I summarize Yasmina Reza’s play ‘Art’ to my companion as a play about three dudes bitching about stuff, and a painting. I’m not even sure there’s a plot. At least, I don’t remember a plot.

It’s more of a premise. And the premise is that three grown men are having an existential meltdown over a white painting. Serge blows a fortune on what looks like a blank canvas, Marc can’t believe his friend spent money on the thing, and poor Yvan is stuck trying to keep the peace while both sides take turns losing it. What starts as an argument about modern art turns into a hilarious, petty, and painfully honest showdown about ego, friendship, and who’s the real intellectual in the room. In spite of this, it’s great fun. 

Everyman Theatre puts on a lot of highbrow theatrical performances. Honestly, I was stunned (delighted, but also stunned) to see them doing Harvey in 2023, a distinctly lowbrow play about a man who befriends a six-foot-tall invisible rabbit. But even Harvey was highbrowed-up significantly at Everyman. Reza’s ‘Art’ script is already pretty highbrow, which is, I suppose, one of the things people like about it, at least, the sort of people who use the word ‘sportsball’ unironically in a sentence. Snazzing it up further with a posh set stretches the limits of relatability, which is forgivable as the set is a visual delight.

Kyle Prue, Bruce Randolph Nelson, and Tony K. Nam as Marc, Serge, and Yvan (respectively, in order of appearance) are all splendid performers who, as characters, take themselves dreadfully seriously. If there were even a hint of a twinkle, the comedy wouldn’t work. The comedy works. Each performer has excellent timing and good interplay with the others. What they don’t have as characters is any particular likability. I acknowledge that my preference for likable characters is a personal quirk, so this won’t be a problem for everyone. Prue stops just shy of sarcasm, and I’ve never not enjoyed Bruce Nelson in anything. Nam, who was absolutely magnificent as George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? this past spring, portrays a very different sort of character in ‘Art’. Director Noah Himmelstein delivers restrained character movements while keeping the piece from being static, a real risk in such a “talk-y” show. 

The sound quality is crystal clear. It helps that the audience is very quiet, but with the crisp and rhythmic dialogue Reza has written, missing any of it would be disastrous to comprehension.

Scenic Designer Paige Hathaway, whose turntable candy-boxes for Primary Trust thrilled me earlier this year, presents a single set that emits a luxurious gleam through subtly burnished furniture and glorious trappings. Tastefully elegant brass chandeliers and sconces, hung very high, suggest vaulted ceilings and enormous mansions, and whisper “spared no expense.” Smooth sliding panels glide back and forth to indicate scene changes. A particularly beautiful piece of the set is the scrim behind the panels, which catches color like a skylit lake. Lighting Designer Harold F. Burgess II creates mesmerizing glows on that backdrop, setting the tenor of each scene, moving rapidly through briefly fascinating ombre color shifts during scenic changes, then settling down so we can watch the actors.

‘Art,’ was originally written in French and translated into English almost immediately by Christopher Hampton. At this point, it has been performed in at least 30 languages. It opened in the West End (London) in 1996 and ran for six years. ‘Art’ gathered a number of awards, including a Moliere (France), an Olivier (England), and a Tony (USA). Reza’s following play, God of Carnage (2008), and its subsequent film adaptation may have brought renewed attention to this quiet show. Learn more about the playwright and translator when you have a peek at Everyman’s online program. 

The pre-show bar offers thematic drinks — I choose “Blank Canvas,” which I enjoy very much, though it is a bit sweeter than my usual preference. There are also alcohol-free specialty beverages. Don’t wait until intermission: there’s not one in this show. Drinks with lids are permitted in the theater, but snacks are not. 

One of the entertaining things about art is that people disagree about art. Yasmina Reza’s ‘Art’ at Everyman places that tempest in a pretty china teapot. It’s sharp, it’s smart, it’s short, and it might make you appreciate your friendships more and your decor less, or, possibly, the reverse.

Running time: 90 minutes, with no intermission. 

‘Art’ plays through November 16, 2025, at Everyman Theatre, 315 West Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD. For tickets (starting at $60, with student discounts and Pay-What-You-Choose tickets at every performance), call the box office at (410) 752-2208 (Monday-Friday, 10 am to 4 pm and Saturday 12 to 4 pm), email boxoffice@everymantheatre.org, or purchase them online.

The playbill is here.

‘Art’
By Yasmina Reza
Translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Noah Himmelstein

CAST
Tony K. Nam: Yvan
Bruce Randolph Nelson: Serge
Kyle Prue: Marc

CREATIVE TEAM
Noah Himmelstein: Director
Paige Hathaway: Scenic Design
Jeannette Christensen: Costume Design
Harold F. Burgess II: Lighting Design
Sun Hee Kil: Sound Design
Lewis Shaw: Fights/Intimacy
Molly Prunty: Stage Manager

Final Factoids: When I reviewed Art at Vagabonds Theatre in 2014,  the production had a completely different ethos.  A revival of Art on Broadway, starring Neil Patrick Harris, plays through December 2025. 

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Baltimore Center Stage (BCS) proudly announces the next cohort of Lab410, the theater’s play development initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of playwrights with deep connections to Baltimore. Following a competitive open call that drew dozens of submissions from across the region, three playwrights have been selected for the 2025/26 residency: Ty’Ree Hope Davis, Madeline “Mo” Oslejsek, and Jalice Ortiz-Corral.

Launched in 2024 under the artistic leadership of Stevie Walker-Webb, Lab410 reflects BCS’s commitment to nurturing bold new voices whose stories are nurtured by, based in, or dedicated to Baltimore. Each playwright will participate in a year-long residency, receiving developmental support, mentorship, and the opportunity to present a public reading or workshop of their new work.

“Baltimore is a city of storytellers and Lab410 exists to make sure those stories are heard,” said Stevie Walker-Webb, Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage. “This new cohort represents a dynamic range of artistic perspectives, each rooted in truth, courage, and creativity. Their voices are exactly what the American theater needs right now.”

Meet the 2025/26 BCS Lab410 Playwrights

Ty’Ree Hope Davis – RIOT: The Beat of Freddie Gray

A recent BFA Acting graduate of Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, Davis is an actor, poet, and artistic activist from West Baltimore. His one-man play, RIOT: The Beat of Freddie Gray, explores rhythm, grief, and resilience in the wake of social unrest. The piece has been performed at Howard University, Young Playwrights Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and will appear at Everyman Theatre in 2026.

Madeline “Mo” Oslejsek – A Beautiful and Interesting Disease

A queer multidisciplinary artist and graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London), Oslejsek’s work interrogates identity, queerness, and the multiplicity of human experience. Her writing blends poetic imagination with theatrical experimentation, reflecting an evolving journey toward authenticity and artistic freedom.

Jalice Ortiz-Corral – Who’s Been Giving out Plan-B at the Library?

A writer, director, and stand-up comic from Baltimore, Ortiz-Corral is a two-time graduate of London’s Royal Holloway University and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She currently serves as Marketing Coordinator at Everyman Theatre and has directed at Strand Theatre and the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory. Her sharp, irreverent writing explores modern womanhood, reproductive politics, and humor as survival.

About Lab410

Lab410 offers selected playwrights a year-long residency including dramaturgical guidance, professional mentorship, and opportunities for public presentation. The initiative was established as part of Baltimore Center Stage’s broader mission to cultivate local talent and contribute new voices to the national theater landscape.

The program’s inaugural cycle drew nearly 100 submissions, culminating in a staged workshop of Karen Li’s Canton Waterfront in August 2025. The Lab410 name pays tribute to Baltimore’s area code — a symbolic nod to the city’s creative heartbeat, charm and the artists shaping its future.

