DC Metro Spotlight: August 2007
The nation’s capital can turn into a tropical ghost town during the August swelter, but there are a couple of notable productions to make sure the folks stay around — or at least come back before the month’s end.
Moisés Kaufman, creator of The Laramie Project, has a new play at Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theatre entitled 33 Variations (August 24-September 30). The acclaimed playwright-director weaves together Beethoven’s obsessive writing of 33 variations on a Diabelli waltz with the struggle of a contemporary musicologist who is attempting to explain the great composer’s fascination with an “insignificant” piece of music.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company gets a jump on the season with The Unmentionables (August 27-September 23), Bruce Norris’ satire about the clashes between an idiosyncratic group of zealous American do-gooders and the residents of an African village.
Open Circle Theater, which integrates artists with disabilities into uniquely produced plays and musicals, is putting a timely twist on Jason Robert Brown’s musical revue Songs for a New World (Round House Theatre’s Silver Spring annex, August 4-29). Using music that encompasses pop, gospel, jazz, and classical themes, Brown introduces characters and scenes ranging from a Spanish sailing ship in 1492 to a ledge 57 stories above modern Fifth Avenue. However, director Suzanne Richard explains the show has been “rearranged” to tell the story of two soldiers serving in Iraq and their families at home, with choreography provided by the cutting-edge Liz Lerman Dance Exchange.
Taffety Punk Theatre Company’s own Marcus Kyd has apparently been doing some supernatural Googling of late, and he has compiled texts both ancient and contemporary to profile the baddest boy around. The result is the world premiere of The Devil in His Own Words (Flashpoint Mead Theatre Lab, August 10-26), which promises to “probe the darkest limits of our dreams.” Kathy Cashel has provided music, while Taffety Punk’s Lisa Bruneau directs.
Longacre Lea Productions is delving into the work of British playwright Harold Pinter with its production of The Hothouse at Catholic University’s Callan Theatre (August 15-September 9). The play is a peevish black comedy that takes on bureaucratic bungling in a state-run hospital where nonconformists are classified as mental patients.
Bruce Ward’s Lazarus Syndrome (H Street Theatre, August 16-September 9) is rising again, courtesy of Theater Alliance. The recent comedy from the Boston playwright is about a solitude-loving man whose peace and quiet is destroyed by unexpected guests.
Finally, Washington Shakespeare Company crosses the Potomac from its home base in Arlington to the Playbill Café on 14th Street for Noel Coward’s sparkling comedy Private Lives (August 16-September 23).
