Michael Poandl

TheSharedScreen’s ‘Tape’ unspools tense and scorching storytelling

TheSharedScreen’s scorching new Zoom production of Tape — the 1999 play turned 2001 indie film starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman — is a successful experiment in embracing the present virtual...

‘Hi, Are You Single?’ at Woolly Mammoth is hugely moving and entertaining

Ryan J. Haddad’s incredible one-person show, Hi, Are You Single?, is the first time any performer has set foot on the Woolly Mammoth stage since March 2020. This gem of a show, presented by Woolly...

Fresh and funny ‘??‍???‍?’ from Solas Nua creates a flash community

There were a number of factors that led Solas Nua, the 15-year-old theater company dedicated to presenting contemporary Irish arts, to abandon their previous project, Being Here, and devise a new...

Wrapping up and rating Round House Theatre’s ‘Homebound’

Well, here we are. The end of 10 episodes over 11 weeks. The first episode of Homebound, which revolved around Craig’s inability to turn back from a potato on Zoom, seems like it took place a long...

‘My Heart Goes Zoom’ tells a funny, relatable story of a COVID-era crush

Siobhan O’Loughlin is no stranger to unconventional performing arts spaces. For the past few years, her theaters have been neither proscenium nor black box. Instead, the venue for her interactive...

In virtual ‘Borders,’ the radical realism of a gay meetup on Grindr

Borders, a play by Nimrod Danishman, tells the story of two young men—Boaz (Eli Schoenfeld), an Israeli, and George (Adrian Rifat), who is Lebanese—who meet on Grindr and fall in love despite their...

Conversations with Five Makers of ‘Forgotten Kingdoms’ at Rorschach Theatre

RANDY BAKER, Playwright Michael: Introduce yourself, Rorschach, and the play Forgotten Kingdoms in under 140 characters. Go! No, just kidding…just tell us something about yourself and about this crazy...

Review: ‘Selections From: The Methuen Drama Books of Suffrage Plays’ at Venus Theatre Company

This review comes after I saw the final performance of Venus Theatre’s remarkable, inspiring, supremely artistic vision: Selections From: The Methuen Drama Books of Suffrage Plays. But in my view, a...

Review: ‘Intelligence’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater

Intelligence, the new play at Arena Stage about the Valerie Plame CIA scandal, comes at a very timely moment in politics. As Donald Trump appears increasingly clownish, the presidency of George W....

Review: ‘Brother Mario’ at Flying V Theatre

At first consideration, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly Chekhovian about Mario, the iconic red capped plumber whose mustachioed visage has been imprinted on the mind of every casual...

Review: ‘Fucking A’ at Iron Crow Theatre

There is so much than can be talked about when it comes to Suzan-Lori Parks’ 2000 riff on The Scarlet Letter, the half-jokingly entitled Fucking A. There is the unsettling setting, the surprising...

Review: ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ at Ford’s Theatre

A sampling of the audio from the packed house should serve as ample description for Ford’s Theatre’s stunning new production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: raucous laughter, groans...

Review: ‘King Ubu’ at Pointless Theatre Company

The season of giving? Joy to the world, peace on earth, and goodwill towards men? By the time the first snowflake actually falls, the holiday schmaltz can be as cloying as the Macy’s fragrance...

Review #1: ‘A View From the Bridge’ at The Kennedy Center

Act fast: Director Ivo van Hove’s visionary production of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, which won plaudits on both Broadway and the West End since it opened in 2014, is only playing at The...

Review: ‘Little Thing, Big Thing’ at Solas Nua

The DC premiere of Donal O’Kelly’s Little Thing, Big Thing, playing now at Solas Nua performing at Flashpoint Mead Theatre Gallery, is an impressively entertaining dark Irish comedy. A cast of two...

Review: ‘Eurydice’ at NextStop Theatre Company

The hypnotic new production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice at NextStop Theatre Company is more like a painting or a poem than a movie or a book. It’s a fantastical canvas of broad brushstrokes and bright...