About Baltimore Center Stage

Designated the State Theater of Maryland in 1978, Baltimore Center Stage provides the highest quality theater and programming for all members of its community, including youth and families, under the leadership of Artistic Director Stevie Walker-Webb and Producing Director Ken-Matt Martin. Baltimore Center Stage ignites conversations and imaginations by producing an eclectic season of professional productions across two mainstages, through engaging community programs, and with inspiring education programs. Baltimore Center Stage is led by its core values — chief among them being Access For All. Its mission is heavily rooted in providing active and open accessibility for everyone, regardless of any and all barriers, to Mainstage performances, education initiatives, and community programming.

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“Soon as you hear the handcuffs go ka-klink, you hear the cash register go cha-ching.” This line in The Peculiar Patriot, currently playing at Baltimore Center Stage, summarizes the loss of humanity that often goes unnoticed in the American prison system. So often, prisoners are seen as “less than” except by the people who love and care for them outside of the prison walls. This one-woman play, written and performed by Liza Jessie Peterson and directed by Talvin Wilks, offers a unique perspective on the realities of American prisons, presenting a mix of laughter and pain. 

There is a rawness at the heart of The Peculiar Patriot that is both tender and defiant. This show is anchored in the character of Betsy LaQuanda Ross, a woman who visits her best friend in prison, brings neighborhood gossip, stitches quilt-squares for each incarcerated “street soldier,” and, beneath the surface chatter, tears away the veneer of America’s “tough-on-crime” self-image. Through Betsy, Peterson gives voice to the communities too often spoken about rather than with. 

From the moment the stage lights up and the monitors turn on, you’re in a visitors’ room of an Upstate New York prison: the beige walls, the metal chairs, the vending machine snacks, the general coldness (scenic design by Andrew Cissna). Into that space comes Betsy’s sound, edge, and humor. She jokes. She remembers. She scolds. And gradually, the viewer realizes the jokes are a shield, the memories a lament, the scolding a call-to-arms. Peterson doesn’t lecture from a podium; she sits across the folding table as though she’s talking to you, and you’d better listen. 

What’s remarkable is how the show balances heartbreak with wit. Too often, pieces about incarceration become abstract, numbing audiences with statistics and rhetoric. But here, layers of character and particular detail keep the story alive. We laugh when Betsy recounts a juvenile-detention quilt class (“They gave me the nickname Betsy Ross ’cause I was sewing quilts in juvie”). You shift uncomfortably when she starts sharing the history, the numbers, and the data of what is behind the so-called “criminal justice system,” recoiling at the truth of this profit machine, fed on human lives and broken families.

Peterson’s performance is superb. In the best solo shows, the performer disappears into the world she’s created; here, Peterson melds with Betsy so completely that you forget that this is a play as you witness the atrocities known as “business as usual.” The rhythm of the script — the pauses, the reveals, the laughter turned quiet — feels both urgent and intimate. 

The true power of The Peculiar Patriot lies in its duality. It is a love story, yes — a love story of friends separated by walls, of women who refuse to let the world forget those behind bars. But it is also an indictment: of racialized incarceration, of a society that builds plantations of prisons, of the invisible labor of those who visit, call, hope. Peterson writes: “Our country is rooted in the system of slavery … The 13th Amendment declares slavery is illegal except for the punishment of a crime. Prisoners are allowed to be slaves.” The individual is part of a system, and Peterson knows that. The Peculiar Patriot insists that what we’re seeing is not a broken system but a designed one.

For me, the show left me thinking not only about the incarcerated but also about the visitors: those families who wait at night at freezing bus stops, who show up after five-hour rides, whose arms hold the quilt but whose hearts carry silence. The image of Betsy adding quilt-squares — each square a name, a story, a memory — was haunting. 

In my reading, this is not just theater; it is civic engagement in costume. It asks us: What does it mean to love your country when your country locks up your loved ones? What does patriotism look like when the flag is draped over prison walls, when the parade down Main Street is led not by a marching band but by a prison bus — the nation’s twisted hype man? The title captures the paradox: a “peculiar patriot” is someone who doesn’t salute the guns or the anthems but visits the cells, holds the ledger, and carries the quilt. It is peculiar because it demands you look where you don’t want to. It is patriotism because it cares for those the nation forgot.

If you have the chance to see this production live, it will challenge you, soften you, unsettle you — but in the best way. It will make you laugh, and then quietly burn with the question: How many squares are on the quilt? How many visits have been made? How many lives intersect with the system?To sum up: The Peculiar Patriot is powerful. It is humane. It is urgent. It is art with its fist raised, wrapped in a hand that offers a hug. It isn’t comfortable — but it doesn’t pretend to be. It is necessary.

Running Time: 90 minutes, with no intermission.

The Peculiar Patriot plays through November 9, 2025, at Baltimore Center Stage, 700 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD. For tickets ($10–$90, with senior and student discounts available), call the box office at (410) 332-0033 (Tuesday through Friday, noon–5 pm), email boxoffice@centerstage.org, or purchase them online. 

The program is online here.

CREATIVE TEAM
Playwright/Actor: Liza Jessie Peterson
Director: Talvin Wilks
Stage Manager: Alexis E. Davis
Stage Manager: Nicholas Carlstrom
Asst. Staged Manager: Sharon Zheng
Scenic/Lighting Designer: Andrew Cissna
Asst. Scenic Designer: Peter Leibold
Costume Designer: Latoya Murray-Berry
Sound Designer: Luqman Brown
Projection Designer: Katherine Freer
Asst. Projections Designer & Programmer: Desne Wharton
Properties Manager: Belynda M’Baye
Hair/Wig/Makeup Designer: Larry Peterson
Tour Producer: James Blaszko
Executive Producer: Lena Waithe
Production Asstistant: Khalil White

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There are some shows that invite you to sit back and watch, and then there are shows like Vesper, a Dream Play — the kind that pull you inside and don’t let you go until long after the lights come up. This ethereal experience, now playing at The Voxel in Baltimore, was conceived and directed by Jarod Hanson. Vesper is less a traditional play and more of an experiment. It’s a journey through dreams and rituals, through sound and shadow, through the kind of mystery that theater can still conjure when it dares to let go of the rules.

The evening begins quietly, almost reverently. The house goes dark, and before a single word is spoken, the air seems to hum. There’s a stillness — the kind that makes you lean forward. When the cast finally appears, they don’t “enter” so much as emerge, like figures rising from fog or memory. From the start, you can tell this isn’t a story to follow; it’s something to feel.

Vesper unfolds through a series of images and movements rather than a straightforward plot. I liken it to abstract art. There are moments of dance, fragments of poetry, and scenes that shift between the real and the surreal. The performers move like a single, breathing organism, their bodies tracing shapes that feel ancient — part ritual, part dream. Sometimes they’re caught in a flicker of light; other times, swallowed by shadow. It’s hypnotic to watch.

The lighting and sound design are major players here. And it was a job well done by John McAfee and Jason Charney. The lights ripple and pulse like moonlight through trees, while the soundscape — a mix of live music, whispers, and ambient tones — fills the room like another presence. You don’t just see this show; you feel it vibrating through the air. The technical artistry has been elevated — each element layered so carefully that the boundaries between performance and environment seem to disappear.

The program describes Vesper as “a surrealistic exploration of humanity’s relationship to the night and the rituals we invoke to heal, find peace, and ward off danger.” That description fits, but the experience is even deeper. It’s about the ways we search for meaning in darkness — both literally and emotionally. There’s a recurring sense of reaching, of trying to touch something just beyond understanding. The performers express it through gestures, through stillness, through moments when the entire ensemble breathes in unison.

What struck me most was the freedom the show gives its audience. There’s no single way to interpret it — no “right” way to watch. You can let your imagination fill in the blanks, find your own story inside the fragments. At times, I didn’t fully understand what was happening, and I loved that. It felt like a dream you wake up from, remembering only pieces, but those pieces still move you.

Of course, Vesper won’t be for everyone. Those who prefer clear narratives and tidy resolutions might find it confusing or even frustrating. It asks a lot of you. Patience, openness, and a willingness to surrender. But for those who crave something different, something immersive and alive, it’s a rare gift.

