196 stories by "Sophia Howes"
Long before he wrote about her, George Bernard Shaw referred to Saint Joan as one of those "half-witted geniuses, enjoying the worship accorded by all races to certain forms of insanity." He…
The fabled Royal Shakespeare Company brought its Hamlet to the Kennedy Center this week, in a production fully worthy of its glittering reputation. The RSC Hamlet is lavish, bursting with fr…
“A work of art has value only if tremors of the future run through it…” — André Breton (1896"1966) French writer, poet, and founder of Surrealism. Artistic Director P…
"Nothing is funnier than unhappiness," says Nell in Samuel Beckett's Endgame. Druid's production of Waiting for Godot at the Shakespeare Theatre Company proves the truth of this statement ag…
There is always a good reason to see Tonya Beckman perform, and she is a superb Don Juan. Her rendition of the famous seducer is beguiling but at the same time horrifying, like watching a pa…
“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” – James Baldwin Southern humor, gentle charm, and the awkward…
It was a real pleasure to interview Aaron Posner, acclaimed playwright and director, who is directing Shakespeare's The Winter’s Tale, which opened at the Folger Theatre on March 13. I…
Noura, the story of a Chaldean Christian refugee from Iraq, is a magnificent production. The acting is first-rate, the technical aspects flawless, the whole experience complex and full of de…
Something Rotten! at the National Theatre reminds us of why we loved theater in the first place. The Broadway show received ten Tony nominations, and this national tour is pure joy. The cast…
The Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of Hamlet, directed by Michael Kahn, is a rich, multi-layered interpretation of a uniquely great play. Hamlet is central to the Western literary …
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." So said F. Scott Fitzgerald, at the end of The Great Gatsby. Waxing West, by Saviana Stanescu, is the story …
The Way of the World, a deft satire of the mating habits and financial vicissitudes of the 1%, arrived at the Folger Theatre last night. It was a hilarious evening. Theresa Rebeck's comedy, …
The National Chamber Ensemble's Holiday Cheer! on December 16 was a celebration of great music. The charming and witty Artistic Director and leading violinist, Leonid Sushansky, sees each pe…
Many consider Twelfth Night Shakespeare's supreme achievement in comedy. It is also one of his most popular and frequently produced plays. George Bernard Shaw, who hated Shakespeare, describ…
Straight Outta Denmark Hamlet has a storied history, and the title role is one of the greatest in Shakespeare. It is also universally parodied:Â the BBC's 60 Second Shakespeare tabloid re…
 Big Brother Really, Really Likes You Your online identity does not belong to you. Digital Eye, a transatlantic theater project that was presented Monday and Tuesday, October 16-17, at Bl…
Emilie Our Contemporary Emilie du Châtelet, scientist, mathematician, lover of Voltaire, genius, is a perfect example of the power of women in the 18th century and today. Many of the c…
All for Love Noted critic Harold Bloom once said, "We certainly can say that Cleopatra and Antony do not bore each other, and they are bored, erotically and otherwise, by everyone else in th…
Stevie Zimmerman has a reputation in DC as a "must-see" director. She received her bachelors from Oxford and her masters from the University of Leeds in England. She directed The Pitmen P…
The pairing of a director and a playwright is a mysterious thing. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But sometimes, as here, it is a perfect marriage. The Lover and The Collection by …
The vignette "Secret" encapsulates the ingenuity of Forum Theatre's production of Caryl Churchill's Love and Information. Two office workers sit at their computers, back to back. One (Samy E…
Diamond Julesy Gets It Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has recently become a cause célèbre. When Caesar was portrayed in a Public Theater production with a Trump-like costume and wig, there we…
Dorothy Parker claimed, famously, that she was "just a little Jewish girl, trying to be cute." In fact, she was a legendary wit; the first female drama critic in America; and a successful wr…
With a breezy "Hi, y'all!" Clyde Ensslin welcomes us to the complicated story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, as told by none other than Big Bill Clinton himself. It's a chance to rel…
David Ives brings the comedy of Molière, with this hilarious "translaptation", into the 21st century to delight us all. With The School for Lies, The Shakespeare Theatre Company presents an…
