Mark Dewey

‘A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World’ at The Contemporary American Theater Festival by Mark Dewey

Wonders Rattles Skeletons in America’s Closet A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World, the new play by Liz Duffy Adams, gets its water from the well Nathaniel Hawthorne used to great effect,...

Contemporary American Theater Festival Review: ‘Scott and Hem Imagines Private Lives of Famous Writers’ by Mark Dewey

Mark St. Germain’s new play Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah, which was commissioned by The Contemporary American Theater Festival, is the sort of historical fiction that gets its thrust from our...

‘H2O’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival by Mark Dewey

H2O Brings Big Ideas to Life Good plays put people in circumstances that force them to confront essential questions; great plays move people past essential questions to a place where there’s nothing...

‘Modern Terrorism: Laugh and Laugh and Tremble’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival by Mark Dewey

If I had left Thursday night’s performance of Modern Terrorism just thirty seconds earlier, it would be easy to write about, because the play itself is really good and the current production is even...

‘Heartless’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) by Mark Dewey

Shephard’s Heartless Probes an In-between Existence All I remember from my first encounter with Sam Shepard’s plays is that one of the characters in La Turista works and works at making sense of his...

Georgetown Filmmakers Offer a Vision of Freedom in ‘The East’ by Mark Dewey

Georgetown Filmmakers Offer a Vision of Freedom The East, a new movie by Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling, addresses some of the broadest, farthest-reaching dilemmas troubling the world today, which is...

‘The 39 Steps’ at Run Rabbit Run Theatre by Mark Dewey

The 39 Steps: a Whirlwind Comes to Purcellville Playwright Patrick Barlow calls The 39 Steps “an adaptation,” and I would assert that every production of it is an adaptation of that adaptation, which...

‘Twelfth Night’ at Folger Theatre by Mark Dewey

Folger’s Twelfth Night is Beautifully Conceived It’s a disk, or a lens, or giant kaleidoscope, thirty feet high and thirty feet wide. Or a big round stained-glass window, maybe, slanted like the...

‘Other Desert Cities’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater by Mark Dewey

Unhappy Family Fights It Out at Arena Stage Other Desert Cities, the last play in the 2012-2013 season at Arena Stage, takes place on wall-to-wall white carpet in a living room furnished with circles...

‘Pas de Deux’ at The Studio Theatre by Mark Dewey

Pas de Deux: Full Meal with a Light Dessert The room is cold, and vapors swirl around the ducts that bring in air — has it been chilled? It smells like what came out of the defroster on my way into...

‘The Personals’ at No Rules Theatre Company by Mark Dewey

Searching for Mr. and Mrs. Right in “The Personal(s)” There’s been an accident. We don’t know exactly what happened, but we know that Janna was driving, and we know that Don was making Janna laugh,...

‘The Mountaintop’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater by Mark Dewey

From The Mountaintop into the Promised Land I thought it was really raining behind the motel room on the Kreeger Theater stage. They must have extended the sprinkler system and built a trough to catch...

‘American Utopias’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by Mark Dewey

A Letter to Mike Daisey Dear Mike, Now that we’ve escaped from the conventions that would keep you on the stage and keep me at the distance of objective criticism; now that I’ve shaken your hand the...

American Shakespeare Center’s ‘The Custom of the Country’ Strikes a Modern Chord by Mark Dewey

This morning I read an article in The Washington Post that helped me understand why the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton sometimes devotes its prodigious talents to plays that aren’t as hot as...

‘Mary T. & Lizzy K.’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater by Mark Dewey

Arena Stage Explores the Lincoln White House Tazewell Thompson’s new play Mary T. & Lizzy K., now playing at Arena Stage, is based on the unlikely friendship between Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth...

‘Into the Woods’ at Shenandoah Conservatory by Mark Dewey

Into the Woods Showcases Shenandoah Talent Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods, must pose a tempting challenge for directors. The musical interweaves the plot lines of four familiar fairy tales,...

‘Metamorphoses’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater by Mark Dewey

(Ten stars if we had them) Zimmerman and Ovid Transform Arena Stage The first thing you notice of course is the pool: you can smell it before you go in; you can feel the water in the air. Ten yards by...

‘Good People’ at Arena Stage by Mark Dewey

Arena Stage Makes Good People Great The pivotal character in David Lindsay-Abaire’s new play Good People, directed at Arena Stage by Jackie Maxwell, has no lines and never comes onstage. All she does...

‘Henry V’ at The Folger Theatre by Mark Dewey

Appelman and Cisek Plumb the Depths of Henry at the Folger Theatre For a long time I’ve associated Shakespeare’s Henry V with men who go to war to come of age, or men who start a war to come of age,...

‘Not By Bread Alone’ at Nalaga’at Theater Ensemble at New York University’s Skirball Center by Mark Dewey

Not By Bread Alone: Extraordinary Food Before taking my seat for Sunday’s performance of Not By Bread Alone, I stepped into the men’s room and blew my nose — really honked it. The guy at the next sink...

Aquila Theatre’s ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ at George Mason University by Mark Dewey

At first glance, I took Edmund Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac for a comedy about a misbegotten wretch whose every chance for happiness is thwarted by his nose, which looks like a noble erection. I...

“Opus” at Winchester Little Theater by Mark Dewey

Beautifully Orchestrated Opus at Winchester Little Theater The opening scene of Opus says a lot about what’s to come. Four men sit on four black stools in a line along the back of the stage. They’re...

‘We Tiresias’ at Forum Theatre by Mark Dewey

Tiresias Speaks Again at Forum Theater The opening scene of We Tiresias poses what appears to be a simple question: What if you could text a couple of your former selves and meet them for a drink?...

‘An Iliad’ at The Studio Theatre by Mark Dewey

Bravura Performance at The Studio Theatre Early in Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s An Iliad, the Minstrel/Poet says he hopes he never has to tell this story again, meaning, I suppose, he hopes...

‘The Princess and the Sprout’ at The British Players by Mark Dewey

British Players Do Holiday Vaudeville Attending The Princess and the Sprout is a little like popping in for a Christmas toddy with the kooky neighbors – the British – and discovering they’ve planned...

‘Santaland Diaries’ at Blackfriars Playhouse by Mark Dewey

Shakespeare Yields to Sedaris in Staunton You hear a lot of laughter at Blackfriars Playhouse. Usually it builds, develops, accumulates slowly, and then overflows in torrents that are hard to stop....

‘Once Upon A Christmas Carol’ at Run Rabbit Run Theatre by Mark Dewey

Christmas Carol Likely to Become a Loudoun Institution There’s a moment in Once Upon a Christmas Carol, a holiday musical by Run Rabbit Run Theatre, that appears to be a mismatch. Phil Erickson, who...