In today’s Washington City Paper, I review two new plays being staged in unusual environments. The Welders’ Transmission, by playwright/performer Gwydion Suilebhan, is a thoughtful meditation on the hazards of storytelling, while Deirdre Kinahan’s Wild Sky is a human-scale look back at a pivotal moment in Ireland’s struggle for self-governance. It’s also the first show from Solas Nua in five years. I’m glad they’re back.
We know just how she feels: Linda Murray is just asking for chronic back pain in Portia Coughlin.
It’s no fun reviewing a show created by people you like and respect unfavorably. (And there’s a bit of it going ’round lately, seems like.) But this is The Job.
Also on DCist this week, my first Weekly Music Agenda.
Solas Nua’s Trad, reviewed in DCist today.
Mightily do I dig Solas Nua. Their Scenes from the Big Picture at Catholic back in May was what we pointy-headed aesthetes like to call “the shit.” I had a nice talk with Jessi Burgess, founder of the Inkwell, at their opening gala Saturday night. She’s directing the next Solas Nua show, Marina Carr’s Portia Coughlan, so we have reason to expect greatness, or at least grooviness.
SWAGGER, NOT STYLE 