Recommended by Ian Thal

This playful sex farce manages to also contain gorgeous poetry and a satirical meditation on the rise, fall, and restoration of both aesthetic and libidinal freedoms -- with a wink at the commerce, nasty skullduggery and political compromises that could get us there. Its message seems to work no matter who is in government.

I reviewed the 2019 Theatre Prometheus production in Washington, DC:

https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/theater/article/21081670/theat…

Lindsay Joelle has a playful ear for language, informed with a deep cultural anthropology, so that her dialogue evokes a world in which Chabadniks brush up against periphery of the Jewish world, in which traditional forms of Judaism encounter the secular world, even if just to pose questions to one another. I was pleased to catch the opening scene in a reading presented Jewish Plays Project and later to review the world premiere:
https://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2018/06/06/review-trayf-a-world-premiere…

A darkly sophisticated comedy that dances on the guillotine blade's edge between laughter and political violence. You may end up questioning what you think you know about historical figures like Marie Antoinette, the role caricatures serve in justifying tyrannical actions, and how the idea of revolution could bring reforms at the cost of compassion, forgiveness, and the conscience of a society undergoing upheaval.

I reviewed the Boston area premiere in 2017: https://artsfuse.org/165280/theater-review-the-revolutionists-comedy-du…

A well-crafted romantic comedy and immigrant story with charming yet flawed characters. No glamorous jobs, no luxurious apartments, no expectations of a big break, just some confused people trying to sort out their material, sensual, romantic, and spiritual needs in a gritty yet cosmopolitan city.

I reviewed the Washington DC premiere for Washington CIty Paper: https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/theater/article/21111923/pilgr…

In “Museum 2040” Calarco explores just one possible way the divides in American society could rupture in a speculative history that imagines developments in both American politics and pop-culture over the next twenty years while reminding us just how bizarre the events of the last twenty years have been. The immersive nature of the event makes us consider that we do not always understand the significance of present as we live through it, but also how significance is subject to debate or irreconcilable differences. The recent past can be an open wound — and so is the future.

While the emotional journeys of June and Alice are central, it's Cefaly's attention to craft and structure that make the script stand out. The Alabama farmhouse is not an insularity, but intimately connected in surprising ways to a world that also includes NYC and Pakistan. Its themes of trauma and overcoming through acts of creativity are reflected the June's painting, Alice's photojournalism, and Cefaly's own experiments in fourth-wall breaking magical realism and strong sense of mythology.

Jonathan Spector's Eureka Day is a brilliant satire of how the utopian dream of the welcoming community can be an invitation to conspiracy theories, anti-scientific thinking, medical quackery, and toxic wokeness, whether into the curriculum of a progressive school or in a social media discussion. The social media scene, in particular, comprises a wonderfully hilarious cacophonous comic crescendo –– but Spector is sure to remind audiences of potentially tragic consequences as well. (I saw the 2019 Mosaic Theater Company of DC production.)

While Yeung mines academic wit and undergraduate glibness for comedy, "Theory" is a tragedy in the Hegelian sense: a collision of irreconcilable ethical world views and this collision makes for an immensely intelligent and provocative drama that will resonate with anyone who has ever had to question their beliefs or their allegiances and discomfort those who are too certain of themselves.

It's a thrill both on page and on the stage.

I reviewed the 2019 US premiere for Washington City Paper: https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/theater/article/21096508/theor…...

Set in Haifa during Israel's Second War with Lebanon, "At Night's End" presents a nuanced, yet tragic inquiry into what it means to be a soldier for a democracy when a future in politics is closely linked to service -- and what the trauma of combat does to family life, generation after generation.

Motti Lerner is a tragedian in the truest sense of the word.

I reviewed a staged reading of "At Night's End" in 2012 presented by Israeli Stage:

http://artsfuse.org/51366/fuse-theater-commentary-a-complex-view-of-lif…

Andrew Clarke's script is a witty farce of academia that satirizes the recent tendency in the humanities to pursue connections with the pop-culture industry for dollars and seeming relevance (much as the sciences pursue corporate and government funding). Given the way some academic theater departments have sought to cozy up with the film, television, and video game industry in recent years, is Clarke biting the hand that feeds him? Maybe, but any satirist worthy of the name is going to bite a few hands.

I reviewed CentaStage's production of the 2015 premiere:

http://artsfuse.org/134077/fuse...