Totalitarian Recall: 1984 and The Pillowman, reviewed.

Jim Jorgensen, Maboud Ebrahimzadeh, and Bradley Foster Smith in The Pillowman (Forum).

My reviews of the British theatre collective Headlong's adaptation of George Orwell's 1984, and Forum Theatre's new staging of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, are in today's Washington City Paper.

Here's the trailer the 1984 Michael Radford's version of 1984 that I mention I saw at an impressionable age. I can't imagine ever saying this in any other context, but the Eurythmics soundtrack was not a good idea.

Popcorn Psychology: Signature's The Flick, reviewed.

Thaddeus McCants, Laura C. Harris, and Evan Casey in The Flick (Signature Theatre).

I review Signature Theatre's production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning comic drama The Flick in this week's Washington City Paper. It's the fourth Annie Baker play I've reviewed — five if you count her translation of Uncle Vanya — and the second in which I've quoted a heckler. Maybe I wouldn't have done that had I remembered doing it in my review of Studio Theatre's The Aliens three-and-a-half years ago.

Further reading, if you really want to see me struggle not to repeat myself: Circle Mirror Transformation, from 2010, and Body Awareness, from 2012.

A Silver Spoonful of Sugar: The Lion, reviewed.

Benjamin Scheuer, composer & performer of the solo musical The Lion (Matthew Murphy).

I struggled with my Washington City Paper review of The Lion, a strong, brief one-man musical play by the singer-songwriter Benjamin Scheuer. This was a case where learning about the circumstances of the show's creation—as one is wont to do when writing about art—made me like it less in hindsight than I did the moment the performance ended. Is that fair? I'm still not sure. You can read my attempt to work through my consternation while still giving the artist his due here.

Less Is Moor: Othello, reviewed.

Screen veteran Faran Tahir in Othello at The Shakespeare Theatre. (Scott Suchman)

I reviewed the Shakespeare Theatre Company's new Ron Daniels-directed Othello, starring Jinn's Faran Tahir as the Moor of Venice, for the Washington City Paper. Jonno Roberts' Iago is the best reason to go.

The Meek Shall Inherit the Dearth: Guards at the Taj and You, or Whatever I Can Get, reviewed.

Kenneth De Abrew and Ethan Hova (Scott Suchman)

Suzanne Edgar, Farrell Parker, Vaughn Irving, and Doug Wilder (Ryan Maxwell Photography)

My reviews of Rajiv Joseph's marvelous 2015 Guards at the Taj, now at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and of Flying V's new musical comedy You, or Whatever I Can Get, are in this week's Washington City Paper. You are alerted.

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.

Aniello, I Love You, Won't You Tell Me Your Name?

Vaughn Irving, Doug Wilder, Farrell Parker, and Suzanne Edgar perform their musical "You, or Whatever I Can Get" in the 2014 Capital Fringe Festival. 2015 Aniello Award winner Flying V will remount the show starting next week. (Paul Gillis)

After covering theater in DC on a regular basis for seven or eight years, it's clear to me that what I like and what Helen Hayes Awards judges like sometimes overlap but more often do not. But I very much appreciate that the Haysies created a new award eight years ago in the name of longtime DC theatre patron John Laurentzen Aniello Jr. to recognize outstanding start-up theatre companies, because making good art is difficult, difficult, lemon difficult and keeping a theatre company afloat ain't so easy, either.

I wrote a feature about the Aniello Award and its recent winners for the Washington City Paper. My sincere, red-faced apologies to The Welders and for Flying V Theatre Company for a couple of boneheaded reporting errors that I allowed to slip into the print version. (They've been corrected online.) Also, apologies to Matt Reckeweg, co-founder of Pointless Theatre Company, which won the Aniello in 2014. He gave me some helpful insights but his comments were regrettably cut from the story for space.

Hey, what happened to my 2014 FringeCasting Couch interview with the cast of Flying V's You, or Whatever I Can Get?

A Horse of a Different Color: Between Riverside and Crazy and Equus, reviewed.

Frankie R. Faison, Emily K. Townley, and David Bishins in Between Riverside and Crazy. (Allie Dearie/Studio Theatre)

Among my other inspired headline ideas was the immortal "Race, Horse." Washington City Paper editor-in-chief Steve Cavendish came up with the winning entry: "Crime Doesn't Neigh." Bravo, Steve. Herewith, my reviews of Studio's Between Riverside and Crazy, the 2015 Pulitzer winner from Stephen Adly Guirgis, and Constellation's new production of Peter Shaffer's Equus.