© 2009 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive

AllArtsReview4U The finest reviews of the performing and visual arts from the DC and Baltimore area plus contributions from around the country and the world! Abanico de Soltera (Fan of a Single Woman) by Bob Anthony The script doesn't do justice to the excellent acting of Andrea Juliá in 'THE FAN OF A SINGLE WOMAN" at this 12th Annual International Festival of Hispanic Theater. She was a consummate actress as she played out a fantasy of unrequited love and used a toy male doll to recreate her romance. Hers was an award-winning performance! She constantly led with her diaphragm like a skilled dancer or actor and sculpted her body into a gamut of different emotions that were all stunning works of art. Yes, the abstract content of the script may have confused some but her reading her "poet's" poetry along with stunning metaphors often gave chills. ("He was a man of the world...no the world was in this man".) She developed more empathy on stage than a dozen of our top actresses. Gustavo Testa provided excellent and sensitive running-music for the production. This may be the "tops" in the festival. DC Theatre Scene Washington’s Liveliest Theatre Website Abanico de Soltera (Fan of a Single Woman) by Rosalind Lacy Whether Andrea Julia is fluttering a fan, talking to a doll, or writhing in agony with a wire sculpture, this chameleon-like, Argentine actress embodies Federico Garcia Lorca, the great Spanish playwright, and the voices of his characters in a tour-de-force performance in Fan of a Single Woman (Abanico de Soltera). The staging is stark. A trunk, stuffed with costumes, and stacked with suitcases and a hat box is set center stage. From overhead, dangling wire sculptures replicate Lorca’s grotesque drawings, as mysterious as the playwright’s plays. Against this backdrop, Julia (accent on the last syllable), costumed in a sheath of beige lace, re-enacts a collage of his most famous female roles in a dramatic monologue, written by the actress for herself. “I knew it all,” Julia intones, like an overture to a musical composition, as she launches into her carefully crafted, stream-of-consciousness. What Julia does to make this poetic theater so gut wrenching and compelling is in the use of body movement that transcends mime. Read more Metro Latino USA Continúa con éxito en Arlington el XII FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE TEATRO HISPANO Abanico de Soltera (Fan of a Single Woman) by Rafael Crisóstomo De sencillamente magistral podríamos catalogar la obra Zapatos Andaluces que hasta este fin de semana presenta el Teatro de la Luna dentro del marco del XII FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE TEATRO HISPANO Allí quedamos impresionados por el personaje Any... Una artista, una estrella en decadencia, una mujer que ha perdido todo… Y aún así, optó por volar al infinito de posibilidades. Una metáfora sobre el arte, la vida, el amor y la muerte. Un espectáculo donde se conjuga la ilusión, el canto, el humor, la magia y el baile. Una historia de vida, una historia de amores. Una vorágine de sentimientos, por momentos muy encontrados, nos mantiene en vilo en un tiempo que no lo pudimos calcular. La actriz uruguaya Susana Anselmi da vida a Any con una calidad interpretativa realmente hipnotizante. Esa nostalgia de vida de una actriz decadente que por momentos bordea la locura pero con esa lógica de la vida misma y que nos lleva y trae de este mundo con facilidad ilógica en un mundo disparatado. Momentos de hilaridad y drama al unísono signados por la tragedia en el fracaso –o el amor–, donde Any escapa con facilidad increible dotada por esa magia cultivada en su largo camino del circo en un interesante diálogo entre el amor y la muerte manejados en un abanico de posibilidades de la vida misma. Read more DC Theatre Scene Washington’s Liveliest Theatre Website Nuestra Señora de las Nubes (Our Lady of the Clouds) by Rosalind Lacy Aristides Vargas, who was born in Argentina but lives in Ecuador, takes us on a jaunty, if not disjointed journey that evokes that hollow, pit-in-the-stomach feeling that comes from arriving in strange, unfamiliar places. Our Lady of the Clouds (Nuestra Senora de las Nubes) reminds us that no matter where we travel or relocate, we are exiles carrying the same emotional baggage. Physically we may be in a new place, but in our minds we’re in the past. We may be unsure of where we are; but we never forget where we were. Fellow travelers through their life journeys, Bruna (Viena Gonzalez) and Oscar (Claudio Rivera) meet in a nondiscript location, and discover they are from the same town, Our Lady of the Clouds, but neither recognizes the other. Both are hefting huge suitcases, decorated with black and white feathers on one side, and shuttered windows on the other. The images on these prominent props are well-chosen. Read more DC Theatre Scene Washington’s Liveliest Theatre Website El Gato y la Gaviota (The Cat and the Seagull) by Rosalind Lacy Every storyteller knows that a good fable has a moral. The Cat and the Seagull has a beautiful one, loaded with enough imaginative power to spellbind adults as well as pre-schoolers for 50 magical minutes. But look out! One of the cats making an aisle entrance may land in your lap. Jacqueline Briceno’s stage direction, backed by co-director Marisol Flamenco seems aimed at drawing out the physicality of the Teatro de la Luna actors, who make the bird and cat roles credible and real. The results are a joy to watch as the actors’ gleeful zest shines through for this cautionary tale about the dangers of ocean oil pollution. But what is also impressive is Briceno’s adaptation of Luis Sepulveda’s novel History of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her How to Fly. Her snappy bilingual dialogue, intermingling Spanish with occasional remarks in English, allow the English-only speakers to follow the action without headsets or sur-titles on an overhead screen. It’s just enough to give the narrative clarity without slowing the pace. (It also reinforces learning two languages at once.) Nonetheless, it certainly helps to know the plot. Don’t be confused by how the play begins at the end of the story and then flashes back to the beginning. Presenting the story this way hypes the suspense and keeps you on edge. Colonnello (Marcella Ferlito), a rather snarly, menacing cat, and Sabelotodo, whose name means Know-It-All (Alex Alburqueque) are searching for their missing friend Zorbas (Peter Pereya), the cat with a conscience whose mission has earned the cats’ respect. Zorbas, a black cat, has succeeded in teaching the little seagull, Afortunata (also played by Ferlito) to fly. But Zorbas, troubled by an empty nest now that the little bird has flown away, has isolated himself in the church belfry to scan the sky and feel closer to her. It is only when Zorbas relives how he not only protected but also adopted Afortunata as a daughter that we begin to understand the back story…..which is: Read more DC Theatre Scene Washington’s Liveliest Theatre Website La Cáscara del Huevo (The Eggshell) by Rosalind Lacy In The Eggshell (La Cascara del Huevo), a comic-satire conceived by the wonderfully inventive Killbob Theater Company from Cordoba, Argentina, a middle-class family is on a journey to the Super Duper Great Country, which could be any developed country in the world. The travelers are hoping that a mysterious estate settlement will bail them out of their financial problems. First we hear the eerie sounds of a dog barking in the blackout, a foreboding for what’s ahead. The catchy, original musical arrangement, by Matias Ibarra, announces the entrance of the three-person acting team onto a bare, black box stage. An elderly maiden Auntie (Mariela Carrera), is traveling to hear the reading of the will that promises her an inheritance, left to her in the old country. Younger relatives, the young Mother, ( Daniela Trakal) and Daddy, (Matias Ibarra) are her companions and guardians. From overhead speakers, an airport official speaks with authority, like the voice of God: Have you paid your fees? Cha-ching (vocal sounds imitating a cash-register) “What’s the purpose of your visit?” “Tourism? “Or terrorism?” “Have you trafficked in drugs?” “Do you have subversive ideas?” The tempo speeds up: “Are you carrying needles, scissors, knives, automatic machine guns, grenades, or nitro-glycerine…?” Read more