Day 170/365 - Ion

Tonight I went to the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Sidney Harmon Hall to attend a performance of the play "Ion" by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides, as recently re-translated by David Lan. For a play that's over two thousand years old, it's awfully funny and entertaining. The story arises from, as many Greek tales do, a liaison between a male god and a mortal woman. Their resulting offspring, left abandoned in the wilderness by his mother, grows up to become a temple attendant who knows neither his name nor his origins.

When his mother, now queen of Athens, accompanies her husband on a pilgrimage to consult the oracle of the temple her lost son serves, the action is set in motion and leads to joy, jealousy, confusion, murderous plots, reunions, and divine intervention. Not to mention more than a few laughs. The play is very irreverent for its time, openly criticizing the gods for their hypocrisy in punishing the sins of mankind while they flagrantly sin themselves and reciting the timeless plaint against a heaven that allows the wicked to prosper while the righteous suffer.

The performances in "Ion" are uniformly excellent. There is not a single off note or weak actor amongst the cast. The set design is simple but effective and the descent of divine characters from the rafters of the theater is handled well, as is the use of puppets to relate the prelude to the play. The costumes are done in a way that neatly marks the divide between the spiritual and the mundane, the permanent and the impermanent, with the gods and temple servants arrayed in the traditional dress of ancient Greece and the visitants to the temple attired in modern clothes.

The play is short, clocking in at a well-paced 90 minutes without intermission, and the Harmon Center itself is a very pleasant, convenient, and effective venue. Even though "Ion" concerns a time and a people that have long since passed, it remains relevant today. In fact, given that the play in essence concerns the circumstances and consequences of an unwanted pregnancy, it's hard to see how it could be any more contemporary.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200 and processed using the watercolor effect on an old version of Microsoft's Photo Editor program)

Day 125/365 - The Dog in the Manger

"The Dog in the Manger" is a romantic, comedic play by celebrated Spanish playwright Lope de Vega. An English language version of the play is currently being staged by the Shakespeare Theatre Company at its Lansburgh Theatre and tonight I went to check it out. This is shaping up to be an overstuffed week for me in terms of performing arts outings. Tonight it was 'The Dog in the Manger,' tomorrow it's the Lenka concert at DC9, Thursday it's Source Theatre's 'The Marriage of Figaro,' and Friday it's Synetic Theater's all dance/no dialogue adaptation of Dante's Divine Comedy. Yeesh!

Plus there's still Round House's production of 'Eurydice,' the national touring company of 'Avenue Q' at Warner Theatre, 'The Heavens Hung in Black' at Ford's Theatre, and the upcoming Flamenco Festival. It's a great time to be a performing arts fan in the DC area right now, but a bad time if you have errands to run or sleep to catch up on. And thank goodness for half-price tickets from Ticketplace and Goldstar.

To keep with the Spanish theme, before the play tonight I went to Jaleo and had tapas for dinner. I didn't realize at the time though that the play is actually set in Naples rather than in Spain, so my attempt at synchronicity was a bit off. My favorite thing from Jaleo, the fried shark tapas with aioli, wasn't on the menu tonight unfortunately so I had to make do with the chicken croquettes, a leek, goat cheese, and almond salad, and broiled scallops with ham instead. Oh, and sangria of course. It was all yummy as usual.

I got a half-price ticket to the play from Ticketplace so it was pretty cheap. And it was very funny and entertaining. The title comes from one of Aesop's fables about a dog sitting in a manger of hay who couldn't eat the hay himself but nevertheless steadfastly refused to let any cows eat it. In this instance the 'dog' is Countess Diana, the 'hay' is her secretary Teodoro, and the 'cow' is her lady-in-waiting (and relative) Marcela.

As the play begins, Teodoro loves Marcela, Marcela loves Teodoro, Diana's servant Fabio loves Marcela, Dorotea (another lady-in-waiting) loves Fabio, a pair of buffoonish noble suitors love Diana, and Teodoro's servant Tristan loves money. Once Diana learns of the romance between Teodoro and Marcela she decides that she loves Teodoro and wants him for herself (despite the fact that she has promised him to Marcela in marriage and despite the further fact, because he is a commoner and she a noblewoman, it is impossible for them to ever marry and dangerous for them to even love each other).

Throughout the course of the play's two acts, the various characters thread their way through a host of schemes and plots to attain their desires and thwart their rivals and flit between idolizing and despising their alternating partners as though they were playing a game of romantic musical chairs. This all results in a play that is frequently and uproariously funny with marvelously rich dialogue that rivals that of any of Shakespeare's comedies.

While the performances are uniformly excellent and the costumes are terrific, the set design can be a bit anachronistically hit or miss and there is a strange interpretative dance number at the beginning of the second act that seems odd, unnecessary, and generally ill-advised. Additionally, although the play's ending is a bit too quick and neat, 'The Dog in the Manger' is a pleasant night's entertainment nonetheless.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 119/365 - The Winter's Tale

My friend Pia and I went to dinner at Two Quail and then saw Shakespeare's 'The Winter Play' at the Folger Theatre tonight. Neither of us had been to Two Quail before and Pia had a $25 off coupon, so we decided to check it out. It's a cozy little place that would probably be the perfect setting for an afternoon tea, but as a dinner spot it was 'meh.'

We started with the coconut shrimp appetizer and it was good, but the entree's didn't measure up. I had the spotted trout and Pia had the quail. My fish was overcooked mush and tasted to strongly of lemon and even Pia's quail was on the mushy side. Don't know how they managed that. Both dishes were accompanied by plain white rice and sauteed veggies, which is the sort of thing you'd expect from a cafeteria rather than a serious restaurant.

Now that I've been to Two Quail, I don't see any reason to go back. I can't recommend it as a dinner option unless you like overcooked, oversauced/seasoned, overpriced (even with a $25 off coupon) fare. Thankfully the play was better, although still flawed.

'The Winter's Tale' is one of Shakespeare's later plays. It's a seldom-performed work that's a tale of two halves. The first half is a dark, potent, dramatic tragedy that stands up as well as any of the playwright's earlier works. The play then does a 180 in the second half and turns into a sprightly, romantic, romp of a comedy and then concludes with an ending that is too pat, neat (and quite frankly, ridiculous) to be very satisfying.

You have to give the old boy credit for being ballsy enough to try something as adventurous and experimental as penning a half-tragedy, half-comedy late in his career, but even his skills weren't quite up to the challenge. The dark first half is by far the best part of the play and it alone is worth the price of admission, particularly if you can snag discounted tickets to the show from Ticketplace or Goldstar.

As per the norm with the Folger, the performances are very good. In particular the actors portraying the mad, paranoid, obsessive King of Sicilia and the righteously sharp-tongued firebrand Paulina wring every drop from their roles. The only let-down in terms of the cast comes from the actress portraying the persecuted queen Hermione. She's excellent in the trial scene, but comes across as stiff and stilted in the casual scenes that open the play. She plays much better at being tormented than contented.

'The Winter's Tale' is a flawed work, but even a flawed work from a genius is worth seeing -- especially if you've never been to the Folger's Elizabethan Theatre. It's a hidden gem that recreates a Renaissance theater of the type that would have staged Shakespeare's works during his lifetime, albeit with a concession to modernity in the form of seats on the main floor rather than standing room for the 'groundlings.' Going there always makes me feel like I'm inside the movie 'Shakespeare In Love.'

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)