A buddy comedy that takes on apartheid
Odd couples are a durable storytelling device. Who better to outline one character's particulars than their total opposite? With 'Kunene and the King,' playwright and star John Kani aims to demonstrate far more than the mere differences between two men.
The 82-year-old artist, whose legacy of activism onstage stretches back more than half a century, attempts to coalesce broad, thorny arguments about the fraught history of apartheid South Africa into this two-hander now running at Shakespeare Theatre Company. It's a noble undertaking and an unwieldy one, not least because the old timers he imagines butting heads aren't just stubborn but impervious to change.
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Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Lawmakers get theatrical at annual ‘Will on the Hill' show
Several lawmakers took a break from debating legislation on Capitol Hill to instead recite William Shakespeare at Harman Hall on Tuesday evening. The Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) hosted its annual 'Will on the Hill,' welcoming members of Congress, journalists and students to perform popular Shakespeare scenes to fund its youth arts education programs, which reach nearly 20,000 students and teachers across the region. The more than 20-year long tradition also seeks to promote bipartisanship, bringing together lawmakers and political strategists from across the aisle to bolster support for theatre and the arts. Rep. Dina Titus's (D-Nev.) performance of the last scene of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' was the hit of the night. Her interpretation of old-English Shakespeare, which included a Southern accent, made the crowd roar in laughter. Another notable performance was the standoff between the Capulets and Montagues, two enemy families, in the opening scene of 'Romeo and Juliet.' As Atlantic journalist Steve Clemons, Republican political strategist Grover Norquist, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) and Fox News correspondent Rich Edson bit their thumbs at each other on stage, the producers noted that giving them foam swords was the safest amid a tense political climate. The crowd then commended Sen. Chris Coons's (D-Del.) impersonation of Brutus plotting the assassination of Julius Caesar in the Shakespeare play of the same name. With political tensions rattling the country, seeing lawmakers fumbling over their words and trying to remember their lines proved to be refreshing entertainment. The elected officials were accompanied on stage by Holly Twyford, a pillar of D.C. theatre, and Renea Brown, an award winning actor. The show also included a stage combat demonstration by STC students. An elementary school student brilliantly played King Oberon in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' and two high school students performed 'All's Well That Ends Well.' STC Executive Director Angela Lee Gieras praised the event as an opportunity for children to express themselves, highlighting the courage it takes to perform in front of an audience. This year's performance was presented by Michael Evans, former Democratic chief counsel and deputy staff director for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, who is an avid Shakespeare enthusiast. Samantha Wyer Bello, STC's senior director of learning, returned to direct her sixth production of 'Will on the Hill.' The STC also honored the memory of the late Democratic Reps. Gerry Connolly (Va.) and Charles Rangel (N.Y.) for their dedication to public service and their year-after-year support of 'Will on the Hill.' Other notable cast members included Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI), D.C. Council chairman Phil Mendelson, DC councilmember Brooke Pinto, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities executive director Aaron Myers, Washington Post columnist James Hohmann and Politico journalist Olivia Beavers. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
13 hours ago
- The Hill
Lawmakers get theatrical at annual ‘Will on the Hill' show
Several lawmakers took a break from debating legislation on Capitol Hill to instead recite William Shakespeare at Harman Hall on Tuesday evening. The Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) hosted its annual 'Will on the Hill,' welcoming members of Congress, journalists and students to perform popular Shakespeare scenes to fund its youth arts education programs, which reach nearly 20,000 students and teachers across the region. The over 20-year long tradition also seeks to promote bipartisanship, bringing together lawmakers and political strategists from across the aisle to bolster support for theatre and the arts. Rep. Dina Titus' (D-Nev.) performance of the last scene of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' was the hit of the night. Her interpretation of old-English Shakespeare, which included a southern accent, made the crowd roar in laughter. Another notable performance was the standoff between the Capulets and Montagues, two enemy families, in the opening scene of 'Romeo and Juliet.' As Atlantic journalist Steve Clemons, Republican political strategist Grover Norquist, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) and Fox News correspondent Rich Edson bit their thumbs at each other on stage, the producers noted that giving them foam swords was the safest amid a tense political climate. The crowd then commended Sen. Chris Coons' (D-Del.) impersonation of Brutus plotting the assassination of Julius Caesar in the Shakespeare play. With political tensions rattling the country, seeing lawmakers fumbling over their words and trying to remember their lines proved to be refreshing entertainment. The elected officials were accompanied on stage by Holly Twyford, a pillar of D.C. theatre, and Renea Brown, an award winning actor. The show also included a stage combat demonstration by STC students. An elementary school student brilliantly played King Oberon in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' and two high school students performed 'All's Well That Ends Well.' STC executive director Angela Lee Gieras praised the event as an opportunity for children to express themselves, highlighting the courage it takes to perform in front of an audience. This year's performance was presented by Michael Evans, former Democratic chief counsel and deputy staff director for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, who is an avid Shakespeare enthusiast. Samantha Wyer Bello's, STC's senior director of learning, returned to direct her sixth production of 'Will on the Hill.' STC also honored the memory of the late Democratic Reps. Gerry Connolly (Va.) and Rep. Charles Wrangle (N.Y.) for their dedication to public service and their year-after-year support of 'Will on the Hill.' Other cast members included Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI), Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), D.C. Council chairman Phil Mendelson, DC councilmember Brooke Pinto, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities executive director Aaron Myers, and Politico journalist Olivia Beavers.
