The title of Howard Barker's Scenes From an Execution, now being presented by the Potomac Theatre Project at Atlantic Stage 2, may lead you to think its subject matter is fairly grim. However, while the playwright has serious matters on his mind, the tone is often light and humorous. And if Richard Romagno's revival doesn't always achieve the right balance between its grave and comic elements, it nevertheless features an exemplary performance from Jan Maxwell as Galactia, a Renaissance-era artist who is commissioned to paint "The Battle of Lepanto," a famous naval victory that the Venetian government wants to be memorialized.

The events depicted within the play are fictional, although Bar[...]