How can you make a 300-year-old French farce that loses something in translation accessible to a modern English-speaking audience? For the Shakespeare Theatre, the solution is to simply re-write it with that audience in mind, and it works out quite nicely. more ›

The Merchant of Venice remains a challenging work for modern audiences, largely because it's so difficult to suss out exactly how Shakespeare meant it. Subtleties of interpretation can cause the work to swing wildly between poles of anti-semetism and religious/ethnic tolerance, and that's without even getting into the secondary point of contention, regarding whether two of the main male characters love each other in a more than brotherly way. more ›

Watching the Shakepeare Theatre's new production of Harold Pinter's Old Times is a little like watching a life-size shoebox diorama. Designer Walt Spangler's set, lit with a cinematic eye by Scott Zielinski, turns the stage of the Lansburgh Theatre into a rigidly-defined rectangle, with white walls, ceiling, and floor, white modernist furnishings, and a long row of rectangular windows at the back meant to look at the sea beyond the walls of this remote English country house. It's cold, sterile, and more enclosed than one is used to seeing at the theater, and heightens the voyeuristic sense of peering in on a carefully constructed moment in the lives of its characters. more ›

With all the lush romanticism going on over at Shakespeare Theater's Harman Center, you'd think it were Valentine's Day, not the Christmas season. more ›

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

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 ›

>> Plácido Domingo conducts the orchestra and selected singers of the Washington National Opera in a special concert performance in the Music Center at Strathmore. A few tickets in the orchestra section remain at the box office, if you are looking for a last-minute luxury date. $68, 8 p.m. >> Time is running out to catch this year's Shakespeare Free For All, Love's Labor's Lost, at the Carter Barron Amphitheater. The final performance is... more ›

I skipped the season finale of Lost the other night in favor of another supernatural tale of attractive people haunted by their pasts who just want to get off the damn island. The Folger’s latest staging of The Tempest is a light, spritely, fleet-footed thing of a play, apropos for a show about forgiveness and renewal and the casting off of old follies. Like the shipwreck that opens Act I, it’s forceful and bewildering and seemingly over so fast you walk out unsure whether or not you’ve just seen it at all; its weightlessness is the best and worst thing about it. more ›

>> At the the Guy Mason Recreation Center tonight there will be an open house to discuss DDOT's Glover Park Transportation Study. 6:30 to 8 p.m. [via FreeRide] >> Trippy Japanese instrumentalists Mono stop by the Rock and Roll Hotel with Grails and World’s End Girlfriend. $10/$12, 8 p.m. doors. >> The American City Diner & Cafe hosts a special screening of the still great Mike Nichols film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring... more ›

, now being staged at Shakespeare Theatre, to be a very civilized little British comedy, a kind of gently amusing work rather than anything particularly uproarious. It might earn a chuckle here or there, but didn't seem like the kind of work to have you doubling over in your seat at any of its antics. more ›

. And while this makes a somewhat lofty play resonate more clearly with its audience, it can also add a strange, didactic clunkiness to some of Ibsen's words. more ›

August is notoriously a dead month for theatregoers. Truth be told, we're glad to take a breather after wearing ourselves out during the first Capital Fringe Festival. But we still can't wait until September, which marks the start of so many companies' seasons. In the meantime, there are a few shows to tide you over. more ›

FRIDAY: >> While Argentinian actress and singer-songwriter Juana Molina put out her first album in 1996, most of us in the U.S. probably didn't get hooked on her until 2004, when her sophomore effort, Segundo, was finally released. Despite such a long lag time between her debut and follow-up, since then she's been recording like a woman on fire — this tour is support of a fourth outing, Son. She'll be bringing her unique Latin/French/Electronica/Folk... more ›

is, in a word, groovy. more ›

It's June and while many houses are wrapping up their seasons rather than embarking on new productions, others are up to the task of bringing something for us to watch this month, though the summer theater season looks a bit heavier than the X-Men-like offerings the summer movie season brings each year. Dysfunctional student/teacher relationships are at the center of Woolly Mammoth Theater's satirical The Faculty Room (June 5). Four men renounce women in favor... more ›

. Its soap opera string of coincidences stretch plausibility even by Elizabethan standards, and it lacks that showstopper of a soliloquy that draws either reflection or emotional response. more ›

FRIDAY: more ›

for Shakespeare," it's almost your time of year. more ›

DCist theater critic Missy Frederick contributed to this report. Signature Theatre's production of Urinetown took top honors at last night's Helen Hayes Awards, D.C.'s local theater awards ceremony, taking home 8 prizes including director of a musical (Joe Calarco), choreographer (Karma Camp), four different acting awards (Will Gartshore is pictured right accepting his award for lead actor in a musical, which he shared in a tie with Michael McElroy from Big River), and outstanding resident... more ›

FRIDAY: Canadian supergroup Stars wowed Death Cab for Cutie fans when they opened their show last year at 9:30 Club, and now they return as headliners to set the Black Cat stage on fire. Of course, this concert has been sold out for ages, and the desperation for tickets on Craigslist is palpable. We'll see you fellow lucky bastards in what will no doubt be a breathtakingly long will-call line. For the rest of you,... more ›

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There's a monster terrorizing 7th Street NW - and it's of the green-eyed variety. more ›

Editor's Note: This preview of the Olney Theatre Center's Summer Shakespeare Festival comes to us from Missy Frederick, who has joined our staff to write about theater. DCist appreciates, heck, even admires the egalitarian nature of the annual Shakespeare Theatre Free For All's ticket giveaway madness that went down last month. The getting up early, the waiting in line for hours, then the returning to the amphitheater well in advance of curtain time only... more ›

The Shakespeare Theatre's Free for All is perhaps this DCist's favorite thing about summer in the city. Sure, blistering 90 degree days stuck in rush hour traffic are also a highlight, but nothing compares to seeing a little bit of Shakespeare in the park. more ›

The nominations for the Helen Hayes Awards were announced last night, despite the cancellation of the traditional reception at the Canadian Embassy. As today's Post notes, the nominations had their share of surprises. Not surprising, especially to veterans of the D.C. theater scene, was the dominance of the Kennedy Center (17 nominations), Signature Theatre (15 nominations) and the Shakespeare Theatre (14 nominations). With pockets significantly deeper than smaller theater companies, large theaters can spend significant... more ›

It’s hump day! Hurrah! And what better way to celebrate than by reading Ms. Jessica Cutler’s Playboy.com interview! She reveals gems like that she’s had sex on the Mall, is registered as a Republican, and the storyline for her upcoming novel. (We say odds are 2:1 someone gets it in the butt.) If scheming, bloodthirsty women are more to your liking than sexterns, go check out "Macbeth", which opened this week at the Shakespeare Theatre.... more ›