There are a few moments I can’t shake: a silhouette bathed in deep blue light, a slow-motion sequence that felt suspended in time, and a final image that left the entire room silent. 

In a city that’s becoming known for its bold and experimental theater, Vesper stands out as something special — a reminder that the stage can still surprise us, still transport us. It’s a piece that doesn’t try to explain itself; it simply invites you to step into the dark and see what you find.Vesper, a Dream Play is beautiful, strange, and haunting — a 75-minute dive into the unconscious. It’s not a story you watch; it’s a feeling you carry with you. I left The Voxel that night still hearing echoes of its soundscape, still seeing flickers of its light. And maybe that’s the point — to leave us all a little haunted, a little awakened, and a little more willing to dream.

Running Time: About 75 minutes with no intermission.

Vesper, a Dream Play plays through November 2, 2025, at The Voxel, located at 9 West 25th Street, Baltimore, MD. Tickets ($10 to $100) can be purchased online.

Vesper, a Dream Play

CREATED AND PERFORMED BY
Alix Fenhagen
Luu Pham
Ally Ibach
Chelsea Thaler
Molly Margulies
Hailey Withrow
Parker Mathews
Matthew Williams

CREATIVE TEAM
Director: Jarod Hanson
Associate director: Brandice Thompson
Stage Manager: Olivia Dibble
Production Manager: Aran Keating
Sound, Music, and Multimedia Designer: Jason Charney
Lighting Designer: John McAfee
Set & Properties Designer: Joe Martin
Costume Designer: Rowan Gardner
Asst. Stage Manager: Zack Anderson
Understudy: Meghan Ziccardi
Vocal Coach: Britt Olsen: Ecker
Artist Advocate: Katie Hileman
Producers: Jarod Hanson, The Acme Corporation, Aran Keating

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Picture twinkling stars above the Scottish countryside, a six-piece band playing lively tunes, glasses of whisky with which to raise a toast, two sets of bagpipes, an abundance of tartan, singing, dancing, laughter in every corner of the room, and a sea of confused Americans trying to keep up. Directed by Sam Pinkleton (Broadway’s Oh, Mary!), the North American premiere of Ceilidh has furiously swept into Baltimore, and it’s pure dead brilliant.

If you don’t know what a “ceilidh” is, then chances are you’ve just now mispronounced the word as well. A ceilidh (KAY-lee) refers to a traditional Scottish social gathering involving dancing, music, and storytelling. In Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie’s aptly-titled musical (now playing at the M&T Bank Exchange through October 12), audiences are quick to learn of this age-old tradition. However, the Gaelic origins of a ceilidh actually point to something much simpler: in Gaelic, “céle” means “companion.” Part musical fable and part social dance, Ceilidh is about the connections we forge with one another, be they over one fleeting moment or across an entire lifetime.

Gilmour and McKenzie have crafted an intergenerational story about music, love, and community — all of which tenets lie at the heart of every ceilidh. The plot follows a young man named Ramsay MacLavaney (played by Gilmour) and his father, a legendary ceilidh caller named Leo. Their family comes from a long line of callers as foretold by a raucous little ditty called “The MacLavaney’s.” According to this musical, a good caller can ensure the synchronicity and togetherness of the ceilidh, no matter how much or how often the dance moves themselves may change.

Still, there is no point to a ceilidh without an invitation to take part. Much more than a traditional musical, Ceilidh compels audiences to join them in the round. The performers — thankfully — do not pressure audience members into dancing. It is nevertheless difficult to resist their outstretched arms, which beckon us to join in the merriment full force. With the help of several ensemble members, Ramsay and Leo alternatively call live dances during the show, including but not limited to “The Military Two Step,” “The Canadian Barn Dance,” and the “St. Bernard’s Waltz.” These traditional Scottish dances have been passed down through generations and adapted for the show by the creative team. As we are reminded early on, no one has ever looked “cool” dancing a ceilidh, and while much fun can be had from the peanut gallery, this critic strongly encourages all to join in the “called” dance numbers if they are able.

Gilmour as Ramsay impressively balances narration and direct address to the audience, while also shouldering the emotional crux of the evening as he tells his father’s story. Euan Morton brings natural charisma to the role of Leo, a respectable young man whose warmth and humility resound throughout his son’s memories. Courtney Bassett plays Euna, a witty and “bonny” young woman from England who is quickly won over by the ceilidh tradition — and its finest caller, Leo. Her rapturous performance of “The Thistle and the Rose” secures Leo’s heart, not to mention that of all of us lucky enough to witness her performance. The couple’s older counterparts are played by George Drennan and Annie Grace. Mindful of spoilers, it is safe to say their story comes to a heartfelt and deeply satisfying conclusion.

Emma McGlinchey and Charlie West are hilarious as a pair of wily Scots whose wedding serves a pivotal plot purpose for the main couple. A gifted fiddle player, Rori Hawthorn later plays McGlinchey and West’s daughter. With each cast member taking on several smaller roles, Anne L. Nathan portrays Leo’s smack-talking granny, while David Rowen steps in as Ramsay’s first and only love, Lucas. Recognizing the two men’s connection for what it is, Leo and Euna welcome Lucas into their family with open arms and a tactfully choreographed couple’s hold (“It’s All About the Hold”). Therein lies the musical’s simple yet powerful message: “Love does what love does, and who are we to question it?”

String lights line the vaulted ceiling of the M&T Bank Exchange’s unique event space, while the room is bedecked with kitschy allusions to Scottish heritage past and present. With cheeky costume pieces, kilts, and modern dress, Sarah Laux’s costume design encapsulates a dry but gleeful sense of humor not unfamiliar to that of one of the musical’s most well-known producers, Alan Cumming. While scenic designer Rachel Hauck has primarily commandeered the venue for the social dance portion of the evening, Isabella Byrd’s lighting design ushers us into near and distant memories.

Deceptively simple in its conceit, Ceilidh is unlike anything you might catch on Broadway or elsewhere this fall. For DC theatergoers hesitant to travel to Baltimore for this production, I have but one bit of advice: find yourself a hand to hold because, with so much love about this musical — and so many places to find love within it — the journey proves well worth the price of the trip.

Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes, including one intermission.

Ceilidh plays through October 12, 2025, at M&T Bank Exchange at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, 401 W Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD. For tickets (starting at $45), purchase them online. Learn more here.

The program is online here. Cast and creative credits are here.

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The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful, currently running at Baltimore’s Everyman Theatre, may masquerade as a play. However, this hilarious journey through the mind of playwright Charles Ludlam leaves the same impression as if it were an elaborately choreographed dance. It’s not only one of the busiest physical comedies I’ve seen; it’s also a successful hodgepodge of different genres, a showcase for 1980s cultural references, and a glowing recommendation of the two actors involved. But Vep isn’t just a lively two-hander. As pointed out by Everyman’s Artistic Director Vincent M. Lancisi in his pre-performance address, this Paso Doble is more like a flash mob. If an audience member can guess exactly how many behind-the-scenes bodies it takes to execute this camp masterpiece, he’ll buy them a drink.

On its face, The Mystery of Irma Vep has a suspiciously recognizable profile — a spooky mansion, a Lord of the Manor, the ghost of his first wife, his new love interest, and the domestic help. The audience is left to wonder what new twists could be possible. Even the term “Penny Dreadful” seems self-deprecating, as it refers to literature that’s straight trash. But Ludlam has infused some high-value surprises into his painstakingly written script. And, under the superb guidance of director Joseph W. Ritsch, an incorporeal force takes center stage more than any other character. It’s the spirit of all the comedy that’s come before … everything from British farce to Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In to modern improv. Ritsch dresses the bones of a horror spoof in this downy essence, creating a classic Scooby-Doo episode on steroids.

