Don't judge a book by its cover. Follow the Golden Rule. These tried-and-true maxims implicitly echo through "Half Life (a zombie loveletter for no one)," a rough-hewn theatrical parable run…
The southern belle in the white ruffled gown is reliving better days. In particular, she is recalling a carriage ride with her husband, who at the time seemed unwontedly cheerful, she recall…
Like a lover yearning for her beloved, the human soul longs to unite with the divine. That idea comes into play in "Song of the Jasmine," the bharatanatyam dance work scheduled to visit the …
Cross-dressing. Romantic intrigue. An elopement with violent consequences. There's no lack of sensational material in "Los empeños de una casa," a comedy from the Spanish Golden Age being…
This squalid apartment is confined and cluttered, with papers and other possessions piled on the floor and even the stove. Sweat stains darken the back of the sofa, where Charlie, the apartm…
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1902 novella "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is known for its twisty plot involving Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. Watson. The tale also is known for its goth…
If you want to understand the music of the Austrian contemporary-folk duo Ramsch & Rosen, start by contemplating that alliterative moniker. In German, "Ramsch & Rosen" means "junk an…
Theater is a confident art form in the hands of dramatist Madhuri Shekar. Her comedy "In Love and Warcraft" pokes fun at the video game industry, chronicling the travails of a college studen…
You might not expect a haircut to carry such an emotional charge. It's late at night in a dorm room at Charles R. Drew Prep, an all-male, historically African American boarding school, and a…
At a computer in Bamako, Mali, Manny Ansar couldn't help smiling. A reporter had asked by e-mail whether Ansar " the co-founder and director of Mali's Festival in the Desert " had seen "The …
Sebastian Cruttwell is a cantankerous intellectual snob with serious domestic failings and a case of chronic egotism. He does, on the other hand, have a way with a quip. Neurotically attenti…
What's the connection between slasher flicks and the art of M.C. Escher? Both inspired Iranian writer-director Shahram Mokri's "Fish & Cat," winner of a special award for innovation at t…
Greenery can be a spiritual pick-me-up in the days of bleak midwinter. So it's worth knowing that, through Jan. 30, the Embassy of Argentina is hosting "Interpretation of Trees," an exhibit …
Checking out Facebook just makes you feel lonely. The Twitterverse is devouring vast swaths of your time. You have grown so used to navigating via smartphone that you have forgotten how to r…
The three actors barely move on the bleak, litter-strewn stage. Still, a bracing sense of velocity seizes you as the Studio 2ndStage production of "Terminus" barrels toward its idiosyncratic…
Iva Radivojevic has come up with a way to explain her globe-hopping background. When she was younger, it sometimes gave her pause. "It was difficult to place yourself " to construct an ident…
The idea of water haunts the exhibition gallery at the Embassy of Australia. It ebbs and flows around Judy Watson's installation "dead littoral," made up of cast-bronze versions of objects w…
The new composition "Romanzas de Riohacha" is not the kind of piece a musician can just toss off. "You have to get in there and pull it out of your soul," guitarist Ricardo Cobo says with re…
The skiffle band steals the show at the 1st Stage production of "One Man, Two Guvnors." Positioned to one side of the stage, the four musicians crank out their music with rough-hewn energy, …
Expect a different sound when Susana Baca sings at the Howard Theatre on Tuesday. "I won't be performing with the usual band of Peruvian musicians," so the repertoire "is going to have very …
Bullet holes pockmark a building facade in 1974 Cyprus. Young Palestinian refugees smile and laugh in Gaza in 1979. A Mozambican refugee covers her face during Sunday mass in Tanzania in 196…
Twitter. Facebook. E-mail blasts. Such phenomena may be a boon to Information Age theaters seeking publicity. But will cyber-marketing ever attain the level of high art, as a much older mark…
Can we write our own fate? David Marshall Grant ponders that question on a couple of levels in his surprising dark-comic drama "Pen," currently on view in an entertaining Washington Stage Gu…
A would-be rapper stranded in 1980s Midwestern suburbs, 15-year-old Hank loses his first battle-of-the-rhymes. The onlookers who give the kid a thumbs-down during the match " mounted in a ma…
Soprano Pretty Yende sometimes hankers after the climate of her native land. "The sun! I miss the sun!" the South African singer exclaimed when asked for what home comforts she felt nostalgi…