Natalia Arias does not set out to disturb people. Her photographs may "look kind of aggressive " I've been told that they look like that. But as an artist, I don't see that," she said by pho…
"Lights!" the imprisoned Duchess cries. When servants comply, the enhanced brightness in the jail reveals " Well, for those unfamiliar with John Webster's 1614 revenge tragedy "The Duchess o…
Don't worry, Euripides. Sure, you come in for some gleeful skewering in "Medea's Got Some Issues," the witty solo show that No Rules Theatre Company and SPAIN arts & culture have brought…
Topicality and personality are dancing some pleasing duets at the Contemporary American Theater Festival, the annual cavalcade of new and newish plays in Shepherdstown, W.Va. The five dramas…
You might expect tumult from a show that recalls a deadly urban riot. But on opening night, a fierce hush suffused "Rodney King," the striking, idiosyncratic solo work created by the actor, …
Spanish playwright Emilio Williams enjoys a good meta-theatrical challenge. He has written a short play in which Goneril, King Lear's villainous daughter, defends her conduct. He has penned …
When you talk about art, sometimes you have to talk about sea turtle nesting habits. That was a lesson you might have drawn from a conversation with a group of Kenyan artists, organizers and…
The scarlet nail polish glistens, sultry and glamorous. And then, it globs, which is less attractive, but perhaps more meaningful. That's a summary of "The Better to Caress You With (Para Ac…
Poor old Ophelia had too little opportunity to lean in. Confined by old-line social codes, constantly lectured and harangued by men, she could only exercise her inventiveness and gumption ("…
At one point in the solo play "Buyer & Cellar," the endearing protagonist, a cash-strapped actor named Alex More, is tasked with serving up frozen yoghurt. The stuff he's dispensing is n…
What does a red Cy Twombly scribble have in common with a rough-hewn image of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman " or with a thicket of hooks affixed to a wooden board? All three artworks illumina…
Bandoneon player Nario Recoba could practically anchor a show by himself. In GALA Hispanic Theatre's current offering, "Puro Tango 2," the Uruguayan native sits onstage, near his two bandmat…
The eye in the sky. This image, once warbled about in the chorus of an '80s pop hit, gains a terrible new meaning for the protagonist of "Grounded," George Brant's solo play. Now on view at …
These individuals are so outlandish, they make the Mad Hatter look like Miss Manners and the March Hare look like an Easter bunny. There's the watch-repair specialist who drinks urine; the b…
For many of us, New Year's has receded into hazy memories of emptied champagne bottles and long-lapsed resolutions. But for performer and Maori culture expert Ataahua Papa, the holiday looms…
An old man's head scrolls eerily down the length of his torso, apparently disconnected from his neck. A masked woman stalks down a staircase with a mirror in her hands. Candles line the floo…
It's as British as cricket, the BBC and sticky toffee pudding. It's music hall: the variety-act entertainment that was hugely popular in the sceptered isle in the late 19th and early 20th ce…
When he's chatting about music, Yemenite Israeli vocalist and composer Ravid Kahalani isn't a big user of understatement. "For me, [music] is stronger than the biggest army in the world and …
"It's like seeing Paul McCartney perform rock-and-roll!" That's the simile that the University of Maryland's Sebastian Wang comes up with to convey the experience of seeing South Korean musi…
If you dream of being a golf pro, it may not be a good idea to use your prized 9-iron as a weapon in a Belfast street riot. But just try telling that to Ross, the ebulliently wisecracking yo…
The year 2014 reported for duty with a knapsack full of significant anniversaries. The 450th birthday of Shakespeare. The centennial of the outbreak of World War I. The 50-year mark since th…
It's a welcome-to-the-machine moment. Mild-mannered writer Ferdinand VanÄ›k is visiting the home of his smug, materialistic friends Vera and Michael, who have been lecturing him about the…
It is all too true. Someone has committed the egregious sin of forgetting the can opener. That realization prompts a diverting ballet of frustration in "Three Men in a Boat (To say nothing o…
Operetta can save the world. Okay, Austrian tenor Michael Heim doesn't assert this proposition in so many words " but he comes close. "With operetta, you can open hearts, and then you can se…
If gifts were always so aptly selected, holidays would be happier times. In the funny and touching play "Elling"" now on view in a mostly rewarding Washington Stage Guild production " the ti…