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.

Dry Goods: Hamlet and Sovereignty, reviewed.

I wish I could muster more enthusiasm for Michael Kahn's final Hamlet, starring Michael Urie, or for Sovereignty, an Arena Stage World Premiere entry in the Women's Voices Theater Festival written by Mary Kathryn Nagle, who knows whereof she speaks but not how to make it sing. Those reviews are in this week's Washington City Paper.

Rome, If You Want To: Folger’s Antony and Cleopatra, reviewed.

Robbie Gay, Cody Nickell, Nigel Gore, Chris Genebach, and Anthony Michael Martinez as Roman soldiers. (Teresa Wood)

My Shakespeare professor at James Madison University, Ralph Cohen, told us Antony and Cleopatra was his favorite Shakespeare play. Robert Richmond's new production for the Folger Theatre, with Cody Nickell and Shirine Babb in the title roles, took me back to my salad days. I reviewed the show in this week's Washington City Paper. Individual issues are free but the paper is currently for sale. It's all very confusing.

Woolly Mammoth's Hir and Rick Foucheux's possibly-career-capping Avant Bard King Lear, reviewed.

Emily Townley and Joseph J. Parks in Hir. (Scott Suchman)

My review of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's "rich and fervent" production of Taylor Mac's family tragicomedy Hir is in this week's Washington City Paper, along with a shorter one of WSC Avant Bard's latest King Lear — which just might be the swan song of one of DC's most venerable actors, the great Rick Foucheux. Pick up a paper copy for old time's sake.

Of Most Rare Note

Can a working actor get famous in one of Shakespeare's least-famous plays? In this week's Washington City Paper, available wherever finer alt-weeklies are given away gratis, I profile the hardworking and versatile titan of stage and stage Mr. Ian Merrill Peakes. He's currently appearing in the Folger Theatre's Timon of Athens, the "Hey Bulldog" of the Shakespearean canon.

What Happens in Orlando Stays in Orlando: As You Like It, reviewed.

Lindsay Alexandra Carter and Antoinette Robinson as Rosalind and Celia, respectively.

As You Like It is my favorite Shakespearean comedy after Twelfth Night, but when the actor playing Orlando can't hang with the actor playing Rosalind, it prevents this pleasant diversion from being something deeper. I reviewed the Folger Theatre's production in this week's Washington City Paper.

Be Brief, I See into Thy End: Fear, reviewed.

Vince Eisenson, Matthew Alan Ward, Seamus Miller, and Amal Saade in Fear.

I had the good fortune to interview Star Trek's resident alien linguist Marc Okrand this week, for a video that'll posting next week as part of Air & Space / Smithsonian's coverage of Trek's 50th birthday. I met Marc through his involvement in DC theatre. After the shoot, we got some coffee and talked about—well, okay, yes, about his work on various Trek movies mostly, again, some more. But we also discussed how much we both enjoyed writer/director Kathleen Akerley's ambitious new play FEAR, which I review in this week's Washington City Paper.

For evidence of just how pear-shaped the genre of plays-about-playmaking can go, consider Jackie Sibbles Drury’s unaccountably popular We Are Proud to Present…, a story about a half-dozen actors working to “devise” a play about a historic tragedy of which they know nothing. Though it’s meant to look improvised, it’s fully scripted, and the it's the single worst play I’ve ever seen in my professional or biological life. Akerley's play needs a revision, but it ducks the self-absorption that makes Drury's so, so insufferable.

2 Midsummer 2 Dreamz

Daven Ralston as Puck with Alex Vernon's shadow puppets of Titania and Oberon in WSC Avant Bard's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I spent a midwinter day and evening taking in two, two, two big productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, from WSC Avant Bard and the Folger Theatre. I reviewed the experience for this week's unusually me-heavy Washington City Paper.