In this case, the gang solving the mystery is a dynamic duo, so Everyman’s repertory system has slotted Bruce Randolph Nelson and Zack Powell into a couple of multiple-role parts that an actor would wait a lifetime to play. And playing these parts must be the challenge of their lives. But there isn’t an actor working that wouldn’t be jealous of the opportunity to shine this brightly. There is no Tango without these two, and they shoulder the burden of all the double entendres, meta jokes, and toilet humor with grace.

Nelson (Nicodemus/Lady Enid/Alcazar/Pev Amri), a generously seasoned audience favorite, lands on the doorstep of the Manor with a wooden leg, a strong lower-class English accent, and a palate of hideous fake teeth, all used to great effect. There’s no surprise in his innate command of the stage, as most local theatergoers would have already seen him in a fantastic array of roles at Everyman and elsewhere. Nonetheless, he reaches new heights in Vep, with his uncanny ability to flit from ultra-feminine ingenue to crusty laborer to mummified Egyptian goddess. Powell (Jane/Lord Edgar/Intruder) is the perfect accompaniment to Nelson’s delightful melange, breaking through the fog with macho virility to hurl a dead wolf onto the hardwood, even as he’s planning his transformation back into his Gibson Girl–style attire to play the harried maid. His metamorphoses are so complete that I genuinely didn’t realize it was the same actor for a few minutes. Nelson and Powell both accomplish their overwhelming number of costume changes with aplomb, and each has their own unique and compelling stage presence. Watching them play together is a joy.

Besides being a comforting night of laughs, Vep also serves another essential purpose, especially considering the present political climate. It’s a wholehearted endorsement and celebration of queer identities and cross-gender expressions. Ludlum was passionately committed to championing queer theater, operating with the belief that cross-gender performance is a powerful exploration of both the masculine and feminine that has many personal and societal benefits. With his Ridiculous Theatrical Company, he created a space where everyone could feel comfortable being their best selves — and he especially loved embracing the peculiar, eccentric, and odd.

The production and design elements of this show reflect those values beautifully. The set, designed by Daniel Ettinger, reads as classic decor, with William Morris–inspired prints in muted blues and grays co-existing with dramatic geometric shapes, à la Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. It also holds up surprisingly well with all the comings and goings. The costumes, designed by David Burdick, are beautiful, sleek, and period-accurate, and Lady Enid’s frocks and nighties are such a cute nod to modern coquette style. I particularly loved her “silly goose” dress. But most of all, it is spectacularly impressive that every one of these costume pieces had to have been meticulously planned to allow it to be donned or removed in a matter of 15 seconds. I almost wished there was a live feed backstage to record the magic of those quick changes. It must be pure chaos back there.

Because of the relentlessly kooky nature of The Mystery of Irma Vep, there’s not much space for the audience to ruminate in between laughs. But, as we poured out of the venue, I felt a wave of poignancy wash away the haze of escapism. It was disheartening to register afresh the atmosphere we were re-entering — walking headfirst into a country that needs change, into a moment that requires protest. Appropriately, Vep was originally created as just that — a primal scream against the scourge of AIDS (which Ludlam succumbed to in 1987). Yet, in our current environment, this revolutionary comedy takes on a world of significance, and presenting it constitutes a profound act of resistance. The team at Everyman may not have meant to be brave by producing this play in this time … but it may be the bravest thing they have ever done.

Running Time: Approximately two hours, including one 15-minute intermission.

The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful plays through June 22, 2025, at Everyman Theatre, 315 West Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD. For tickets ($5–$81, including student discounts and Pay-What-You-Choose tickets at every performance), call the box office at (410) 752-2208 (Monday through Friday, noon–5 pm), email boxoffice@everymantheatre.org, or purchase them online.

Content Advisory: Contains adult humor and sexual innuendo, simulated violence with weapons including guns and knives, and jump scares intended to delight the audience. Production effects include theatrical haze and blood, gunshots, and strobing lights.

The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful
Written by Charles Ludlam
Directed by Joseph W. Ritsch

CAST
Nicodemus Underwood/Lady Enid Hillcrest/Alcazar/Pev Amri: Bruce Randolph Nelson
Jane Twisden/Lord Edgar Hillcrest/An Intruder: Zack Powell

CREATIVES

Set Design: Daniel Ettinger
Costume Design: David Burdick
Lighting Design: Juan M. Juarez
Sound Design: Germán Martínez
Wig Design: Denise O’Brien
Dialects: Gary Logan
Fights & Intimacy: Lewis Shaw
Dramaturgy: Robyn Quick
Stage Manager: Cat Wallis

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Last year, I undertook one of the most unusual projects of my life. In a career as a television executive, writer, editor, and educator full of the unexpected, I became an Olney Theater teaching artist at A. Mario Loiederman Middle School in Montgomery County, which is dedicated to the performing arts.

Throughout the 2023/24 school year, I co-taught with an extraordinary up-and-coming actress and playwright, Amber Smithers, eighth graders in Ms. Robyn Paley’s first-period theater class. Twice a month, we ran classes focused on the novel-in-verse, Long Way Down, by the acclaimed young adult author Jason Reynolds; we culminated in May with student-written plays inspired by the novel performed by the students on the Olney Stage. Jason Reynolds attended the production and met with the students — a thrilling end. And I felt a special kind of loss, not only for the inspiring Ms. Paley, not only for her students and their energy, imagination, and talent but for my co-teacher. So when Amber shared that she would be in the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s Macbeth production for student audiences, I thought that I must see her perform.

I traveled to Baltimore for a 10 a.m. Friday production. I didn’t check my emails before getting on the road. When I arrived in Baltimore, I read her message — she would not be in that day’s show. COVID. She urged me to attend anyway.

Why go? I am no longer teaching, choosing instead to focus on my writing and editing projects. My middle school and high school years were decades ago. I attended very large, overcrowded schools in New Rochelle, New York, and we never went on a field trip much less to see a Shakespeare performance. Did I want to spend the morning with raucous, inattentive high school students?

Amber’s invite was a gift.

I will stop now and say that every middle school and high school in the DMV should be attending these productions. In the fall, the Chesapeake Shakespeare Theater Company, the leading classical theater company in Maryland, performs Macbeth, and in the spring, Romeo and Juliet. These student performances are open only to school groups and invited guests of the cast and crew.

The theater space itself is a marvel. The restored former bank space, just a few blocks from Camden Yards, is multitiered with red-velvet seating and feels as much like a postmodern rendition of Shakespeare’s Globe as any venue I have ever been in. Two schools, one Baltimore City school and one suburban Maryland school, were attending the performance today. I caught a student saying as they ambled in from the downtown city street and stared at the sparse stage, “This isn’t at all what I was expecting.”

The players soon gathered on that stage for live music, modern songs with a bent toward the madrigal. As the director of education, Troy Jennings, later pointed out to me, during Shakespearean times, popular songs of the day were always performed before the shows to warm up the crowds. “At every turn, our goal is to engage these students in Shakespeare.”

I sat in the second tier at the edge of the high school students, their teachers, and their chaperones. Around me, the students leaned forward in their seats and began to snap their fingers. I figured that they liked the music’s beat but waited until the play started. That would be trouble. As the witches would soon chant, “Double double toil and trouble/fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

The play, adapted for high school students, would be followed by a talkback. According to Jennings, 12,000 students attended the student performances in 2023. Schools as far as Delaware and Virginia have been in the audience. Tickets for Baltimore City Schools are free via a grant from the mayor’s office.

Now, Macbeth. The performance was stunning and fully engaging. Of course, I missed watching my former co-teacher perform. But somehow, Amber was with me, her witchy presence encouraging my close listening and observance of the actors and scene development, which is what she always did in our class.

The students never leaned back. They giggled and guffawed some when Macbeth, played with a passionate, skilled rigor by Joshua Williams, kissed the tempting and tempestuous Lady Macbeth (Lauren Erica Jackson). They winced as the fight scenes with swords, daggers, and shields ensued with authenticity and grit, and bloodied hands and costumes.

