DC

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Macbeth in the Basement’

William Shakespeare serves as playwright Annie Bryan’s inspiration for Dodgeball Theatre’s Macbeth in the Basement, directed by Talley Murphy. The show features only five actors and a limited set, and...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘BRYCE: Hydrogen Blonde’

Bryce walks onstage wearing a sequined jacket and spandex jumpsuit. He’s backed by two phenomenal dancers, Nia Calloway and Zhane’ Davis Smith. His first original pop song, Best Diq blasts through the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ’12 Steps’

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and Richard Sautter feels fine – well, fine enough to express his internal afflictions with addiction on a miniscule stage. At the Argonaut Tavern, bar...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Lil’ Women: a rap musical’

Are you searching for a 19th century story set to 21st century hip-hop, but not willing to cough up thousands of dollars for Hamilton tickets? Lil’ Women: a rap musical may be exactly what you’re...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘One Man Romeo’

The young actor and rapper Darius McCall fell so much in love with the role of Romeo that he longed to bring the character to life, by himself, alone on stage with but Shakespeare’s words and his own...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Let Trump Be Trump’

Imagine, if you can, that it is July 2017 and Donald J. Trump has been elected as the 45th President of the United States. While some of you might find that prospect wonderful and others horrifying,...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Rapists and Drug Dealers’

This surreal drama, by Tim Chamberlain, is a combination of modern dance and theater. The play opens with the attempted murder of WOMAN by MAN. She is able to thwart his attempt with the help of two...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Play Cupid’

New Game Theatre has created a show to satisfy the matchmaking itch in even your most meddling friend. In Play Cupid the actors relinquish their power and the audience takes control. There was a...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Wash Over You’

Get ready for a distinctly American piece of multi-media artistry told in choreography, text and video projections by Artistic Director Jane Franklin of Jane Franklin Dance in Arlington, Va. With...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Death Be Not Loud!’

Susan Jackson’s new play, Death Be Not Loud—produced by the Southern Railroad Theatre Company and billed as “a contemporary Southern comedy”—is a sweet reflection on love and loss, featuring two...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Hello|Brother’

Edgy, experimental, and often uncomfortable, Annexus Theatre’s production of Hello|Brother is the quintessential Fringe experience. Written and directed by Solomon HaileSelassie, the companion plays...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Once Upon a Bedtime’

The Silver Finch Arts Collective is back at the Fringe Festival with their first children’s show: Once Upon a Bedtime. But what a sophisticated children’s show! Five skilled musicians lead a cast of...

2016 Capital Fringe Review ‘…and a Ghost Grrl’

The King’s Players are presenting an exploration of modern love and supernatural forces, by Founding Artistic Director Timothy R. King, at the Trinidad Theatre for the 2016 Capital Fringe Festival....

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Color Theory’

Magic: The Gathering, a trading card game representing epic battles between wizards, has an estimated 20 million active players worldwide. Judging from the enthusiastic reaction of the audience at the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Before the Lights Go Up’

Bucky Mitchell, Jr. presents an intelligently written and thought-provoking new play at the Upstairs Theatre of the Logan Fringe Arts Space, a comedy reminiscent of the cerebral metatheatrical work of...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘PowerPlays’

This clever play is composed of five vignettes with a talented cast and minimalist stage, written by ‘The Gang of Five’: Marilyn Bennett, J T Caruso, Dimitri Neos, Michelle Rago, and Sarah Dimont...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Ain’t That Rich’

In Ain’t that Rich, California-based writer and comedian Kate Robards delivers a dazzling solo performance, one as mesmerizing and powerful as it is funny. The show is now making its debut at the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Hunt’

Jean P. Bordewich’s political drama Hunt turns back the clock to a divisive time in American politics – the early 1950s of Joseph McCarthy – but the characters and issues resonate in today’s political...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Connectivity/Complexity’

Errant Movement took to the stage of Gallaudet University’s Elstad Auditorium on ‘opening night’ of the Capital Fringe 2016 festival, with sole responsibility handed to the talented workings of seven...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘SuperNOVA’

SuperNOVA, a political satire fit for the ridiculous times we find ourselves in, combines music and millennial wit to great effect as it depicts a new secessionist frenzy gripping northern Virginia...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘JUICED’

JUICED, directed by and staring the three members of Tia Nina (Leah Curran Moon, Ilana Silverstein, and Lisi Stoessel) is weird. It is ridiculous. It ignores all theatrical and performative...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Complexity: A One Woman Show’

It’s a typical love story, but with more rejection. In the Whit West Theatre Company’s musical, Complexity: A One Woman Show, directed by Ileana Fortuno and choreographed by Katie Kiessling, Beth...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Kick Before You Drown’

A solid show with impressive acrobatics, Kick Before You Drown presents Cirque which will easily please fans of the genre. It is important to note that Kick Before You Drown is as different from a...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Glacier: a climate change ballet’

Midway through Glacier: a climate change ballet, a lone dancer, Therese Gahl, glided onto the stage. Costumed in a vibrant blue tutu, her long legs and arms and their deep earth tones, she captured...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Immaculate Big Bang’

No cosmic question is too challenging to escape the laser wit of Bill Santiago. In The Immaculate Big Bang, which he wrote and performs, Santiago ruminates across a philosophical spectrum ranging from...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Different, Damaged, Damned’

The short but powerful Different, Damaged, Damned explores the relationship and resentments between a father Ralph (Jeremy Keith Hunter) and his high-school age son Chamuel (Austin Farrow). Written by...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The DOMA Diaries’

Thrilling progressive history and the trajectory of societal forces colliding with basic human rights is delineated through the prism of three couples who are fighting for their dignity as LGBTQ...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Greatest Science Fiction Show (No One’s Ever Seen)’

