Weird is the word at Woolly Mammoth Theatre
Charles Mee's play Full Circle went up at the Woolly Mammoth Theater last weekend and, as the Theater's website warns, it is quite an "unconventional experience."
The Woolly Mammoth Theater began in 1980 in Washington D.C., born from the imaginations of two men: Howard Shalwitz, the artistic director of the theater, and Roger Brady. The main maxim is "Defy Convention," words that can be found in numerous places throughout the building. As the 30th anniversary of the Theater approaches, its members are going farther than ever to live up to this motto.
Chuck Mee's play, which was written 11 years ago, is inspired by The Chalk Circle, a play that originated in the era of Chinese Yuan Drama, and has gone through many adaptations since then. However, at the beginning of Full Circle, it is virtually impossible to imagine how this piece has any relation at all to its predecessors.
The play begins with the audience seated in front of a screen, which is on a small stage, in a small room. Three actors in ridiculous suits come onstage and perform a very short, rather absurd scene from a political play in which a man who represents Communist China speaks in wild gibberish and strikes a deal with a Western capitalist.
A video then appears in which Erich Honecker, who led the Democratic Republic party in East Germany, sits with his wife, their infant son Karl Marx Honecker and two bodyguards, discussing the play from which the previous short scene was taken.
Honecker is played by Sarah Marshall, a company member at Woolly Mammoth for nearly 20 years, who also plays two other male roles in the show very convincingly.
Heiner Muller, a famous 20th-century dramatist and artistic director of the Berliner Ensemble, who was responsible for the production, comes out and speaks with Honecker, flattering and groveling at every opportunity. Muller is played by the artistic director of Woolly Mammoth, Howard Shalwitz, who shows a natural ease and stage presence in his ironic role.
The Woolly Mammoth Theater began in 1980 in Washington D.C., born from the imaginations of two men: Howard Shalwitz, the artistic director of the theater, and Roger Brady. The main maxim is "Defy Convention," words that can be found in numerous places throughout the building. As the 30th anniversary of the Theater approaches, its members are going farther than ever to live up to this motto.
Chuck Mee's play, which was written 11 years ago, is inspired by The Chalk Circle, a play that originated in the era of Chinese Yuan Drama, and has gone through many adaptations since then. However, at the beginning of Full Circle, it is virtually impossible to imagine how this piece has any relation at all to its predecessors.
The play begins with the audience seated in front of a screen, which is on a small stage, in a small room. Three actors in ridiculous suits come onstage and perform a very short, rather absurd scene from a political play in which a man who represents Communist China speaks in wild gibberish and strikes a deal with a Western capitalist.
A video then appears in which Erich Honecker, who led the Democratic Republic party in East Germany, sits with his wife, their infant son Karl Marx Honecker and two bodyguards, discussing the play from which the previous short scene was taken.
Honecker is played by Sarah Marshall, a company member at Woolly Mammoth for nearly 20 years, who also plays two other male roles in the show very convincingly.
Heiner Muller, a famous 20th-century dramatist and artistic director of the Berliner Ensemble, who was responsible for the production, comes out and speaks with Honecker, flattering and groveling at every opportunity. Muller is played by the artistic director of Woolly Mammoth, Howard Shalwitz, who shows a natural ease and stage presence in his ironic role.
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