Sam's Review Club

Witches are not sexy. They are a representation of centuries of oppression women did (and still do) experience for doing things they shouldn’t. Creative Cauldron’s new production of Witch , part of their Bold New Works for Intimate Stages initiative, simultaneously educates audiences of the injustices “witches” throughout history face while paralleling the tales with modern struggles for equality. The evening is largely a success, revealing the ways this once deadly moniker can be a beacon of girl power for the 21st century. With America at a crossroads for gender equality, works like this are essential in sparking conversations necessary for our society’s advancement. The musical employs a simple frame story to propel the evening’s action. Seven women gather at the first Women's March in 2017. Three generations are present: Marie, Fiona, and MAry are accompanied by their mothers Destiny, Molly, and Maggie. To round out the group, Maggie's mother, Becky, tags ...

Ro Boddie(Willie), Craig Wallace (Sam) and Nick Fruit (Hally) in Master Harold... And the Boys at Round House Theatre. Photo by Kaley Etzkorn. Athol Fugard is one of the most difficult modern playwrights. His shows are largely punctuated by blunt dialogue, devoid of noticeable metaphor, and rely on the creation of highly realistic scene scapes defined oftentimes by the most mundane. None of his works exemplifies this style more than his most famous work, Master Harold… And the Boys . This is what makes Master Harold such a challenging work. Round House Theatre’s new revival, which opened Monday in Bethesda, tries hard but doesn’t prove up to the challenge of this dense work. A semi-autobiographical work, Master Harold chronicles a rainy afternoon spent between a white South African youth and the two black men who work his mother’s tea shop. Master Harold, affectionately known as Hally, searches for anything to distract him from the boring school work placed in fron...

Yesenia Iglesias, Lisa Hodsoll, Keith Irby and Teresa Spencer in The Caucasian Chalk Circle Photo by Daniel Schwartz Allegorical works are becoming more atypical during the age of Trump. For modern playwrights, it's easier to bluntly educate audiences (a la Arena Stage's Sovereignty ), attack leaders (Mosaic Theatre's Vicuña ), or explicitly advocate for change (Signature's 4,380 Nights ). Burying meaning behind complex, and often ridiculous, stories can make underlying themes more difficult to parse for audience members. This proves a double-edged sword, however, as complex allegories give audiences a reason to dissect and discuss what has unfolded in front of them. Constellation Theatre Company's new production of Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle isn't perfect. It is undoubtedly a celebration of what smart allegory can be. As this small theater company stretches itself to the limits to ensure they do Brecht's seminal work just...

Karen Malina White and Gilbert Glenn Brown in The Mountatintop . Photo by Kirk Richard Smith. "We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop... And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land." Martin Luther King, Jr. declared that statement almost exactly 50 years ago on April 3, 1968. His words, a confident assessment on the future of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, echo with the same power as when he bellowed them all those years ago. Dr. King never made it to the promised land, having been assassinated only one day after his "Mountaintop" speech. His spirit, however, lives on beautifully in Katori Hall's play The Mountaintop at George Mason University's Center for the Arts on Saturday, April 14 as part of Los Angeles Theatre Works...

Shoot the Moon . Photo by Rahi Rezvani. There is something profound about the simple. Such is the driving force behind the Nederlands Dans Theater’s (NDT) program currently playing at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Three shockingly different dances fill this two hour program and, while the dancers wrap themselves about in complex positions regularly, the emotions portrayed are always simple and translate brilliantly. Artistic Directors Paul Lightfoot and Sol León are to be commended for their diverse and cutting-edge selections. The first piece moves the audience before the curtain even rises. Set to a Philip Glass piece, movement II from Tirol Concerto , the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra elevates the orchestrations to great heights. Such highs are only complimented when the curtain rises to reveal a simplistic facade of a room interior. It could be any room anywhere, and thus the audience is transported to whatever location they have felt the longi...

The Paper Dolls... All dolled up. Photo by Stan Barouh. If you’ve ever thought what it would be like to cross an episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race with a searing Middle East drama and put all of the action to pop hits of the early aughts, Paper Dolls the perfect show for you. Mosaic Theater Company’s newest entry to their Voices from a Changing Middle East cycle is a delightful piece of sheer entertainment. The show unfortunately tries to cover too many topics, however, and is thus unable to reach the dramatic heights some of its subject matter calls for. Based on the award-winning 2006 Israeli documentary of the same name, Paper Dolls reveals the world of five gay male Filipino nurses in Tel Aviv who care for elderly Orthodox and Chasidic men six days a week. On the seventh day? They become the Paper Dolls and headline their very own drag show. At one such performance, the group is spotted by a young gay documentarian, Etai (John Bambery, who does good work with a thinl...