A Union of Contradictions: "Confederates," reviewed.

Caro Dubberly and Nikkole Salter in Confederates. (Chris Banks)

My Washington City Paper review of Mosaic Theater Company’s strong production of Dominique Morisseau’s play Confederates is here.

Karaj Band, or Iran So Far Away: "English" at Studio Theatre, reviewed.

Tara Grammy and Maboud Ebramhimzadeh in English. (DJ Corey Photography)

Here’s my Washington City Paper review of Sanaz Toossi’s play English, now in a fine production at the Studio Theatre.

"The Outsider" at Keegan Theatre, reviewed

Michael Innocenti and Zach Brewster-Geisz are principled pols in The Outsider. (Cameron Whitman)

As satire, it’s yesterday’s news, but as farce, it works. My Washington City Paper review of Paul Slade Smith’s The Outsider at Keegan Theatre is here.

Hail to "The Hot Wing King"

Derrick Sanders III, Michael Kevin Darnall, Bjorn DuPaty, Brian Marable, and Blake Morris. (Jati Lindsay)

Wherein I beat my farm-to-table breast and yell at artisanal clouds about foodie folderol having summited the arts-and-culture food chain, and then eventually find my way into talking about how terrific Studio Theatre’s production of Katori Hall’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hot Wing King is. For The Washington City Paper.

Don't Fly With Me: Arena's "Catch Me If You Can," reviewed.

Hayley Podschun, Alexandra Frohlinger, Christian Thompson and Rhett Guter in Arena’s revised-but-still unsatisfying Catch Me If You Can. (Margot Schulman)

Catch Me If You Can, the Hairspray songwriters’ attempt to musicalize Steven Spielberg’s beloved 2002 film, didn’t take off on Broadway 11 years ago. The revised version now at Arena Stage doesn’t work, either. For the Washington City Paper.

Call Me: The Telephonic Literary Union's "Human Resources," reviewed.

This is a panel from a David Mazzucchelli-drawn issue of Daredevil from the 80s, when phones were rotary and more suspenseful.

My first theater review—and The Telephonic Literary Union’s Human Resources is being presented by Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, its lack of resemblance to anything like a play notwithstanding—since I saw the Folger’s Merry Wives of Windsor back in January, when we all lived in another world and the population of the United States was more than 200,000 people larger than it is now, is in the Washington City Paper this week.

TL;DR: The show (or whatever it is) is an imperfect but worthy experiment in a form with a lot of possibility.

Theatre of Pain: Woolly's "Gloria" and Round House's "Small Mouth Sounds," reviewed.

Megan Graves and Ahmad Kamal are two of the standout performers in Gloria. (Teresa Castracane)

After the customary late summer lull, I’m back on the theater beat. Last week’s Washington City Paper featured my reviews of two plays that first appeared in 2015, now making their regional premieres Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ stunner Gloria, at Woolly Mammoth, and Small Mouth Sounds by Bess Wohl, at Round House.

FURTHER READING: My 2013 City Paper profile of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is here.

Language Bury Her: Studio's Translations and Folger's The Winter's Tale, reviewed.

British soldiers survey an Irish village circa 1830 in Translations. (Teresa Wood)

I've got reviews of two shows I enjoyed in this week's Washington City Paper: Studio Theatre second-in-command Matt Torney's confident new production of Brian Friel's 40-year-old Irish classic Translations, and Aaron Posner's The Winter's Tale over at the Folger. The former as a lot of superb performers who haven't worked a lot in Washington before. The latter has a bunch of Posner's favorite actors (and mine), but it's Michael Tisdale as the maniacal King Leontes who runs away with the show.