Review: ‘The Trump Card’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

The Trump Card, an original solo performance by monologist extraordinaire Mike Daisey, is a searing punch in the gut to rival any leaked Access Hollywood tape. The current production, which only runs...

Review: ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’ at American University

A funny thing happens on the way out of American University’s fabulous new production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. You find yourself humming along to “Comedy Tonight” or tapping...

Review: ‘Kiss’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

I go to see live theatre for a lot of reasons. I go to laugh and to be moved, to feel excitement or empathy, to be entertained in a way that just isn’t possible with podcasts or Netflix. I also go...

Review: ‘An Iliad’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Surprisingly little greets the audience as they enter the intimate black box space at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop where Taffety Punk Theatre Company makes their home. Set, Costume, and Prop...

Review: ‘Be Awesome: A Theatrical Mixtape of the 90s’ at Flying V

Be Awesome: A Theatrical Mixtape of the 90s is less a stroll down memory lane and more of a flying leap into an exploding memory bomb. Just a few steps into the Writer’s Center, where Flying V makes...

Review: ‘Rock the Line’ at Venus Theatre Company

In the program note for Rock the Line, Playwright Kathleen Warnock describes her new play as, “Kind of like Waiting for Godot, if Godot really came and played electric guitar.” As it turns out, this...

Review #2: ‘Going to a Place Where You Already Are’ at Theater Alliance

The main reason I adore live theatre, in comparison to other art forms like cinema, is that the fiber and ligaments that make up this thing we call life – truth, in other words – is best experienced...

Review: ‘Garbage Kids’ at Venus Theatre Company

The new play Garbage Kids by Baltimore-based playwright Jayme Kilburn, now receiving its world premiere at Venus Theatre Company, is a cleverly plotted emotional booby trap. The first act is a series...

Review: ‘War of the Worlds’ at Scena Theatre

Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds is infamous for having incited a mini UFO panic due to its vivid and realistic descriptions of a fictitious Martian invasion. The iconic actor...

Review: ’12 Angry Jurors’ at St. Mark’s Players

There is probably no clearer distillation of classic American courtroom drama than Reginald Rose’s 12 Angry Men. The classic tale of a seemingly cut-and-dry murder case turned upside down by a lone...

Review: ‘Wild Sky’ at Solas Nua

Exactly one century ago, on Easter Week 1916, Irish nationalists staged uprisings in Dublin and some surrounding areas in defiance of centuries of British rule, and in particular their conscription in...

Review: ‘Hugo Ball: a Dada puppet AdveNTuRe!!/?1!!?? at Pointless Theatre Company

The whooshing, passionate ride that is Hugo Ball: a Dada puppet AdveNTuRe!!/?1!!?? – an original piece by DC’s perennial enfant terrible, Pointless Theatre Company – masquerades as a simple biography...

Review: ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ at The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts

The Island of Dr. Moreau is kind of like a 19th century Jurassic Park. In fact, it’s more grisly than the latter – Moreau involves the forcible creation of human/animal hybrids – but the message is...

Review: ‘Jersey Boys’ at National Theatre

Jersey Boys, the 2005 Broadway smash hit and preeminent “jukebox musical”, is now bringing its signature blend of tough guy brashness and doo-wop dazzle to the National Theatre for a brief run through...

Review: ‘Proof’ at 1st Stage

At one point in David Auburn’s multiple award-winning drama Proof, which is currently being given an exceptionally gripping treatment at 1st Stage in Tysons, Hal Dobbs gushes to Catherine about her...

Review: ‘in a word’ at The Hub Theatre

By the time you realize that you’ve been emotionally captured by in a word, the breathtaking drama now playing at The Hub Theatre in Fairfax, it is too late to escape. Not that you would want to....

Review: ‘Fur’ at Venus Theatre Company

Venus Theatre’s new tour de force production of Migdalia Cruz’s Fur opens with a characteristically jarring scene: Michael, a white-suited animal lover, wheels a giant industrial strength hand cart...

