Yockey Stick: "Venus," reviewed.

Regina Aquino and Kimberly GIlbert in Venus. (Cameron Whitman)

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company was one my favorite DC stage, a position it lost after co-cofounder Howard Shalwitz stepped down as its longtime artistic director for reasons too varied to reiterate here. My City Cast DC review of Venus, Woolly’s refreshingly weird but not-all-there season-opener from screenwriter Steve Yockey, addresses it.

Reactive Cultures: "Akira Kurosawa Explains," reviewed.

The assembled Kurosawas of Akira Kurosawa Explains. Creator Julia Izumi is on the right. (Cameron Whitman)

Did playwright/performer Julia Izumi really create a show about or at least named after Akira Kurosawa having seen only one of the legendary filmmaker's 30 movies?

I saw it, and I'm still not sure. For the Washington Post.

"Guac," reviewed.

I struggled with Guac, anti-gun-violence activist Manuel Oliver’s tribute to his son Joaquin “Guac” Oliver, who was one of seventeen people murdered in Parkland school shooting on Feb. 14, 2018. My Washington City Paper review is here.

The Resilience of Laughter: "Dance Like There's Black People Watching," reviewed.

Jillian Ebanks, Breon Arzell, Max Thomas, Tamieka Chavis, and Arlietta Hall. (Teresa Castracane)

The Second City’s first show at Woolly Mammoth, Barack Stars, from those heady first months of the Obama Administration, was the subject of one of my first reviews for the Washington City Paper. My Washington Post review of their latest, offered in more dire times, is here.

Not a Chuckle Less: "HA HA HA HA HA HA HA," reviewed.

Clown-as-life-coach Julia Masli. (Cameron Whitman))

On HA HA HA HA HA HA HA, a clown show that was one of the most popular attractions at last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, now at Woolly Mammoth for a short run.

"A Strange Loop" at Woolly Mammoth, reviewed.

Jaquel Spivey (in red) is the member of the Strange Loop cast new to Woolly’s production. (Marc J. Franklin)

“A Strange Loop” would be a pretty good way to describe the sensation of rather suddenly attending and writing about theatre again. My Washington City Paper review of Woolly Mammoth’s terrific production of Michael R. Jackson’s self-aware and semiautobiographical musical A Strange Loop—which won a Pulitzer in 2019—is here.

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.

When They Stop Looking at Us: "Fairview," reviewed.

Chinna Palmer in the Woolly Mammoth production of Jacke Sibblies Drury’s Fairview. (Teresa Castracane)

When I saw Woolly Mammoth Theater Company's production of Jackie Sibblies Drury's We Are Proud to Present... in 2014, it was the worst show I'd ever seen. Five-and-a-half years later, it still is. So to say that I liked Woolly's production of Fairview, Drury's Pulitzer Prize-winner that made its debut last year, better than her previous work is of little value. But I liked it a lot. I appreciated it, more like.

I do understand that my approval is not required. It never is. My Washington City Paper review is here.