Signature Theatre’s production of Hairspray and Synetic’s silent version of King Lear cleaned up at the 28th annual Helen Hayes Awards. Arena Stage’s Ruined won for outstanding resident play.
TheatreWashington announced last night the nominations for the 28th Annual Helen Hayes Awards. Synetic Theater’s dazzling, wordless interpretation of King Lear led all shows with 15 nods.
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.
Meet the Real Housewives … of 16th century Britain?
The scheming, backbiting, and in one case, suspiciously Paris Hilton-esque (chihuahua included) sisters Goneril and Regan manage to do the unlikely: turn the epic solemnity of King Lear into riveting, train-wreck theater. These women chain smoke and cackle, strut around in fur coats and sequins, and get graphically pleasured onstage by their boy toys. Director Robert Falls, whether he’s livening up Lear’s ceremonial division of his kingdom with a rapping D.J. or having his actors throwing ripped out eyeballs into a stock pot, is definitely putting together a Lear like you’ve never seen.
In the recent incarnation now playing at the Folger Theatre, the Classical Theatre of Harlem has managed to inject King Lear with a sort of Bacchanalian ferocity. This is a very physical production of the Shakespearean tragedy, and the intensity serves the work well. It also means we have moments, like when Gloucester is blinded by the treacherous Cornwall, where we actually see the villan squeeze the man’s eyeballs until they burst, squirting juices towards…
It’s official: we’re going to have no social life this January, as there are too many great productions premiering this month for us to do anything else but plays, plays, plays. We’ve got a ridiculous amount of Shakespeare, a beloved Sondheim musical, a new work by an old favorite, and we haven’t even gotten to Kathleen Turner. It’s a good month to be a theater lover. We adore Neil LaBute here at DCist, even though…
Editor’s note: The following preview was written by Missy Frederick “Bard-37” … What does this phrase bring to mind? A punk band? A brand of malt liquor? A series of all of Shakespeare’s plays read in chronological order at a local Arlington playhouse? All snark aside, option C is correct. Washington Shakespeare Company has been performing each of the playwright’s works as part of its Bard-37 Canon Cabaret. Tonight, they will read King Lear at…