Directed by Katie Keddell, the versatile actors, most in multiple roles, appeared both on stage and in the tiers, surprising and delighting the students (and me), and taking full advantage of the theater. On the edge of their seats, the students cheered as Malcolm (Daniel Sakamoto) and MacDuff (Lloyd Ekpe) boldly played, and their armies stormed the woods outside Macbeth’s castle, and the murderous Macbeth — the last act’s soliloquy heart-bracingly recited — “tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” — was vanquished.

No scrolling phones. No social media. These students were fully engaged.

Benny Pope, who has a commanding presence as Duncan, shared with me, “I love the matinees because they inspire me, and I hope there’s that one young person out there, who hasn’t had the opportunity to attend theater before, that a performance like this plants a seed…that it inspires them to think more widely about their possibilities.”

This morning’s performance of Macbeth ended with loads of questions for the actors, moderated by the skillful director of education. The students were then encouraged to come on stage to talk more, get autographs, and, yes, take selfies before climbing back on their waiting school buses at about noon.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s performance of Macbeth was an inspiring, engaging, and joyful field trip — especially for this writer.

Running Time: One hour and 20 minutes, no intermission.

Macbeth plays through November 13, 2024 — and Romeo and Juliet plays from March 10 to April 28, 2025 — at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, 7 South Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD. Admission ($20–$26) is limited to schools for student matinee performances at 10 a.m. Baltimore City public school students are free via a grant from the Mayor’s Office.

The cast and creative credits are here (scroll down).

Created by Summer 2024 Interns Naima Gordon and Teagan McCabe

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Think back on what you were taught in U.S. history classes, especially in your younger years. Probably a lot of downright lies, like the old fabricated story of Washington chopping down a tree and telling the truth about it. But how many of us were not taught that the so-called Founding Fathers who championed equality for all men were also slave owners? (And state legislation in places like Florida ensures these complicated truths are not explored in classrooms.) Histories that center the experiences and lives of those who were enslaved, exploited, and abused, and stories of resistance and rebellion in the Land of the Free… we don’t learn those narratives that create a fuller portrait of American history in our textbooks.

This is the thesis of the world-premiere Mexodus, written and performed by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, onstage through April 7 at Baltimore Center Stage and from May 16 to June 9 at Mosaic Theater. This exhilarating theatrical experiment traces an erased history and sets it to a hip-hop-inflected score.

Quijada and Robinson researched a lesser-known Underground Railroad that led south to Mexico. After Mexico fought for its independence from Spain in 1821, the territory of Texas (formerly Mexico) was a contested site for several decades. From 1829, when slavery was abolished in Mexico, through 1865, the year of the 13th Amendment, over 4,000 (and up to 10,000) enslaved Black Americans made the arduous journey from the U.S. to Mexico, evading posses in the Texas territories looking for rewards and crossing the deadly Rio Grande, searching for freedom.

As they rap in the opening number and closing reprise, “We didn’t know this shit…. The facts we never learned in history class.” How can we ever move toward a more perfect union without this knowledge?

In Mexodus, they tell the intertwined stories of Henry and Carlos. Robinson plays Henry, a young, enslaved Black man who was ripped away from his mother during his childhood and forced to do hard labor, and who flees to Mexico after killing a slave owner in self-defense. Quijada plays Carlos, with a backstory less well known to most USians: he was a Mexican soldier who fought for and helped secure his country’s independence from Spain, but lost everything — his family, his homestead, his livelihood — in the process, and is now an inexperienced tenant farmer working land owned by someone else and fearful of U.S. invasion. When Henry almost drowns crossing the Rio Grande, Carlos takes him in and they begrudgingly live together, until both a flood and Henry’s fugitive status bring them closer than ever. “Todos estamos juntas en esto, we’re all in this together,” Carlos explains.

In many ways, this is a standard two-hander in a bottleneck situation, but not as conceived and performed by Quijada and Robinson and ably directed by David Mendizábal.

Mexodus is also an electrifying live-looped concert experience.

The deceptively simple stage setup — designed by Riw Rakkulchon — has a large barn door, a string of bare bulbs strung over the orchestra, cotton branches poking through wooden crates, and a variety of old-timey speakers, musical instruments, and audio equipment stacked at either end of the stage. Quijada and Robinson crisscross the stage, picking up and playing various instruments, recording a musical passage or vocal motif into microphones, and stomping on the sound-effect boards scattered across the floors to create and loop the music that they then sing and rap over.

Robinson plays standup bass, piano, keyboard, and trumpet, and sings with a powerful, crystalline voice. Quijada plays accordion, guitar, harmonica, and percussion, beatboxes, sings in a gruff bass-baritone and raps at a lightning pace in both English and Spanish, and remixes everything at a central soundboard, disguised as a wooden crate. Audio engineer Simon Briggs also deserves recognition for his sonic wizardry.

In an extended comic scene, we watch Carlos work on the farm, performing on different percussion instruments, and Henry occasionally joining in by banging on his tin coffee mug. During a threatening storm, Robinson plays the piano and sings his heart out in a moving gospel number while Quijada conjures up a dysphonic storm on his soundboard. And during the opening night showstopper “Henry 2 Enrique,” they teamed up to create a full-on concert experience, rapping together in English and Spanish, and bringing the audience to its feet

It’s a high-stakes gamble to create their own score each evening, but they display a handful of aces, becoming their own full symphony and creating layered, complex tracks. The songs are the American dream of the melting pot, bringing together elements of both traditional and contemporary musical styles based in the U.S. and Mexico: Black spirituals and gospels, R&B harmonies, interpolations from hip-hop classics, Spanish classical guitar, and Mexican folk ballads, in addition to more traditional musical theater style ballads. All of this they perform with not only a technical mastery but an exuberance and joy.

The North Carolina-born DC transplant Robinson shares a personal story partway through the performance, noting that he is living the “wildest impossibilities” of his ancestors. Likewise, the Chicago-born and -based Salvadoran American Quijada shares his first memory of anti-Black racism.

These moments, along with their opening and closing numbers frame the musical as poly-temporal: it’s exploring the past through the hopes and fears of contemporary Black and Latinx Americans. The legacy of slavery and the treatment of people entering the U.S. through Mexico are ongoing and urgent. In their final number, they warn that “Black and Brown bodies continue to be hunted… America forgot she was supposed to welcome all.”

There are a few hiccups in Mexodus: sometimes the recording of the loop (as fascinating as it is to watch) pauses the plot progression or even dialogue; the characters feel more archetypal than fleshed out; and the farewell between Carlos and Henry seems overlong as they say goodbye over three songs. But that does not take away from this innovative and impressive theatrical experience. Head to the theater early to watch the accompanying documentary film playing and to visit the theater’s Indigenous Art Gallery.

Yes, Mexodus is deeply indebted to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, but it’s all the more powerful for that. If Hamilton leads to a hundred such musicals that sing to today’s audiences while exploring U.S. history through a contemporary lens, offering a brave space for writers, actors, directors, and creatives from underrepresented backgrounds to tell our complex histories, and providing an education in civics, we will all benefit from this. Todos estamos juntas en esto.

 Running time: 85 minutes with no intermission.

Mexodus plays through April 7, 2024, at Baltimore Center Stage, 700 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD. For tickets ($39–$74, with senior and student discounts available), call the box office at (410) 332-0033, or purchase them online.

The program for Mexodus is online here.

Mexodus then plays from May 16 to June 9, 2024, presented by Mosaic Theater Company performing in the Sprenger Theater at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE, Washington, DC. Purchase tickets ($42–$70) online or from the Box Office at (202) 399-7993 x501 or boxoffice@atlasarts.org from 11 AM–5 PM Monday through Friday, or two hours prior to a performance.

