Lebensraum
Studio Theatre

Remaining shows:
Sunday, July 20 @ Noon; Wednesday, July 23 @ 7 PM; Sunday, July 27 @ 4 PM

They say: “Using a cast of three to play 40 characters, this work is based on the explosive idea that a German Chancellor might, as an act of redemption, invite 6 million Jews to Germany. The logical progression of this artfully drawn script raises the terrifying possibility that history may repeat.”

Marianka’s take: If theater’s genius is to transport you to a different but still plausible world, this play fits the bill. Written by multi-awarded playwright (and screenwriter of the movie “Sunshine”) Israel Horovitz, Lebensraum projects real history into the fictional present and brings “terrifying possibility” into the intimate lives of forty characters with poignancy.

The very young 3 person cast–Sarah Shook, David Olson, Chase Helton–is absolutely dynamite. With minimal but iconic costumes and props, director Cory Ryan Frank deftly maneuvers them through fluid role changes into Germans and Jews of various persuasions, unreconstructed Nazis and clueless adolescents, assimilated Americans and Israeli revolutionaries, plus many more. In a Brechtian turn, each actor also rotates through as narrator during seamless character transitions without ever skipping a beat. The delineation between characters is clear in their lovely, nuanced interpretations–truly a tour de force.

One small quibble: the team should get help on their German and French pronunciation.

Even at 90 minutes, the play moves with lightning speed, but the afterglow hasn’t faded yet.

See it if: You want to be engaged emotionally and intellectually long after it’s over, to experience virtuosic performances (that includes the sound, light, and technical elements), and to be able to say, “I saw them when…”

Skip it if: The above leaves you cold.

Tales of Doomed Love (or is it ever worth it?)
Studio Theatre, Stage Four

Remaining performances:
July 24, 9 p.m.
July 25 at 6 p.m.
July 26 at 6:30
July 27 at 2 p.m.

They say: Funny, biting, and heart wrenching, classic stories turned on their heads ask us if love is really worth all the pain, shining unexpected new light on the answer. The Triangle Independent called Tales… in development “The best original script we saw in this region last year.” From veteran Capital Fringe hit-makers.

Ted’s take: Funny, strange, and reasonably nimble in its epochal leaps, Tales functions best as a greatest hits compilation. As with any compilation, purists may gripe that “Philomela was underrepresented” or that “they should have included more of Euripides’ early stuff”—but there’s comfort in the familiar, and even if you can’t whistle along with every confessional episode, you can at least tune in and out without fear of losing the frequency.

Your characters? Romeo & Juliet (herein traduced to high school sweethearts); Glauce, Jason’s Corinthian replacement for Medea; Agamemnon, daughter-slaughterer at Aulis; Lisé, jilted step-sister to Cinderella; and King Mark, husband to Isolde and occasional dallier with Tristan. The humor? Neat, allusive, and the beneficiary of a consistently light touch. Best moments: Hilary Kacser’s blithely girlish turns as Juliet, and her backtracking explanation (as Lisé) of dismembering herself (”I should clarify…”). The drawbacks are simple: an hour and change of soliloquies tends to drain, while the soliloquies themselves spend half their time in confessional exposition.

What did I learn?

• That a pastiche’s imperative is to tell oft-told stories either better or differently, which, despite occasional lulls and hackneyings, this one does.
• That the rosiness-by-dimunition of this Romeo and Juliet rendering does little to abate the consistently doomstruck nature of the piece; on the contrary, it poignantly highlights what makes the tales, if barely, worth it.

See it if: You always sided with Dido vs. Aeneas…and you enjoyed Stardust more than you care to admit.

Skip it if: You can’t restrain your skepticism when you hear someone’s got a new take on Homer, Shakespeare, or Euripides.

Four Rooms Waking
Studio Theatre

Remaining performances:
Thursday, July 24 @ 6:00 PM; Saturday, July 26 @ 9:00 PM; Sunday, July 27 @ 6:00 PM

They say: A one-of-a-kind theatrical experience, Four Rooms Waking captures one gripping day in the lives of four sets of unique characters. By turns haunted and hilarious, they will lead you from Algiers to London, New York to Havana – questioning sexuality and nationality, war and liberation. Will love or necessity hold sway?

