Hello again. Well, it's been a while since I've posted. The reason? Oh, something about work and not having enough time. The usual story. But after spending a few months in the 1940s with Josef Stalin (www.pbs.org/ behindcloseddoors) and writing about punks in America (book to be published later this year), I'm happy to write a little about the great things going on in D.C.
In the past two months, Washington has had two top theater companies produce plays by the great Tom Stoppard. The Folger Theater (201 East Capitol Street, SE) has put on a wonderful version of Stoppard's "Arcadia" while the Studio Theater (501 14th Street, NW ) has been running his more recent "Rock 'n' Roll," the first local production of this play.
I was able to see both shows recently and strongly recommend them to anyone with a sense of humor and a decent dose of intellectual curiosity. No, you don't need to know much about English landscape gardening, Newtonian determinism, Prague Spring, British Communism, or The Plastic People of the Universe, subjects that Stoppard's characters discuss and debate. It's the questions behind these issues that draw us in: What attracts us to study and learn? How do people survive when they can't freely choose their own paths? What happens when people realize they've spent their whole lives believing something that isn't true? Stoppard looks deeply at these questions while weaving together story lines so tight that even mathematics becomes compelling. Or rather, the study of mathematics becomes compelling.
His plays generally draw a good crowd in Washington, and both of these plays have been extended. "Arcadia" ends next Sunday, June 21, while "Rock 'n' Roll," which opened in mid-April has been extended until Sunday, June 28.
I saw Rock 'n' Roll on a pay-what-you-can preview. It was entertaining and serious at the same time.
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