COVID Safety: Baltimore Center Stage’s current policy includes mask-optional performances on Thursdays, Saturday evenings, and Sunday matinees, and mask-required performances on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturday matinees. During those performances, masks may only be removed in designated eating and drinking areas. For more COVID-safety information, please visit here.

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A love of literature, a sense of community and collegiality, a few glasses of wine and a cheese board: these are the essentials of a good book club, but they don’t necessarily make for good drama. But in DC playwright Karen Zacarías’ The Book Club Play directed with warmth and good humor by Laura Kepley, now onstage at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore, the addition of a documentary camera and a new member creates chaos and comedy. It’s a fun, bookish farce for bookworms who want to share a knowing chuckle at a throwaway reference to Ulysses and the perfect play for “the city that reads.”

Ana Smith is the leader of the book club, a successful newspaper columnist who lives her perfect life with her good-natured husband in her beautifully curated home (an aspirational living room library set up in pale blue and cream designed by Andrew Cohen). And there is nothing she loves more in her little fiefdom than her book club. As played by Tuyêt Thį Phåm with exactness and control, Ana believes that book club brings out the best in people, creating community and elevating conversations. Ana has agreed to allow the legendary Danish filmmaker Lars Knudsen (the “K” is emphatically vocalized by all) to film her book club for a documentary that she believes will be screened at Cannes.

The cast — consisting mostly of Everyman’s Resident Company Members — gels well together, showing the sort of trust and rhythms developed by these actors who appear so frequently onstage together. Tony Nam plays Ana’s former college beau and best friend forever, the equally rigid and repressed museum curator William Lee Nothnagel. Megan Anderson plays Jennifer McClintock, a burnt-out paralegal whose long-ago dalliance with a senator has ended her legal career. Zack Powell plays the heartbroken comparative literature professor Alex, who upends group dynamics by suggesting they read bestsellers like The Da Vinci Code, and Bruce Randolph Nelson plays a bevy of documentary drop-in interviews from a fast-talking literary agent to a prison book peddler to a skydiving librarian. Each character played by Nelson becomes more ludicrous with more than a wink at Christoper Guest’s famous comic mockumentaries. There are two non–Company Members who are real scene stealers: Steve Polites plays Ana’s husband, Rob Novum Smith, a pharmaceutical rep with the easygoing demeanor of a golden retriever who only joins the book club for the food and company, and Majenta Thomas — who works in the box office at Everyman — makes her Everyman debut as Lily Louise Jackson, a cool, younger newspaper fact checker who aspires to have her own column… and was invited to join to diversify the book club’s membership.

While Ana hopes that her dear friends will be on their best behavior — if you’ve ever read a book, any book basically — you know this isn’t going to be the case. The camera creates and captures conflicts, more than one unexpected kiss, a coming-out story, a political sexual scandal, microaggressions, casual racism, marital discord, and an utter meltdown during filming.

Over the next six weeks, the group will thumb through six books to discuss together, with projection designs by Kelly Colburn recreating the books’ covers and offering the documentary’s lower thirds. In addition to the fun and salacious interpersonal dynamics, bibliophiles will love the actual scenes where they discuss literature with 30 books interwoven into the dialogue.

Between the selections and their discussions, we see that the group is engaging in some serious bibliotherapy. Jen’s choice of The Age of Innocence — the only book Rob actually reads  — awakens in the genial Rob a sense that something, his “flower of life,” is missing, and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code inspires Will to share his own big secret. There are debates about what merits great literature and gushing over the joy of pop culture reads. There are sperm whale and dick jokes while discussing Herman Melville’s classic and lamentations that Heathcliff has ruined romance for many straight women (sigh).

As Ana loses control over her book club, she decides to write her own novel/exposé, which becomes the group’s final read. But with this book club book about a book club in a play about a book club, this contemporary comedy reaches a new level of self-referentiality and metatheatricality. It’s also where The Book Club Play loses some of its fun as the characters turn on each other and all literary pretense dissipates, but this good humor is recaptured in the documentary’s “Where are they now” conclusion.

The Book Club Play doesn’t break new ground, but it also doesn’t need to. It’s silly and cozy and comforting all while being clever, too. It’s like curling up with your favorite book, or better yet, discussing it with your five closest friends over wine.

Running Time: Two hours with a 15-minute intermission.

The Book Club Play plays through April 14, 2024, at Everyman Theatre, 315 West Fayette St., Baltimore, MD. Purchase tickets ($29–$75) online or contact the box office by phone at 410-752-2208 (Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., and Saturday, 12-4 p.m.) or email boxoffice@everymantheatre.org.

Accessibility: Everyman emphasizes their commitment to accessibility for all, including those with economic challenges, with Pay What You Choose prices.

The cast and creative credits are online here (scroll down).

COVID Safety: Masks are encouraged, though not required. Everyman’s complete health and safety guide is here.

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After a two-year hiatus due to the global pandemic, Charm City Fringe is
thrilled to announce the highly anticipated return of the Charm City Fringe Festival from
September 29 to October 8, 2023. This year’s festival promises to be a reunion for the
books.

Just as reunions bring friends from the past together to relive cherished memories, the 2023 Charm City Fringe Festival aims to reunite the Baltimore theater community and recruit new faces to rekindle Baltimore’s live theater scene. Festival attendees can expect a lineup of 13 talented artists spanning various genres, and off-hours events like a Drag Brunch, and a free-to-the-public launch party. With over a week of shows at multiple venues throughout the Bromo Arts District, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

Highlights of the 2023 Charm City Fringe Festival include:

• Diverse Performances: Over 10 days, audiences can immerse themselves in an array
  of performances, from theater and dance to music and more. The festival lineup showcases emerging and established talent.
• Free Public Event: In addition to ticketed shows, the festival will offer a free public
  launch party on Thursday, September 28 at 7:30 PM at Le Mondo (406 N Howard St).
  It will be a great place to preview the shows, meet the Charm City Fringe community, and soak in Baltimore’s artistic community.
• Ticket Bundles: Charm City Fringe has exciting ticketing packages for attendees
  looking to see multiple shows. These bundles offer extra perks and savings for those
  who want to make the most of their festival experience.
• Local Business Partnerships: Local businesses have partnered with the festival to
  offer discounts and promotions to festival-goers, making it a city-wide celebration.
• Discover Bromo: Performances will take place in various venues across the Bromo Arts
  District, offering attendees the chance to explore the city and discover new spaces.
• Join the Fun: We encourage all attendees to embrace the “High School Reunion” spirit
  by dressing up in high school nostalgia garb. Whether it’s a varsity jacket, prom dress, or your best combat boots and black lipstick combo, add an extra layer of fun to the festival as we relive the past and celebrate the present.

Ticket Information: For more information on festival passes and ticket bundles, the festival schedule, and participating artists, please visit charmcityfringe.com/tickets

Charm City Fringe looks forward to welcoming everyone back to this long-awaited reunion and meeting new faces. This festival is not just a celebration of the arts; it’s a celebration of the Baltimore community’s spirit and resilience.

2023 Charm City Fringe Festival Lineup

• 50 Shades of Gay: 8th Anniversary by Ike Avelli
• Arson 101 by Kaylin and Levani
• Law & Order B.I.G. by Michael Harris
• Spank Bank Time Machine by John Michael
• Welcome to Splitsville by Matthew Sadowski
• Flurpa! by Rufus Drawlings
• Baal & Dix by Die Cast
• Who Gave Sylvia the Bottle? by Josh Wilder
• Alas, Confederates by Lights, Theatre, Action!
• The Galaxy Brain Experience by Joe Cahill
• 1973 Dodge Monaco Station Wagon by 25th Prime
• The Devil Within by Theatrical Mining Company
• Tweets You Can Hold: A Fashion Presentation by Jacob Zabawa, Theresa Columbus, Izaak Collins, Francisco Benavides, Luu Pham

About Charm City Fringe:
Charm City Fringe is a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing, showcasing, and
celebrating new and innovative theater and performing arts in Baltimore. Through its annual festival and year-round programming, Charm City Fringe provides a platform for artists to connect with audiences and fosters a vibrant arts community.

