling (rejoicing) all the way home!
With direction by John Shooter and lighting design by Yehuda Fisher and Alex Keen.
Through April 29th at MetroStage 1201 North Royal Street, Alexandria, 22314. For tickets and information visit www.metrostage.org.
In an edge-of-your-seat extravaganza that excels in spine-tingling, jaw-dropping acrobatics, Cirque du Soleil brings Luzia to Tysons Corner. It’s not just my opinion, but comments from attendees who say they thought it was the best Cirque show they had ever seen. Credit their policy for listening to audience feedback and regularly tweaking their shows to elicit the maximum reaction. Artistic Director Grace Valdez, a Virginia native and graduate of George Mason University, has created a spectacular fantasy world to both thrill and inspire.
Spoken and sung entirely in Spanish, Luzia (a mashup of luz meaning light and lluvia meaning water) affords the artists a mellifluous, often romantic, dynamic in the slower numbers and an intense, Mach 10 immediacy in the daredevil performances. Elements of Mexican culture are everywhere, from the opening number featuring a circular garden of bright orange marigolds, mariachis and tiny robots who water the flowers, to the larger than life Mexican creatures – armadillo, jaguar, crocodile, horse, iguana, fish and giant mariposa (butterfly) – that dance to the sounds of classical and pop as well as salsa, bolero and traditional Mexican ballads. It is a feast for the eyes as well as the ears.
One of the most eye-popping features is a waterfall, cascading 50 feet from the very top of the tent. Artists performing within the splash zone offer an added dimension of excitement as drops of water reflect the light and patterns are projected along the length of the column of water.
Eric, the ‘emcee’ is a comic figure, constantly thirsty and thwarted by the waterfall which shuts down whenever he tries to fill his cup. All over the arena, amid the sounds of the organ grinder and the mariachis, you could hear the squeals of laughter and delight from the littlest ones – as contagious as the gasps at the physically precarious leaps, feats of tumbling, pole dancing and stupefying gymnastics from the acrobats (Benjamin on the aerial straps is a marvel! Did I mention he’s hot as a jalapeño?) as well as a lightning-quick juggler, the most accomplished I’ve ever beheld.
Photo credit: Jordan Wright
As birds and butterflies flutter abound, the feats of derring-do are too many to mention each one, but this reviewer was most captivated by contortionist, Aleksei Goloborodko, who twists his hyper-flexible body into knots so intricate even a sailor wouldn’t know how to undo him. I was literally gape-mouthed, fanning myself with amazement at his elasticity. Another act by five pretty, soaking wet girls in Mexican dresses is performed within the confines of ‘cyr wheels’, a sort of life-size hula hoop, and involves 360-degree spinning, often upside down.
Highly recommended. This fiesta is a true joy for young and old alike. Don’t miss it!
Through June 17th under the white-and-gold Big Top at Tysons II, 8025 Galleria Drive. Tysons, VA 22102. Tickets online at www.CirqueduSoleil.com.
We are waiting. For an answer. Three and a half hours including two intermissions later with a slowly dwindling audience after the first two acts. Ah well, it is a weekday night. And though given the title of the play we have a fairly good guess John will be involved, we are still waiting for an explanation as to why we have slogged through the sucking sound of a surfeit of red herrings. All clues lead to nowhere. The only explanation I can deduce is that this is some sort of exercise in existentialism. There is no note in the program from the award-winning playwright Annie Baker and nothing from director Joe Calarco either, so we can only speculate.
Nancy Robinette, Anna Moon and Jonathan Feuer in John at Signature Theatre. Photo by Margot Schulman.
One reason you may want to sit through this mystery, is the superb acting by Nancy Robinette and Ilona Dulaski. They are stellar! Two veteran actresses of note who, given the puzzling plot, still manage to keep us curious enough to await the denouement. Hint: It’s a single word at the close of the play.
Robinette as Mertis, aka Kitty, is the off-kilter proprietress of a Bed & Breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Her blind, mentally deranged friend, Genevieve (Dulaski), imagines noises in the house. The duo have latched onto mysticism for reasons not made clear. Perhaps to explain why the lights flicker and the electricity frequently fails or why Kitty’s husband never appears. “He’s not well.” But we discover he was working on the historic home’s electrical system. Is this a clue? To what? Credit lighting designer Andrew Cissna for the blackouts and the plethora of antique lamps. Are we spooked? It’s a stretch to be frightened when there’s no murder.
Anna Moon and Jonathan Feuer in John. Photo by Margot Schulman.
Certainly the creepiest part is Paige Hathaway’s set design chockfull of dozens of dolls, tchotchkes (a huge collection of china cats!!!), and an abundance of Christmas décor. One of the dolls, perched atop a player piano, is the target of attention from Jenny (Anna Moon) – one half of the couple that is staying at the B&B. Jenny had the same American Girl doll and is overwhelmed with guilt that as an adult she has relegated the doll to a box in her mother’s attic. She shares with Kitty an obsessive attachment to objects and the imparting of human emotions to them. Her passive-aggressive, jealous boyfriend Elias (Jonathan Feuer) is coming off anti-depressants and is in meltdown mode. There are ferocious fights that result in them sleeping in separate rooms.
But back to the red herrings. Kitty frequently changes the time on a grandfather clock and writes down her daily reflections in an unknown language. At one point the lights go out in the theater and we hear a chuckle. Who or what? Kitty tells Elias not to ask about a portrait of a woman. This is never resolved. Kitty tells the couple she doesn’t drink. She chugs a glass of wine. Elias visits the Gettysburg battlefields and claims he has taken a photo that has a ghostly image. Also, he hates B&Bs, “The tragedy of B&Bs is to be homey and cute and filled with tchotchkes.” Why are they staying at one? They insult the others’ cultural backgrounds – he’s Jewish, she’s Asian. There’s a reference to the house being a former Civil War hospital – arms and legs were tossed out the windows. No ghosts arrive. Genevieve is fixated on the husband she abandoned. This never comes up again, though a lot of dialogue is spent on how he invaded her thoughts for years. His name was John. Elias was kissed by a man when he was a child. We never learn if any of this is relevant.
Nancy Robinette, Jonathan Feuer and Ilona Dulaski in John. Photo by Margot Schulman.
I don’t think I’m giving anything away. There are plenty more contrivances that never add up. If this is meant to be like Get Out, this year’s Oscar-nominated horror film, they lost this reviewer amid the smokescreens in a B&B in Gettysburg.
With Costume Design by Debra Kim Sivigny and Sound Design by Kenny Neal.
Through April 29th at Signature Theatre (Shirlington Village), 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA 22206. For tickets and information call 703 820-9771 or visit www.sigtheatre.org.
