WSC Avant Bard is bringing back Shakespeare in the original Klingon, and this time they're enlisting the appearance of a certain wrathful director. more ›

The Shakespeare Theatre Company's beautifully staged production of Much Ado About Nothing entertains and amuses, making for an evening well-spent. more ›

Balloons. Tricycles. Clowns. A rave party. A stage covered with coarse sand. And not a spoken word all night. Why, of course -- this must be a production of...King Lear?! But banish any worries, because this is a production by those masters of the unlikely reimagining, Synetic Theater. more ›

As possibly the most opulent theatre company in town, Shakespeare Theatre is uniquely equipped to tackle An Ideal Husband, Oscar Wilde's classic that sets society, power and money against love, truth and decency. The resources of the company's masterful design team been marshaled to knowing, story-supported use —and, hey, that story's not too shabby, either, thanks to Keith Baxter's keen, clear-eyed direction. more ›

Folger's The Comedy of Errors plays out like a symphony of slapstick. more ›

For Shakespeare fans seeing their first production of Cymbeline at the Shakespeare Theatre this season, the show can feel a little like "The Bard's Greatest Hits." Mysterious concoction of herbs which creates a death-like appearance? Check. Girl dressed as a boy? Check. Severed body parts? You're covered. Woman falsely accused of infidelity who fakes her own death? Got it. Machiavellian queen? We're set. more ›

Though Henry VIII isn't a particularly common Shakespearean work to be staged by local theaters, it is still likely that many audience members are already familiar with the king's story. Thanks to pop cultural influences ranging from "The Tudors" to The Other Boleyn Girl, the machinations of the mercurial king are pretty well-known, even if some people have received their history lesson from Scarlett Johansson rather than the Bard. more ›

What a difference a little emphasis makes. Suddenly an innocent phrase like "country matters" sounds suspiciously like the c-word. A flick of the hand toward the stomach renders an afflicted Ophelia pregnant. more ›

Does director Timothy Douglas's choice to set Folger's production of Shakespeare's during the D.C. Caribbean Carnival feel arbitrary? Sure. Does it matter? Not entirely. more ›

To be, or not to be. That is the . . . point? more ›

The hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiills are aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive in Synetic Theater’s nonverbal, nonstop production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream! more ›

Never is the contrast between comedy and tragedy so pronounced in Shakespeare as with . more ›

Antony and Cleopatra is a sprawling, lumbering beast of a play — war, international intrigue, doomed love — but the best stuff in the Shakespeare Theatre’s current production is the smallest stuff: he-said/she-said, jealousy, drunkenness. When Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, learns from a rightly mortified messenger that Antony, the Roman General with whom she’s been engaged in a forbidden and yet very public love affair, has married (for the second time), she demands a description of the bride. “What majesty was in her gait?” more ›

Sure, with Folger Theater, two Shakespeare Theaters, and Washington Shakespeare Company all alive and kicking in D.C. (not to mention Synetic's silent Shakespeare productions), it's not exactly hard to get your Bard fix in this city. But what do all those companies have in common? You have to pay for them. more ›

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. more ›

. Seriously, there's plenty to like in January, from gutsy works to brand-new musicals. more ›

FRIDAY more ›

Who knew the image of Jackie Kennedy could be so disturbing? more ›

If you really must attend a holiday concert, make it something musicologically interesting. In what has become an annual tradition (see the 2005 and 2006 installments), the Folger Consort is presenting the most appealing and satisfying Christmas concert in the city. More than just a concert, it is a staged production of the Second Shepherds' Play, an English mystery play from the Towneley cycle. more ›

Good news in time for Christmas this year; the Warehouse Theater will continue to operate through next summer, according to the institution. The venue is currently hosting Scena Theater's The Maids and will have new shows in February and March. That also means it remains a venue for next year's Fringe Festival. The Warehouse is still looking for a new home. Despite the usual winter doldrums that December brings, there are still a number of... more ›

December begins tomorrow, and that means only one thing: it's time to take that special person in your life to a holiday concert. Do you want to subject him or her to the same old carols, something historical, or something really weird? Here is a list of your options, not including the many performances of Handel's Messiah or The Nutcracker, to be previewed tomorrow. THE BEST OF THE BEST: >> For those who never want... more ›

Shakespeare Theater's Tamburlaine has a snazzy new venue, a gravitas-heavy star and some looming special effects. If only the play were a little more interesting. Maybe Rorschach Theater's recent sexy treatment of Tamburlaine scribe Christopher Marlowe has heightened our expectations — how could a figure with such a dashing, myth-heavy past produce such a lumbering, monotonous work? Unfortunately, even the author's more lyrical moments can't hold our attention for this three hour-plus extravaganza.... more ›

>> The Shakespeare Theatre Company has started a special program, called 20/10, that offers people aged 35 and under discounted tickets for their performances. The program launches tonight, with a special performance of Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine where all of the tickets will be $10 for the under 35 crowd, and they're promising a DJ, drink specials and door prizes for those who take advantage. Call the box office at (202) 547-1122 for details. >>... more ›

You’ve gotta love a man who can make the “All The World’s A Stage” monologue not sound like something you’ve heard 80 zillion times before. That man is Joseph Marcell (best known as Geoffrey from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), offering the most nuanced of performances in the generally strong cast of Folger Theater’s As You Like It. Granted, his Jacques is one of the more interesting roles in a Shakespeare work that has its... more ›

Pitiable...arresting...bad-ass...shrew? Charlayne Woodard's portrayal of the infamous Kate in Shakespeare Theatre's The Taming of the Shrew defies one-word description. She's an integral part of what's so appealing about Rebecca Bayla Taichman's take on the show, a production which almost manages to overcome the sexist undercurrents of the work itself. For those who missed English class that day (or have never seen Kiss Me Kate, or Ten Things I Hate About You, or that "Moonlighting" episode...),... more ›

Last week, the National Gallery of Art opened a career retrospective of British landscape artist Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) -- the largest ever assembled in the United States. The curators of the show have assembled a collection that demonstrates Turner's development as an artist, as well as his commitment to raising the status of landscape art in a time when the classical themes pervaded Europe's artistic community. A must see for anyone with even... more ›

While no major event on the schedule this week trumps all others, there are several concerts that will merit your attention. Three of them are scheduled for Thursday night. If contemporary music was the headliner last week, this week it is early music. >> Opera Lafayette's bread and butter is in presenting obscure Baroque operas, usually French, sung by exceptional voices and with the help of their fine instrumental ensemble. The group opens its season... more ›

They’re baaaaack. The area’s theater companies, that is. September marks season opener time for quite a few groups around town. Here are some of the highlights: This weekend kicks things off with the Kennedy Center’s Page to Stage festival. Get a free first look at some of the new plays premiering around town this season. Lots of stuff looks interesting -- a new take on Kafka's The Trial from Catalyst, Ken Ludwig's version of The... more ›

makes for a surprisingly breezy, relaxing evening at the theater. more ›

>> Continuing their trend of showing only the weirdest awesome movies for free in this city, the Library of Congress' Mary Pickford Theater will actually screen an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 tonight as part of their Screening Shakespeare series. Really. It's the episode of MST3K where the crew is forced to watch a laughably bad German made-for-TV adaptation of Hamlet -- as the press release rightly notes, "is that Ricardo Montalban as... more ›