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The Folks at Home is a great play with a lot to say and a worthwhile jaunt into what feels like a sitcom set in a Baltimore townhouse. R. Eric Thomas’s script features an interracial gay couple in middle-class America dealing with an uncertain future with nutty parents in tow. They are behind on their mortgage, one partner has been laid off, and there might be a questionable, lazy ghost in the house who likes to watch them make breakfast.

And that’s just the beginning. When both partners’ parents find themselves in need of a place to live, a once spacious home becomes a claustrophobic hub of activity and drama. But situations that could easily become mired in sadness are saved through spunky quick wit and snarky retorts. The cast makes it so easy to laugh along, and the audience becomes the sitcom’s laugh track.

The Folks at Home — now playing in its world premiere at Baltimore Center Stage — touches on everyday struggles such as financial insecurity, different generational ideals, and uncommunicative partners in a way that allows you to relate without becoming depressed. Stevie Walker-Webb’s direction allows each actor to bring their character to life and let their light shine.

Simean “Sim” Carpenter’s set features a detailed Baltimore home. It is breathtakingly stunning, giving off sitcom vibes while bringing a vibrant rowhome to life. It allows the audience to see another side of Baltimore, an alluring side that people often forget exists. So often you hear about the drugs, crime, and corruption in Baltimore that the historic beauty of Charm City is overlooked.

The central couple Roger Harrison (played by Brandon E. Burton) and Brandon Littlefield Harrison (played by Christopher Sears) were rich and dynamic. Burton and Sears’s interactions felt very real, almost intimate… except for their kisses, which felt forced and awkward. Burton’s Roger was constantly looking for more and trying to matter in a world where he feels ignored, forgotten, even less than. Sears’s Brandon, his husband, is ever so optimistic, trying to be supportive, understanding, and loving in his simplicity. Even when things are bleak and overwhelming, he doesn’t lose hope and stands up for his love. These two men show how love is love through losses, eccentric in-laws, and a resident ghost.

The joy of The Folks at Home lies in its funny moments — from a snarky comment that garners a smile to a full-out belly laugh over a parental guilt trip delivered on the way up to the attic. Maureen Littlefield, Brandon’s mother, played with great eccentricity by Jane Kaczmarek, is a real treat. She is the in-law you must have a drink… or five to deal with. From her snark to her over-the-top drama, she is oddly endearing. Even with her racially insensitive comments, you want to root for her and pray that she gets a clue on racial relations. Her odd little quirks show up in her pregnant daughter Brittany played by Alexis Bronkovic.

Roger’s parents are equally as funny. Local favorite E. Faye Butler is outstanding as Pamela Harrison. Pamela and husband Vernon (played by Eugene Lee) are what so many of our parents become at a certain age. These two are witty and brilliant with a certain air of class even when dealing with loss and failure. You can see why Roger had such a tough time dealing with his life and his perceived failures. His parents worked so hard for so long, to matter, to show they are worthy, only to have nothing but memories to show for it. But even at their lowest when they had to let go of their pride, they had a quiet strength and you had to respect them. Even though there were times they didn’t see eye to eye with their son, they didn’t stop loving him, sharing their lives, and teaching their lessons. I loved the moment when Vernon told Roger, “I see you.” It’s the moment I think everyone wants to have. To be seen. To matter. To know you changed the world in some way.

Throughout The Folks at Home, there are moments of uncomfortable realness, but the humorous storytelling, the bigger-than-life personalities, and the boldness with which they take on life all while maintaining their loving hearts give you a charming window to look into their world.

Perhaps that’s why that ghost sticks around.

Running time: Two hours with one 15-minute intermission.

The Folks at Home plays through April 10, 2022, at Baltimore Center Stage, 700 North  Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD. For tickets (starting at $49 with discounts available for seniors and students) call the box office at (410) 332-0033 or purchase online. 

This season, BCS is working with a new technology platform, Assemble Stream, which will allow the company to live stream select performances from April 6 to April 10. Purchase streaming tickets ($30) online. 

The program for The Folks at Home is online here.

COVID Safety: Baltimore Center Stage’s first priority is the health, safety, and well-being of our audiences, staff, artists, and guests. Our current policy is that masks must be worn at Baltimore Center Stage and may only be removed in designated eating and drinking areas. Proof of vaccination—or a negative COVID PCR test within 72 hours of showtime — is required. BSC’s COVID-19 Information and Resource Page is here.

CAST
Alexis Bronkovic BRITTANY LITTLEFIELD/ALICE
Brandon E. Burton ROGER HARRISON
E. Faye Butler PAMELA HARRISON
Jane Kaczmarek MAUREEN LITTLEFIELD
Eugene Lee VERNON HARRISON
Christopher Sears BRANDON LITTLEFIELD HARRISON
Susan Rome MAUREEN LITTLEFIELD U/S
Roz White PAMELA HARRISON U/S

CREATIVE TEAM
R. Eric Thomas PLAYWRIGHT
Stevie Walker-Webb DIRECTOR
Simean “Sim” Carpenter SCENIC DESIGNER
Harry Nadal COSTUME DESIGNER
Sherrice Mojgani LIGHTING DESIGNER
Frederick Kennedy SOUND DESIGNER
Erin McCoy STAGE MANAGER
Avery James Evans ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
Jalon Payton, Eloia Peterson PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
PJ Johnnie ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Paloma Locsin ASSISTANT SCENIC DESIGNER
Grace Santamaria ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER
Tyrell Stanley ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGNER
JZ Casting Geoff Josselson, CSA Katja Zarolinski, CSA CASTING
Rachel Finley ACCENT COACH

SEE ALSO: Baltimore Center Stage 2021/22 season is a go (season announcement)

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The mark of a truly good theater piece is that, like life, it takes you though a range of emotions. At Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore, the whole of human experience is laid before you. And, just for giggles, the Pulitzer Prize–winning Wilder takes the audience on a trip through time and introduces new themes throughout. Also, woolly mammoths and dinosaurs (spoiler alert). The first time I saw this play I knew nothing about it going in, and I think that’s the best way to experience it. The concept is so unusual — and it breaks so many theatrical conventions we’re used to (even more so back in 1942) — that the chaos of trying to figure out what’s going on only adds to the intensity of the play’s action.

It is rumored that Thornton Wilder wrote this play in the actual trenches, and there are many bleak moments that reflect the gravity of war. But the piece was also written with a bit of humor, elements of the absurd and surreal, and even meta commentary and fourth-wall-breaking, which delights the audience. This fairly traditional production of The Skin of Our Teeth echoes Wilder’s original intent, and was directed by mainstay Noah Himmelstein, who calls the piece a “fantasia” that starts in a classic sitcom world and ends in the rubble of post-war New Jersey. To help you understand the scope of the piece, themes include: raising the next generation, Christianity, philosophy, familial problems, gender relations, war (and its aftermath), the treatment of refugees, civil unrest, marital infidelity, environmental destruction, politics, and history (and what we learn from it). There is also a lot of relevance to the current pandemic. So, buckle up.

The family in The Skin of Our Teeth represent the Bible’s original human couple and their children — in this case, father George (played by Jefferson A. Russell), mother Maggie (played by Beth Hylton), Abel (the favorite, long dead), Cain/Henry (played by Zack Powell), and Gladys (who represents “the normal child” — played by Deidre Staples). Long-suffering maid Sabina (played by Felicia Curry) rounds out the household. Their last name is Antrobus (from the Greek άνθρωπος [anthropos] meaning “human” or “person”), and Cain is renamed Henry to prevent George’s ire. The obstacles they face (aside from a seven-year war) resemble two of the Biblical plagues.