Review: ‘The Pillowman’ at Forum Theatre

Martin McDonagh, the erstwhile enfant terrible of millennial European drama who is now a staple of contemporary theatres across the globe, is the sort of playwright whose words need little massaging...

Review: ‘You, Or Whatever I Can Get’ at Flying V and National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts

You don’t have to work very hard to find your way from the box office to the theater in Flying V Theatre and the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts’ new co-production of You, or Whatever I Can...

Review: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Virginia Opera

Few stories have been as revised, re-told and reconstructed as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. But a rendition that is not as performed as it should be is the 19th century opera by French Romantic...

Review: ‘Agents of Azeroth’ at The Washington Rogues at Flashpoint

Now, in DC theatre, video games are hot. From Rorschach’s She Kills Monsters to Flying V’s The Oregon Trail and Molotov’s Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, audiences (and Artistic Directors) can’t...

Review: ‘Equus’ at Constellation Theatre Company

Since Peter Shaffer’s Equus made its striking return to the Anglo-American imagination in 2007, when then-17 year old Daniel Radcliffe stirred international controversy by appearing nude in the West...

‘Hansel and Gretel’ by the Washington National Opera at The Kennedy Center

Once upon a time, dozens of children streamed into the elegant Terrace Theater at The Kennedy Center, all of them paragons of excitement and curiosity. Were these holiday tots rushing in to see the...

‘A Very Pointless Holiday Spectacular’ at Pointless Theatre Company

I don’t usually go in for all of that holiday crap. If you ask me, ’tis the season for saccharine platitudes and interminable carols that all serve to mask the consumerist orgy that is the month of...

‘Declassified: In Motion featuring Ben Folds’ by The National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center

The National Symphony Orchestra/The Kennedy Center Declassified series, launched on Saturday with its performance of In Motion featuring Ben Folds, is a bold initiative to counter the fundamental...

‘The S* Show’ at Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW) at Atlas

As the days get shorter and the weather gets chillier, my favorite antidote to the encroaching winter is a strong dose of theatrical comfort food. Luckily for me, this is exactly what the Gay Men’s...

‘Avenue Q’ at Constellation Theatre Company

Avenue Q is that rarest of Broadway hits that captivates everyone, theatre geek or casual fan, who has blushed at its racy tunes or busted a gut seeing the hilarity firsthand. I am pleased to report...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Raw’ at Venus Theatre Company

Among other notable experiences I’ve had during the Women’s Voices Theatre Festival, I can now say I’ve been admonished by a cow. Please don’t think I’m being derogatory. Because in Venus Theatre’s...

‘Antigone’ at The Kennedy Center

Renowned Belgian director Ivo van Hove is famous for his radical re-imagining of classical works, and his rendition Sophocles’ Antigone is no different. Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche stars as...

‘Lovecraft: Nightmare Suite’ by Molotov Theatre Group at DC Arts Center

Molotov Theatre Group’s new production, Lovecraft: Nightmare Suite, an adaptation of six of the old spook master’s stories by Dan Spurgeon and the first play of Molotov’s 2015-16 season, appeals to...

‘The Threepenny Opera’ at American University

American University’s new production of The Threepenny Opera is a stunning re-imagining of Bertolt Brecht’s classic work of “epic theatre.” Director Cara Gabriel, Scenic and Lighting Designer Jason...

‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ at Aquila Theatre at Hylton Performing Arts Center

As I walked into the bustling lobby of the Hylton Performing Arts Center to see the professional touring company Aquila Theatre’s fantastic new production of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, I...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Whenever You’re Near Me I Feel Sick’ at Thelma Theatre

Whenever You’re Near Me I Feel Sick, a new play written and directed by Jennie Berman Eng and produced by similarly nascent company Thelma Theatre as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival is a...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Witches Vanish’ at Venus Theatre Company

Underlying Witches Vanish, the new play by Venus Theatre Company (and third entry in the DC area-wide Women’s Voices Theater Festival), is a cold bedrock of fact: A tremendous amount of women are...