Chris’s take: One palpable trend in contemporary theater has been the slicing and splicing of multiple narratives. In Arcadia Tom Stoppard cleverly weaves together scenes set in a Derbyshire country manor in 1809 and the present day; in 33 Variations Moisés Kaufman similarly but less cleverly weaves together the life of Beethoven, circa 1819, and a contemporary musicologist’s efforts to unravel the past. In the same vein, Four Rooms Waking tells four stories, each set in a different room at a different time and place: Algiers, 1955; Oxford, 1964; New York City, 1967; and Havana, 1975.

The interspersed short scenes offer glimpses of each of the four narratives, none of which feels fully elaborated. Each story line resembles (but really isn’t) a love story in which a woman desires a man. In Algiers, as the National Liberation Fronts fights to oust the French, an Algerian woman who’s been protecting a wounded French soldier struggles with whether to kill him. In Oxford, an anthropologist dreams of a “birdman,” who embodies her Kenyan lover. In New York City, a closeted lesbian pines for a hometown boyfriend, who unlike her has embraced his homosexuality. In Havana, a woman’s lover comes back from the war in Angola too shaken to readjust. If there’s a thread running through these vignettes it’s the practical impossibility of each relationship.

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Busted Jesus Comix
Flashpoint

Remaining Performances:
Sunday, July 20 @ Noon; Wednesday, July 23 @ 6:30 PM
Saturday, July 26 @ 8:00 PM; Sunday, July 27 @ 4:30 PM

They say: “At nineteen, Marco’s been convicted of obscenity . . . for publishing his homemade comic book. Starting fresh in New York, a chance meeting will expose his past and change his life. A comedy about art, sex, the drive to create and the power of friendship. Based on real events.”

Brett’s take: I attended the show with some friends of the lead actor in this play, and on the Metro afterwards the actor talked about a discussion the cast & crew had over whether it categorizes as a comedy or a tragedy. He said tragedy; most of the cast said comedy. For my part, every time I think I’ve settled on an accurate descriptor – dark comedy, satirical drama, confessional romp – it seems inadequate.

Be sure, however, that if the title and blurb lead you to thinking that this is juvenile, you’re wrong. Without revealing too much detail, suffice to say that at its heart it explores the emotional fallout of tragic and horrific events. That the dramatic arc of this fallout is portrayed alongside some seriously obscene comic-book sequences is what makes it so difficult to pin down.

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B-Digga Presents
The Baldacchino

Remaining Performances:
Saturday, July 19 @ 5 PM
Saturday, July 26 @ 6:30 PM
Sunday, July 27 @ 5 PM

They Say: “A multimedia extravaganza! B-Digga’s groundbreaking music with live performance and vocals by some of D.C.’s finest artists, with accompanying video and computer generated imagery. The music will be progressive hip-hop, soul and acid jazz-material that’s intelligent and thought provoking but also crowd-engaging, danceable, and guaranteed to groove!”

Majeedah’s Take: Focusing on the music and messages of B-Digga’s lineup, audience members received a healthy dosage of entertaining and engaging hip-hop. Although I was unsure when the show actually began, until then audience members were entertained by dancing bodies, moving kaleidoscopes and brilliantly colored abstract images featured on a projection screen. This provided a backdrop to the opening instrumentals.

Ms. Tamika Jones, accompanied by fellow singers Shareeta and Eric, opened the first set with a series of eclectic tunes with thoughtful and upbeat lyrics. Songs such as “Back to Life,” “You and Me” and “Runnin” are reminiscent of a DJ Spinna extended mix or a Future Sound of Jazz compilation album. As Ms. Jones sang about lost love and self-determination, I was reminded of a new age Nina Simone or an Ursula Rucker.

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Slave Narratives Revisited
a celebration of freedom
Studio Theatre

Remaining Performances:
Saturday, July 19 @ 7 PM
Sunday, July 20 @ Noon
Sunday, July 27 @ 4 PM

They say: “Multiple award winning author Ed Shockley follows the success of 2007’s world premiere of The Oracle with the D.C. premiere of a new touring show. Modechai Vanunu, Nat Turner, Nelson Mandela, Sitting Bull plus other historic and fictional characters manage to find humor and maintain dignity in the face of oppression.”

Brian’s take: Yesterday was Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday. To celebrate, Ed Shockley and lary moten (yes, he keeps his name provocatively lower-cased) of the Mosaic Theatre opened the DC run of their impeccably executed Slave Narratives Revisited: a celebration of freedom.