Director Himmelstein seems authentically connected to the meaning behind the themes and shows that he understands the mercurial nature of Wilder’s script. At the beginning of the piece, he directs his actors to be highly stylized and presentational, and then beautifully guides their zigzag into the chaos of asides, unexpected arrivals, puppets, and extreme special effects. He gives the gripping final act a delicate touch, allowing the actors’ natural talents to shine. There are also some wonderfully quiet moments. The chemistry and underlying good humor of the actors are palpable throughout, the moments of physical closeness are touching, and the space and levels are used to their utmost.

The cast is spectacular overall — with many of Everyman’s resident company members stealing the spotlight. But first on stage was Felicia Curry, who positively galloped into my heart with her nuanced performance. Already knowing she is DC’s sweetheart didn’t make much of a difference, since she is a great physical comedian and grabs the audience right from the top. She’s compelling and hilarious, with undeniable star quality, and gets to thrill in tiny outfits and post-apocalyptic road gear. It’s sad because her character Sabina takes the brunt of the awkward/toxic male-female dynamic that was pervasive in stories back then, and she grapples with being a third wheel on the couple’s marriage. She is either tempting George to cheat, ascending to being a “second wife” to him, or descending back to being a sexualized maid. However, her character gets the most asides and meta remarks, and therefore gets the most laughs. It’s probably an okay trade-off, considering she also gets to disavow the dirty B.S. that’s happening on stage by refusing to do certain scenes.

As George, Jefferson A. Russell was great at fluctuating between the overblown inventor, the politician, and the disaster survivor. George is a source for much of the history and philosophy in the piece, as he is obsessed with books and important men, and wants to make his mark. The character shows the inherent flaws in the patriarchal system. Russell has a commanding physical presence, and gets to show pride, reflection, defeat, and raging anger — all done well. I saw the indomitable hope in Russell’s eyes, felt the fruitlessness of his efforts in his body, and heard the weight of the world in his voice. Beth Hylton is perfectly cast as another multifaceted character, Maggie. Hylton’s self-assured performance is striking. She is made up as the ideal wife and mother, and wears it well, passionately embodying Maggie’s spirit of resilience. But, as Sabina says, she is a “tigress,” and the up-and-down relationship with George doesn’t help Maggie’s moods. The character shows that the partnership between men and women is deeply fractured, but necessary. And, sadly, she does stand by her man throughout, which means she has to deal with being the victim and the perpetrator of woman-on-woman crime. It’s difficult to watch. But at the end of it all, she is the “original mother,” and cannot escape her duty to nurture and rebuild.

The children (R.I.P. Abel, uncast) are a duo that swing wildly between competing, carousing, and committing crimes. Gladys is saddled with the fact that Cain/Henry is a literal murderer, and like, keeps murdering people for no reason, and this is kind of an ethical dilemma for her. Deidre Staples, in her first appearance with Everyman, glows in the part. She’s saucy, smart, and eager to please as the conscience of the family. Her warmth draws the audience to her, and Gladys perseveres to the end with the strength of a tigress cub. As Cain/Henry, Zack Powell is a broken heartthrob. He broods; he has a strong profile; he’s good at acting. Ugh. Powell plays the bad boy to a hilt — graduating from a petulant slingshotter in short pants to a malignant college kid to the Final Boss. He’s giving Kylo Ren vibes with the whole returning-unwanted-son thing. But Powell also gets some lighthearted moments in his socks and slides in Atlantic City, which he carries off well. It’s fun to see.

The rest of the cast was solid. Zack Powell and Deidre Staples were double cast, and got some quick changes and amusing bits in their ensemble roles. Danny Gavigan, Helen Hedman, Hannah Kelly, Tony Nam, and Bruce Randolph Nelson were like major players — filming news segments, driving the understudies scene, and taking on heavy puppeteering and caroling duties. Danny Gavigan captured attention as the thickly-accented Jersey messenger, Helen Hedman was captivating as the Fortune Teller, Hannah Kelly got lots of laughs as the Stage Manager, and Tony Nam was a charming newsman and political toady. But the audience favorite, as always, was Bruce Randolph Nelson. A diamond sparkles in even the dimmest light, and this humble yet spellbinding actor cannot help drawing eyes — even when he’s just manipulating a puppet. He even got to show off his “Balmer” accent, which drove the local regulars wild with laughter. The final actors who must be mentioned are the puppets (designed and directed by James Ortiz), which make a huge contribution to the atmosphere of the play. Some are cute, some breathtaking, and some provoke profound emotion. It helps that the players operate them with complete attention, silent reverence, and an appropriate level of empathy.

The rest of the creative team for The Skin of Our Teeth deserves praise as well. The squad includes Daniel Ettinger on set design, who succeeds well in his use of artifice. Abstract pieces hang to represent major structures and are complemented by the realism of floral wallpaper, chandeliers, and Elizabethan portraiture. The palette of the family house is a moody combination of grays, blues, and greens. For Act II’s Atlantic City, the scene appropriately switches to brighter colors, lit streetlights, and twinkling boardwalk signs. Finally, the dust-covered furniture, broken-out windows, and fallen roof of Act III reflect the destruction of war. For all three acts, the curtain backdrop is a Pollock-esque rain-speckled window that serves as ice, ocean, and smog. It descends halfway on one side for the third act, a haunting physical representation of the breakdown in the piece.

Costume designs are by David Burdick, and give a lovely wink to absurdism/clowning (Sabina’s polka-dot outfits), the East Coast (tweeds, woolens, leathers, and fishermen sweaters in grays and blacks), boardwalk culture (primary colors, boaters, and highwaters), Vaudeville (top hats and tails), and, of course, Biblical themes (Maggie’s snake dress). Everything was perfectly matchy-matchy, which I very much appreciated.

Lighting design was by Daisy Long, who thought well outside the box (and stage) with her boundary-breaking abstract designs for the apocalyptic events. Sound design and original music composition were by Megumi Katayama, and her work really stood out in the immersive and impressive underwater scene. Projection design was by Rasean Davonte Johnson, who provided a deluge of visual augmentation for the disaster scenes, along with the humor and added context of the newsreel segments.

Additional artistic credits go to Denise O’Brien as wig designer, Amy Kellett as scenic charge, Anna O’Donoghue as the dramaturg, and Lewis Shaw as the fights and intimacy coach. Jamie J. Kranz serves as stage manager, and Laura C. Nelson as the assistant stage manager.

Running Time: Two hours 45 minutes, including two intermissions.

The Skin of Our Teeth plays through January 2, 2022, at Everyman Theatre, 315 West Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD. The show may also be viewed online anytime from December 24, 2021, through January 15, 2022. Tickets (in-person, $29–$59; streaming, $19.99) may be purchased online or by calling 410-752-2208. Box office hours are Monday to Friday from 9 am until 6 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am until 5 pm.

The digital program can be viewed here.

COVID Safety: Everyman Theatre’s policies and practices are here.

Everyman Theatre is supported in part by grants from The Maryland State Arts Council (msac.org), The Citizens of Baltimore County, Mayor Brandon M. Scott, and the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts. Everyman is a proud member of the Bromo Tower Arts and Entertainment District, the Market Center Merchants Association, and the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

About Everyman Theatre: Everyman Theatre is a professional Equity company celebrating the actor, with a Resident Company of Artists from the Baltimore/DC area. Founded in 1990 by Vincent M. Lancisi, the theater is dedicated to engaging the audience through a shared experience between actor and audience. Lancisi partners with Managing Director Marissa LaRose. The company is committed to presenting high-quality plays that are affordable and accessible. They strive to engage, inspire, and transform artists, audiences, and communities through theater of the highest artistic standards. Everyman stands in solidarity with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and AAPI communities and is committed to an equitable, diverse, and inclusive atmosphere at every level. To learn more, visit everymantheatre.org/everyman-theatre-stands-solidarity.

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