Day 128/365 - Dante

I ventured over to the Rosslyn Spectrum tonight to see 'Dante' -- Synetic Theater Company's adaptation of Dante's Divine Comedy. Well, it's billed as an adaptation of the entire Divine Comedy but actually it's the Inferno with about five minutes of Purgatorio and Paradiso at the end. That's fine, though. The Inferno is the most interesting of the three parts anyhow.

It took me a bit of wandering around the byways of Rosslyn to find the Spectrum. It's one of the most unprepossessing performance spaces you're ever likely to encounter. It's a drab, concrete, underground auditorium with even less warmth and life than GW's Lisner Auditorium. Once the peformance begins though, none of that matters.

I've been wanting to catch one of Synetic Theater's productions for some time but I always seem to miss out. I wanted to make sure I saw this one, though. Given the source material, I had a feeling they would be able to do some amazing things with this production. I was right.

Synetic relies primarily on dance and motion and silent film style acting to advance the narrative of the works they perform. A few years back they did an entirely silent version of Hamlet that got rave reviews. 'Dante' features a fair amount of exposition, however. I believe this may be one of their most dialogue-heavy shows. That doesn't detract from it being a phenomenal thing to watch.

The set and costume design for 'Dante' are nothing short of brilliant. In fact, it's nearly worth the price of admission just to see the character and set skectches by production designer Anastasia Ryurikov Simes that hang in the Spectrum lobby as pictured above. It's a very visually arresting production. There are images and scenes that will stay with you long after the performance ends, particularly the sight of damned souls being dragged by demons to their torment in slow motion. Visually, the production holds echoes of the movies 'The Cell,' 'Escape From New York,' and 'The Road Warrior'; German expressionist cinema; and various Marilyn Manson videos. That sounds like an odd mix, but it works and works well.

The performances are outstanding, although I'm not entirely sold on the performer portraying Virgil. The score is adequate. It's difficult though to view the various aspects of the production in isolation. It's really a work that needs to be analyzed as a whole and as a whole it's excellent. It's immediately obvious that a great deal of effort and energy went into the production, all to great effect.

Synetic's 'Dante' is an amazing and memorable work of performance art. It's certainly not the sort of thing you'd expect to encounter in an underground auditorium on a sidestreet in Rosslyn. But no matter where this production was being staged, it would be worth going to see.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 127/365 - The Marriage of Figaro

So it turns out that 'The Marriage of Figaro' isn't just an opera by Mozart, it's also a late 18th century comedic play by French playwright Beaumarchais. The play was banned by King Louis XVI because of its proto-Revolutionary sentiment, chiefly the ideas that accidents of birth do not serve as a proxy for true worth and that in many ways a servant might be superior to a master.

Constellation Theatre Company is currently staging a production of Beaumarchais' 'The Marriage of Figaro' at the Source Theatre and tonight my friend Adriana and I went to see it. Before the show, I stopped in at Cafe St. Ex (it's nearly next door to the theater) to have dinner. I'd been wanting to try CSX for some time now, but after having done so I think it's probably a better place to go for drinks and appetizers than for dinner. I had the creamy tomato soup with cheese-coated croutons (really good), grilled rockfish with bacony brussel sprouts and cheese-stuffed figs (just okay, although the figs were yummy), and tangerine creme brulee (so-so). Adriana had to meet up with another friend of hers before the show so she couldn't make it for dinner, but she did swing by CSX in time to join me for dessert (she had the chai ice cream sundae, which was just okay). Then it was off to the theater.

Source is a somewhat unusual theater. The stage takes up more room than the audience seating area. There are only three rows of seats and each row is maybe 15-18 seats long. If you are unfamiliar with the plot of 'Figaro' it concerns a wily servant who is about to wed -- assuming he can stave off the love-starved predations of a thwarted spinster and keep his master the Count from seducing his fiancee, that is. Beaumarchais' play runs a bit long, particularly in the saggy second act. It could certainly stand with some trimming. The play had it's funny moments though, a few of which were unintentional -- as when Bazile's turban came unwound mid-speech and the Count's cape got snagged on a bench as he stormed offstage. In each case the actors responded to the physical miscues with admirable aplomb.

The peformances were largely adequate, with the actress playing Figaro's fiancee Suzanne being the strongest. Given the space and technical constrictions at Source, the set design was excellent. The costuming was also quite good with the possible exception of the drunken gardener, who would have been better appointed with a straw hat instead of an anachronistic stocking cap. Taking into account that we got our tickets for 10 bucks each through Goldstar, I think 'Figaro' was worth the price of admission. I'd likely have felt differently however if we'd had to pay full-price rather than half.

After the show Adriana was feeling a bit peckish from missing dinner so I introduced her to the myriad wonders of Ben's Chili Bowl, where she partook of her first ever half-smoke and we split an order of cheese fries. Now that she's had her baptism by chili, she's an official Washingtonian.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

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)