It is the mesmerizing performances by Shockley and moten that truly make this piece soar. I would use the word “unparalleled” if the two did not parallel each other so wonderfully and in such complementary ways. Talk about sweatin’ the small stuff: from a simple slackening of the face to an elaborate syncopating of a sermon, these guys employ a formidable arsenal of physical and vocal nuances to inhabit their various characters, and neither of them misses a beat. To read Slave Narratives Revisited would be one thing–an emotional but ultimately academic experience–but to see it breathing, to feel your pulse syncrhonize with the rhythms of speech, to look these characters in the eyes, to hear the silence, this is why we get out of our rocking chairs and into the theater.

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Poe & All That Jazz
Harman Center – The Forum

Remaining performances:
Saturday, July 19 @ Noon; Sunday, July 20 @ 8 PM

They say: “Helen Hayes Award-winning playwright Peter Coy explores undercurrents of abandonment in Poe’s tragic personal life, thinly veiled in art. Horrifying and humorous, ‘a delicious, confusing, delicate, sensual delight’; jazz, ghosts, poetry and song. A phantasmagoric ‘dream within a dream – none of this is real’ but it’s all true.”

Tabitha’s take: I don’t know if I should write a review or a term paper, but I was an English major, so it’s a happy conundrum. This is a little gem of a show. The concept of pairing standards with classics isn’t new, but Porter and Poe? Really? Well, yes. The songs are like punctuation marks, resulting from and driving the action while offering sly commentary.

What’s more, Poe is funny. Not all the time. If you want creepy Poe, you’ll get him, but the power of this piece is its emotional exploration. Here Poe is more than than a hollow-eyed tortured soul. He’s pitiful, pained, ebullient, cocky, angry, thoughtful – pretty human, actually. As Poe, Jon Cobb is riveting as he takes the audience through stories, poems, letters, and dreams. Equally mesmerizing is Patti Finn, who is the vocal part of all the jazz and plays the women in Poe’s life and work. They are aided flawlessly by Bob Bennetta on piano and Jim Ryan on bass. Together, the ensemble is thoroughly entertaining.

The play deliberately blurs the lines between dream and reality by transitioning invisibly from Poe’s life to his stories, so there may be a few confusing moments until you remember that no, Poe did not bury an ax in his wife’s head and build a brick wall around her, but that’s part of the fun.

I want to own, read, and mull this play. Oh, the discussions we could have about genius and madness, the school of psychological criticism, the layers of meanings behind the doll used in the production, and yes, there’s more, but I guess I’ll save it for the term paper.

See it if: You know a lot about Poe, or want to know more about Poe; heck, see it if you can spell Poe.

Skip it if: Thinking gives your brain an ouchie.

Champagne Sundays
Flashpoint Mead Theatre Lab – 916 G Street, NW

Remaining Performances:
Saturday, July 19 @ 12:00 PM
Saturday, July 19 @ 9:00 PM
Sunday, July 20 @ 4:30 PM

They say: “Roy and Mary Jane, freshly retired to Florida, become best old friends with Byron and Buddy in a “dramedy” that juxtaposes the present, the past, and the imagined. The play examines a late-life longing for personal change, charting too the various risks and rewards of building new relationships.”

Mike’s take: To start, let me reveal a bit of personal information. I’m in my early 30s, which probably accounts for why much of the humor of this performance was lost on me and not on the rest of an older audience. It simply appeals to a different generation of Fringe theater attendees.

That being said, there is an interesting component to the performance that is both very necessary but – at the same time – extremely puzzling, which is the “[juxtaposition] of the present, the past and the imagined.” Writer and director Thomas Stephens uses this technique to quickly give the audience the history of the shared experiences between the characters, but the performance moves so rapidly between these moments that being able to intensely focus is a necessity for making it through the first five of the seven acts. However, realizing that this potentially is an issue, the lights quickly dim to alert you to the transitions.

Once the groundwork was laid and the climax of the play arrived, I found myself really enjoying the last two scenes, in which the interaction between the characters seems most genuine and the acting most fluid. Unfortunately, getting to that point took a lot of effort in trying to piece together the addition of some weird elements to the story line, as well as sitting through some prolonged dialogue with a lot of profanity that seemed a bit out of place with an older generation (this is Fringe after all, so maybe that is why it was included).