The Greatest Science Fiction Show (No One’s Ever Seen) delivers a riotous parody of classic science fiction and pop culture. Hilarious, and a must-see for anyone who considers themselves fans of...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Perfect Liars Club’

If you’ve never been to a storytelling show before, hold on to your hats. Perfect Liars Club—directed loosely and hilariously by Cara Foran & Pierce McManus for the 2016 Capital Fringe Festival—is the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘I Found That The Sun Will Rise Tomorrow’

Anna Snapp gives a robust, witty, and protean performance in this genuinely candid and insightful solo theater piece. Self-authored, and based on her own life, I Found That the Sun Will Rise Tomorrow...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘In a Day of Dreary’

In a Day of Dreary, written and directed by Henry Ragan, explores one day in the life of a charming and perpetually frustrated girl named, yes, Dreary. Ragan, who also plays Dreary’s boyfriend in the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Tragedy of Mario and Juliet’

The Tragedy of Mario and Juliet, presented by Dead Cat Productions/Wayne Nicolosi (as well as written and directed by Nicolosi), reinvents well-known Shakespearean characters and plots to explore some...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Petunia and Chicken’

I have never started a Fringe with such joy. The cause of that joy is kids’-show-in-disguise Petunia and Chicken, the brainchild of Animal Engine (husband and wife team Carrie Brown and Karim...

Capital Fringe Preview #50: ‘H5x7’ by William Shakespeare, Adapted and Directed by Kevin O’Connell

Capital Fringe Preview: H5x7 by William Shakespeare, adapted and directed by Kevin O’Connell “Suppose within the girdles of these walls,” begins Shakespeare’s Henry V, “Are now confined two mighty...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Real World: Kabul’

The Real World: Kabul is a comedy based on real events of three American writers who traveled to Afghanistan in 2009 to write, of all things, a soap opera for the Muslim world’s “biggest media mogul.”...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Golden Smile’

It is probably not a good idea, near the end of a maniacally inscrutable and incessantly unfunny musical, to have one character sing, apropos the show, “It’s over! It’s done!” and then have another...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #49: ‘The Tragedy of Mario and Juliet’ by Wayne Nicolosi

From the Author Wayne Nicolosi: Growing up in New Jersey, every day was filled with natural, working-class comedians and poets. Whether mowing lawns, fixing cars or sitting at the bar, they told...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #48: ‘Coping’ by Jacob Marx Rice

Award-winning new play examines the heartbreak and humor of death. The story of Coping began with a tragedy; a friend of Playwright Jacob Marx Rice, who had been struggling with depression for years,...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #47: ‘Death Be Not Loud!’ by Susan Jackson

Southern Railroad Theatre Company presents: DEATH BE NOT LOUD! (a contemporary Southern comedy) By Susan Jackson as part of the 11th Annual Capital Fringe Festival Southern Railroad Theatre Company...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #46: ’22 Boom!’: 5 Questions with ’22 Boom!’ Playwright Miranda Rose Hall by Angela Kay Pirko and Miranda Rose Hall

5 Questions with 22 Boom! playwright Miranda Rose Hall by Angela Kay Pirko and Miranda Rose Hall Angela: What was the inspiration for 22 Boom! Miranda: It was a compilation of plays that I wrote on...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #45: ‘Let Trump Be Trump’ by Kendall Helblig

Trump’s Theatrics Play Out On The Fringe Festival Stage Believe it or not, John Krizel had the idea and title for his play Let Trump Be Trump months before the slogan, a wink to The West Wing wonks,...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #44: ‘Romanov’ by Danny Baird

They may be dead, but the Romanov sisters aren’t letting that slow them down! They’re back and taking the world by storm with a electro-pop concert that sets the record straight on their little part...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #43: ‘Do Not Disturb’ by Carla Rountree

What happens when you combine opera with an episode of Frasier? You get a comedy of operatic proportions. You get Do Not Disturb, which will be presented by The Forgotten Opera Company in this year’s...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #42: ‘One Mutual Happiness’ by David S. Kessler

What is One Mutual Happiness? Take one totally unqualified wedding officiant, toss in an innovative composer, mix with four weddings and one prolonged illness. Add a generous scoop or two of laughs...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #41: ‘Perfect Liars Club’ by Pierce McManus

Perfect Liars Club: The Smash Hit Storytelling Interrogation Returns to Capital Fringe “…storytelling at its finest — honest.” — The Washington Post Maybe you’ve been to a storytelling show before,...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #40: ‘It Will All Make Sense in the Morning’ by Patrick Miller

We knew it had to be the blood eggs. When you’re only given four minutes to present your play at the Fringe Preview night, it focuses you. You’ve been immersed in a rich, funny, tragic, touching...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #39: ‘The Greatest Science Fiction Show (no one’s ever seen)’ by Pamela Leahigh

Take a trip with us through time and space! Grain of Sand Theatre, winner of the Capital Fringe Festival’s Best Drama Awards in 2011 and 2013, returns to the Capital Fringe Festival with The Greatest...

A Report on Last Night’s ‘A Capitol Fourth’ Rehearsal

What do you get when you combine Smokey Robinson, Gavin DeGraw, Kenny Loggins, Team USA Olympians, the National Symphony Orchestra, and more? The incredible production of A Capitol Fourth produced by...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #38: ‘Poe, Times Two’ by Richard Byrne

The life of Edgar Allan Poe is a subject of endless and fascinated discussion and debate. But at the core of our fascination with Poe is the work itself – his poems, and literary criticism, and most...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #36: ‘Kick Before You Drown’ by Jessica John

Steal A Step World Premieres Kick Before You Drown at the Capital Fringe Festival on July 7-14, 2016 Genre-bending company debuts a provocative show melding contemporary circus and performance art...