Local theaters wasted no time ramping up after the holidays, with lots of original shows coming online in January. All of these run into February, so you’ve got time to check them out. Want to know what else is playing? Check out our monthly theater preview.
Two Jews Walk Into a War…
Review by Nathan Pugh
In the 2000s, multiple news organizations ran a similar story: there were only two Jews left in Afghanistan, and they hated each other. Ishaq Levin and Zabylan Siminotov, middle-aged men who lived together in a Kabul synagogue, blamed each other for the loss of a copy of the Torah to the Taliban.
Playwright Seth Rozin uses this odd-couple premise to create Two Jews Walk Into a War…, now playing at D.C.’s Theater J. The show has been marketed as a “modern day vaudeville,” but Rozin’s play doesn’t quite work as a comedy. Instead, within some of the play’s strained jokes lies a fascinating fable of loneliness and resilience.
Two Jews Walk Into a War… opens with Ishaq (Bobby Smith) and Zeblyan (Sasha Olinick) burying their mutual friend, a man who was the third Jew in Afghanistan. The duo gets into a squabble on proper burial technique — an argument that shows both their dedication to faith and their pettiness. Despite their differences, the desire to keep the Jewish tradition alive unites them — the majority of the show takes place as Ishaq transcribes the words of the Torah Zeblyan has memorized as the pair debate the text and differences in scriptural interpretation.
Both Smith and Olinick are very good in their roles. They quite believably portray the genuine animosity that flows between the characters, and both actors skillfully balance the play’s philosophical inquiry and playful humor. Sadly, the script often gets in the way of each actor’s performance.
Rozin’s jokes attempt to be subversive but often wind up tame. Other times the jokes border on the uncomfortable: a sequence meant to poke fun at homophobia in the Torah unfortunately relies on the sheer mention of gay folks for its humor. Adam Immerwahr’s direction doesn’t yield the madcap energy or zip to quite overcome this awkwardness.
The show finds sweet spots in its characters’ moments of introspection, as the audience watches two men clinging to a faith that brings both persecution and hope. Ishaq and Zeblyan might start the show believing (as Sartre did) that hell is other people. The duo slowly accepts that other people may be the key to survival — a realization that is a beautiful, and frustrating, kind of hell to witness.
Two Jews Walk Into a War… runs at Theater J through February 5. Tickets are $64.99-84.99. Run time is 80 minutes with no intermission.
Ride the Cyclone
Review by Nicole Hertvik
An evening with the recently deceased may not sound like a fun night out on the town, but Ride the Cyclone, the quirky cult musical now enjoying a regional premiere at Arena Stage, offers fun in spades.
Yes, everyone in the show dies. It’s not a spoiler: Five minutes into the opening scene, six teens in the Uranium City, Saskatchewan chamber choir are hurled off a roller coaster at the town carnival. Afterwards, they find themselves face to face with The Amazing Karnak, a mechanical fortune teller who lets them sing their way back to life.
The catch? Only one of them can go back.
The rest of the fast-paced, one-act musical directed by Sarah Rasmussen has each teen plead their case for reincarnation through a signature song performed, as teens do best, with utterly self absorbed sincerity. Show creators Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell keep this parade of tunes from becoming repetitive with clever songwriting in styles from pop to hip-hop to ballads
The only “meh” aspects of the show were the set and costumes, which didn’t quite rise to the sparkle of the performances or material. Trevor Bowen’s costumes looked pulled together from an old props closet and Scott Davis’s set featuring a merry-go-round turntable stage, failed to wow from afar.
Highlight performances include Nick Martinez as Noel Gruber, the town’s “only gay” who works at Taco Bell but dreams of a life as a Parisian noir film star; and Ashlyn Maddox as a decapitated Jane Doe, whose movements conjure the look of a creepy doll.
By the end of the show, we are rooting for all of them — which is possibly why the Ride the Cyclone concept album, released in 2021, has become a viral hit on Spotify and TikTok.
Not to say that this is a musical that only teens would enjoy. As I made my way out of the theater, several seniors were saying how much they enjoyed it. “I would see it again!” laughed one woman, while another said she hoped the cast was having as much fun as they seemed to be. Even if not, the audience had a blast.
Ride the Cyclone is at Arena Stage until February 19th. Tickets are $66-$125. Run time is approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
English
Review by Nathan Pugh
English, Sanaz Toossi’s play currently playing D.C.’s Studio Theatre,is a heartbreaking excavation of missed connections and fractured identities.
The show follows four students in Iran studying for a Test of English as Foreign Language. They’re in the class for different reasons: Goli (Narges Kalogli) is becoming English-fluent for her own edification; Elham (Tara Grammy) seeks admission to an Australian medical school; Roya (Nina Ameri) wants to be closer with her Canadian son; and Omid (Maboud Ebrahimzadeh) discusses getting a U.S. green card. Running the classes is Marjan (Nazanin Nour), a teacher becoming strict about forbidding Farsi from her classroom.
Throughout English, Toossi renders the titular language as a double-edged sword. English is a portal to pop culture, financial success, and family for these characters, yet the process of learning English is also just grueling, aggravating work.
Toossi expertly dramatizes the pressures of assimilation: characters struggle with ditching their real names for Anglicized ones, preparing to leave a country that they love, and toning down Iranian attributes in order to belong in a foreign culture. What distinguishes English from some other immigrant narratives is the lack of judgment around these difficult choices. Through Toossi’s sensitive script, the playwright conveys both the rewards and the damage that assimilation entails.
Toossi’s play is composed of restrained, quiet scenes. Director Knud Adams ably takes on this challenge, infusing short lines and even silences with an emotionally suggestive quality. This is best exemplified by scenes between Omid and Marjan. Similar to the not-quite-lovers from In the Mood for Love, actors Nour and Ebrahimzadeh conjure an intimate chemistry where romantic yearning collides with self-enforced repression. At one point Omid asks Marjan, “Why do you only like me in English?” The duo’s body language — just furtive glances and pursed lips — indicate an inner world of concealed attraction. Their scenes together are as full of calculation as they are of grief: a rare, delicate feat of performance.
Early on in English, Marjan tells her students that a reason why they should learn another language is so that they can “speak our souls.” By the end of the show, few characters have truly spoken their souls — in any language. It’s the achievement of this Studio Theatre production that the audience becomes acquainted with those souls anyway.
English runs at Studio Theatre through February 26. Tickets are $55-125. Run time is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes with no intermission.
