Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Taffety Punk’s ‘suicide.chat.room’: A unique, haunting, and compelling dance play

Highly recommended. An unsettling dance play. The phrase “sorry you’re here” takes on new meaning. It is not typical for me to write “highly recommended” at the top of an article. However, Taffety...

‘I Take Your Hand in Mine’ by Taffety Punk Theatre Company brings Chekhov’s romantic life to the stage

A matchless, hypnotic portrait of love. A seductive vision of two lives tangled up in blues with too many tough nights apart as each knows “I have no will of my own.” Are the two people on stage up...

Review: ‘The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice,’ presented by the Taffety Punk Riot Grrrls

The all-female production of Othello at Taffety Punk, directed by Kelsey Mesa, is a breath of fresh air. Because all the characters are played by women, you forget that they are female after a few...

Review: ‘Antigonick’ and ‘The Fragments of Sappho’ by Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Antiquity is in the house and what’s old is new again. Taffety Punk is presenting two short theater pieces featuring its signature integration of dance, drama, and music based on voices from Ancient...

Review: ‘Pramkicker’ by Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Imagine a pram catapulting down the stairs and the sweet instant of satisfaction that the kick initiates. A fragment of a second later, the realization of the tumble hits home. The kick is, after all,...

Review: Molière’s ‘Don Juan’ by Taffety Punk Theatre Company

There is always a good reason to see Tonya Beckman perform, and she is a superb Don Juan. Her rendition of the famous seducer is beguiling but at the same time horrifying, like watching a particularly...

Review: ‘Mom Baby God’ at Taffety Punk

By writing Mom Baby God’s central character Destinee Grace Ramsey as a likable, “trying-to-find-her-place-in-the world” young woman speaking her own truths, playwright Madeline Joey Rose has created...

Review: ‘Side Effects’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

In a simple bold setting, a man in a hurry is running late. He is answering his phone, head skewed at an angle to balance between shoulder and cheek. At the same time, he handles a slim file folder...

Review: ‘Mercy Killers’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Joe in Michael Milligan’s one-man show Mercy Killers is, indeed, your average Joe: he listens to Rush Limbaugh, he works on cars as a mechanic, he has no college degree, and (yes) he probably would...

Review: ‘The Trojan Women’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

The feminist movement has been on the rise for decades, but with our current political and social climate, saturated with patriarchal overreach into women’s lives (and even their bodies), years of...

Review: ‘Bloody Poetry’ at The Catholic University of America

So far as I can tell, The Catholic University of America’s Drama Department turns out a lot of local talent. I keep seeing mentions of it in program bios around town. Must be something good going on...

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: ‘Phaeton’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Phaeton, now on stage at Taffety Punk’s Capital Hill Arts Workshop, is a world premiere. Inspired by the Greek myth, the man-god Phaeton is granted one wish by his Helios father: he demands to ride...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Inheritance Canyon’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

How did you get to where you are today? Was it with help from your loved ones, or in spite of them? Are you experiencing déjà vu? What is the price of fame? Can you really achieve greatness just by...

‘Bootleg Shakespeare: The Two Gentlemen of Verona’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

You know that nightmare where it’s opening night of a play and you realize you don’t know any of your lines and you’ve barely had any rehearsal but the curtain is about to go up to a packed house? Now...

‘Hamlet, The First Quarto’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Taffety Punk has given us a passionate Hamlet, whose loneliness, wit, and audacity make him utterly unsuited to the corrupt and deceptive society in which he lives. Go if you like Shakespeare. Go if...

‘The Devil in His Own Words’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

The Devil Made Me Do It: An Evening with the Antichrist A dying man, said to be, among others, Voltaire, Machiavelli, or an anonymous Irishman, is exhorted by a priest to renounce Satan. “Now, now, my...

‘Enter Ophelia, distracted’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

The madness and subsequent suicide of Ophelia is one of the most famous scenes from one of the most famous Shakespearean tragedies. It is this aspect of Hamlet that Taffety Punk Theatre Company...

‘Charm’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop

I could make this my shortest review ever and point you straight to the ticket page. But that might be less than convincing, so instead I’ll say this: even from a company known for lively, engaging,...

‘Titus Andronicus’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company by Jessica Vaughan

Taffety Punk Theatre Company’s all-female Riot Grrrls tackle one of Shakespeare’s most challenging plays, Titus Andronicus. Director Lise Bruneau has created a streamlined production with a single...

‘The Golem’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company by Erica Laxson

The Golem is a Taffety Punk exclusive that shouldn’t be missed. This electronically charged, theatrical adventure portrayed by one man (Daniel Flint) and DJed by DC’s own local musical mastermind,...

‘Oxygen’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company by Erica Laxson

Taffety Punk Theatre Company’s Oxygen, written by Ivan Vyrpaev, is a self- proclaimed post apocalyptic mix tape but it’s so much more. Directors Lise Bruneau and Chris Curtis tackled the challenge of...

‘Twelfth Night or What You Will’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company by Jessica Vaughan

For the Taffety Punk Company’s latest production of Twelfth Night, calling it by Shakespeare’s complete title makes the best sense, Twelfth Night or What you Will. You know something new and different...

‘The Rape of Lucrece’: A Concert Reading by Taffety Punk Theatre Company by Jennifer Perry

Taffety Punk Theatre Company, one of the most innovative small troupes in Washington, DC, has taken on William Shakespeare again with its concert reading of the narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece....

‘Oxygen’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company by Lauren Katz

When I walked into a black box theater at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop with nothing but a bed and two microphones on Wednesday night, I honestly did not know what to expect. However, Taffety Punk...