The characters share a good chemistry, especially between Byron (played by Robert Gray) and Mary Jane (played by Carol Ann Fuller). However, as I said earlier, much of the humor is based on corny stories and “laugh at your own joke” moments that are reminiscent of when older relatives have a bit too much wine during the holidays.

See it if: You have an AARP membership or look forward to hearing the same old stories told over and over again by aging relatives.

Skip it if: You have ADHD and haven’t taken your Ritalin.

How I got Rich in a Year, Using That Secret
Flashpoint Mead Theatre Lab

Remaining performances:
Saturday, July 19 @ 4:30 PM; Sunday, July 20 @ 7 PM; Thursday, July 24 @ 7:30 PM

They say: ”Last year, writer/performer Laura Zam wowed audiences with a sold-out show the Washington Post called ‘Smart’…’Funny’…and ‘Beautiful.’ This year, Zam is back with a new solo play about synchronicity and extreme success. Can our heroine manifest wads of cash? Can she cure her friend’s cancer? If not, heaven help us.”

Marianka’s take: Woman in a man’s dress suit plays 6 one-dimensional characters defined and distinguished only by their ACCENTS:

• Sleazy Southern motivational speaker Ken who likes to speak “fake German,” and his unseen, unheard wife.
• Diffident second-generation holocaust survivor and quirky performance artist Laura, lusting for a luxury apartment in Betty Friedan’s building.
• Noo Yawk heckler and his sickly new-age wife.
• Prissy British cult competitor.

Guess what? All except Ken achieve their dreams!

There’s no set, no costumes, no props (sorry, I forgot about the little bongo drum and a couple of chairs), no heft, no “saft” (look that up in your German dictionary), only some forgettable soundtrack for character transitions.

According to the program, this writer-performer has an impressive bio, glowing endorsements, and many helpful friends, but that’s so last year. Her technique is as tight as her drum, but this year’s material is as thin as a fringe.

See it if: You are a believer, skeptic, slob, and/or a friend of Laura’s.

Skip it if: You are not, and you have other choices.

Born Normal
The Source

Remaining performances:
Saturday, July 19 @ 6 PM
Sunday, July 20 @ 1 PM
Saturday, July 26 @ 5 PM
Sunday, July 27 6:30 PM

They say: “Her mother has wings; her sister can raise the dead; and her brother is growing increasingly bizarre in his own way. How can Jane keep her family together when she’s not even sure she wants to be a part of it? Who knew being born normal could be so difficult?”

Glen’s take: Born Normal had me worried there for a while. As playwright Stephen Spotswood trotted out his clan of quirk-riddled characters, many of whom possess the kind of gifts that’d earn them AP credits at the Xavier School (wings, ESP, a necromantic touch) I girded myself for that particular species of magical realism that’s more about the magic than the real–theater that concerns itself with nothing but its own overripe and overwrought mythology.

But even as Born Normal’s contrivances pile up, you’ll start to spot signs of promise: Eli Sibley’s patrician bearing, Slice Hicks’ low-key delivery, and – especially – some evocatively staged and downright lovely moments involving those wings. And then, about 20 minutes in, a tonal shift occurs, at which point your can feel the author deciding: Okay, I’ve got enough toys to play with here. From that moment on, Born Normal turns in on itself, but not in the airless, overcooked way that reduces its magical elements to mere cartoons. Instead, Spotswood and director Ryan Whinnem devote themselves to fully imagining this world until it achieves a metaphorical and emotional heft.

That said, the show’s metaphorical elements are awfully on-the-nose, but Spotswood gets a bye because he allows the characters to notice it too. I’m less inclined to forgive the way the show underutilizes a naturalistic actor like Brandon McCoy while overutilizing Laura E. Quenzel’s prolix narrator. And even though Born Normal ends precisely when it needs to, it could stand another cold, appraising edit: I’m not sure the character of Sissy (Rachel Holt) is yet pulling her narrative weight, for one thing, and if a scene between the narrator and her grandmother (Holt again) served some end besides giving Holt a chance to make some funny faces, I confess I missed it.

See it if: Your bookshelf leans more Chris Adrian and Kevin Brockmeier than Clive Cussler and Nicholas Sparks.

Skip it if: In your estimation, the complex psycho-social terrain of the Normal-Child-in-Wacky-Family dynamic has already been mapped, and definitively so, by The Munsters.