Washington Post
04-04-2025
- Washington Post
Andrew Scott and Hugh Bonneville lead dueling takes on ‘Uncle Vanya'
A half dozen or more Chekhov plays have hit major stages this spring, with renowned actors biting off big roles — or all of them at once, in the case of Andrew Scott — and invigorating the writer's legacy as a preeminent chronicler of the human condition. This month, Cate Blanchett concludes her West End run in a cheeky, modern spin on 'The Seagull,' while her 'Tár' co-star Nina Hoss leads the Brooklyn transfer of a British take on 'The Cherry Orchard' that's both intimate and bombastic. Now, the Northeast Corridor is telling a tale of two Vanyas, with Hugh Bonneville of 'Downton Abbey' headlining a broad and airy 'Uncle Vanya' at Shakespeare Theatre Company, while Scott shape-shifts in 'Vanya,' a London-born solo version shot through with melancholy now running in New York's West Village. Both are fresh, plain-spoken adaptations but could be two entirely different plays if they didn't share the same source material — the genius of which partly lies in its malleability. There are infinite ways to live a life — or to endure, as Chekhov's characters often feel they must — but only a handful of guiding forces when you really boil it down: Desire, purpose, money, death. (Anything missing probably falls under the first.) You can laugh or cry about it, and Chekhov demonstrates the pleasures and necessities of doing both. Humor is played to the hilt in artistic director Simon Godwin's staging at STC, which swiftly assumes the rhythms of a drawing room comedy. There is a haut bohemian vibe to the country estate where Bonneville's Vanya and its other perennial residents are compelled to entertain a couple of intrusive city folk: his late sister's widower, the vain intellectual Alexandre (Tom Nelis), and his beguiling, much younger new wife, Yelena (Ito Aghayere). The doctor, Ástrov (John Benjamin Hickey, soulful as ever), is called to tend the former's gout, but lingers to admire the latter's beauty. It's obvious up front that Sonya (Melanie Field), Alexandre's daughter and Vanya's niece, is smitten and the doctor oblivious — she practically nips at his heels like a puppy. Vanya, here an especially slobby slave to impulse, openly confesses his love for Yelena, who shoos him like a slobbering dog. The stage is set for disappointment all around, though you wouldn't know it for much of the show. The prevailing mood of leisure betrays only brief hints that they're all quite miserable underneath. That's because in this telling most everyone says exactly what they mean, whether the streamlined dialogue of Connor McPherson's translation encourages them to not. Subtlety and subtext seem to be out for a leisurely hike. McPherson shifts the setting from Russia to the Ukrainian countryside, where there's a polyglot feel to the ensemble, from Bonneville's British tongue to the booming vowels of Craig Wallace, who lends the family's penniless dependent an unusual assurance. Vanya's mother (Sharon Lockwood), known here as 'Grandmaman,' even gets a French saveur. This collection of disparate cultures — in a story that's ultimately about home — gleans cohesion through design. Robert Brill's romantically distressed set (peeling ivory paint, plush upholstery, faded wood), and the elegantly layered costumes by Susan Hilferty and Heather C. Freedman, add appealing depth and texture where the performance style favors a flat directness. Bonneville's Vanya is an amusing cad, disarming his resentful gripes with humor that's more charming than it is rightfully pissed off. His performance is an absolute pleasure. But it means that Vanya's pivot to indignation — when Alexandre proposes selling the estate — is too abrupt to buy. He does not ultimately seem like a man who'd try to take anyone's life into his hands. Joyful though it is, the production's levity costs it believable gravitas as fates descend into resigned ambivalence. Misery in Chekhov so often arises from secret or frustrated longings, which simmer just below the surface, and then boil people from the inside or erupt with scalding intensity. Here, the players are either too easy to read (poor Sonya) or a bit too good at keeping that turmoil under wraps until the moment it bursts into view. There are benefits to this approach: The co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where Godwin's staging premiered in February, is delightfully buoyant and easy to follow. Little guesswork is required to intuit how anyone really feels. But a thread goes missing when we don't feel like confidants to Chekhov's characters, privy to the inner conflicts they otherwise keep hidden. Scott has the benefit, in this regard, of being the only one onstage in 'Vanya,' adapted with fleet economy by Simon Stephens and directed with ease and ingenuity by Sam Yates. Every exchange feels like a secret confession. Every character trembles with something they dare not say out loud. There's coyness, intrigue and even palpable eroticism between thwarted lovers who never appear side by side. Somehow, it's also funny as hell. Scott's embodiment of each character is so vivid and distinct that you can imagine the whole array of them present at once — and how they would respond in a scene, even in their phantom absence. One of the intoxicating effects of his performance is that it allows you to observe a whole constellation of desires, worries and regrets mapped out by a single body. It's a testament to the actor's protean emotional range and readiness that he's able to illuminate so many shades of life. It's also thrilling proof that Chekhov captured the very essence of what it means to be human. Uncle Vanya, through April 20 at Shakespeare Theatre Company's Harmon Hall in Washington. About 2 hours and 35 minutes with an intermission. Vanya, through May 11 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York. About 1 hour and 50 minutes without an intermission.
