What a drag it is trying to find and keep love. Really, is it just helplessly hoping, even if there are apps to help find true love? Add some unhealthy doses of cynicism, lousy communication skills and a slew of phobias, and voilà, you have the premise behind the new production of Happily Ever After by Spanish playwright Cristina Colmena now at the Ambassador Theater.

Happily Ever After is a set of three short acts, each about 20 minutes in length, about terribly lonely people. It is best classified as a very dark drama-comedy that chronicles struggles in three vastly different relationships. Whatever chemistry there once was has been depleted into either verbal recriminations and brick-bats or fears of flying into a relationship with tiny hints of happiness peaking through.

The play, written in 2013, is receiving its première at the Ambassador Theater. Colmena is a writer and playwright born in Spain, now living in New York. She writes film reviews, articles and short stories. Her play Happily Ever After was included in the New Plays from Spain series as part of the PEN World Voices Festival 2013.

Happily Ever After is directed by Hanna Bondarewska, Artistic Director and Founder of the Ambassador. In program notes, Bondarewska mentioned that Happily Ever After provides an opportunity “to discover new work from Spanish contemporary repertoire” and for “unveiling the richness of human nature.” The production features Karin Rosnizeck as “She” and Doug Krehbel as the characters “He.”

Each of playwright Colmena’s scenes provides snapshot-like observations of often irritating characters of different ages sorting through what they want and what they have. The dialogue is simple, direct and spare; full of set-ups and verbal responses. There is a one night stand with modest potential to last longer, a passive-aggressive break-up of a six-month relationship after the early romantic blush has faded, and a one-note Virginia Woolf-like, older married couple bickering as they celebrate 30 years of marriage with the purchase of a new bed.

A pleasing musical underscore for the production is the preshow songs selected by David Crandall. There are about eight pop songs from the 1950’s-2010’s. The titles and lyrics set a mood for the evening. The music flows through Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers doing “Why do Fools Fall in Love,” The Shirelles with their “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?,” Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love,” Melanie Safka’s “I’ve Got a Brand New Pair of Roller-skates” and others. There is also fitting music selected for the three scenes.

The set by Jonathan Rushbrook is effectively minimalist. At scene one, there is a long table placed lengthwise to the audience with bar stools. In later scenes, the two actors move the table, transforming it into a bed with side tables. There are projected video images of different clock faces for each scene. The clocks have moving hands and ticking noises, also from David Crandall. The ticking provides for passing of time along with some ominous expressions of foreboding.

The first act is entitled “Misunderstanding.” It is early evening. Each of the two characters, “She” and “He” has the opportunity to speak in monologue of the spark being gone. She arrives as if late. She is in a cocktail dress and heels, immediately beginning to fix her lipstick and brush her hair. She is waiting for someone as she gulps a beer. He saunters into the scene wearing sneakers, jeans and a backward-facing baseball cap. He sits at the other end of the table. He has a coffee. And waits. They speak to us jabbering about their annoyance with the other. We learn that they are waiting for each other, but are in different places waiting. What we learn from all their talk is that what was once exciting is now boring. They have cell phones. Neither makes an effort to call the other. The relationship ends with a whimper. It is a chilly scene; two people very much alone.

“Don’t Take it Personally” is the second act. A couple is waking up at 5 AM in bed. Neither seems sure of the other’s name. She wants him to go. It is her bed. Not that he is a bad man, but well, she is very protective of herself. She has been hurt before, no need to get involved again. She doesn’t want to give real romance a chance, even as he tries, well tries a little. A bit of protectiveness lifts with cute comedic lines and the chemistry between Rosnizeck and Krehbel. Little sparks appear in the night’s darkness. The sparks are made visible with a sensual tango (choreographed by Francesca Jandesek and Dan Istrate). But she is aggressively unwilling to go beyond the encounter. Her fear’s overtake her. He does not push the matter. Cue Randy Newman’s “Better Off Dead.” If only one or the other could push beyond their regular reactions they might have been two together and not alone.

Scene #3 is “Melodrama.” This is the least successful of the trio of stories. Two grumpy people married for three decades have forgotten what brought them together. They have just purchased a new bed. They pick at each other in monologues and directly. Words are like viscous stilettos for him. She wants to be held and cared for; that is beyond him. He will only take photos of her with a fake smile to send to their daughter and grandchild. Thought empty they would rather be alone together than alone without someone breathing next to them. What emotions that exist are her feigned and real melodramatic efforts to be held. It is an attempt at foreplay without reciprocity. Is the new bed to sleep on, for romance, or just a new place to watch television?

Accomplished with economy, Happily Ever After is an intermission free hour gazing at three unhappy couples; each unhappy in their own ways [thank you, Tolstoy]. Happily Ever After is a tongue-in-cheek title waiting for a comma with a next phrase starting with “if.” Ah, what a mess it is finding and keeping love fresh. Still we try our best to find that special one.

For your reviewer let us end with this Randy Newman song title as a final coda, “I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today.”

Photo Gallery

Doug Krehbel and Karin Rosnizeck	Karin Rosnizeck and Doug Krehbel

Photos provided by Ambassador Theater

Cast

• She: Karin Rosnizeck
• He: Doug Krehbel

Design and Production Team

• Directed by Hanna Bondarewska
• Choreography of Tango: Francesca Jandasek and Dan Istrate
• Lights: Stephen Shetler
• Costumes : Basmah Alomar
• Sound and Visual Effects Design: David Crandall
• Stage Manager: Madelyn Farris

Disclaimer: Ambassador Theater provided a complimentary media ticket to ShowBizRadio for this review.

The Cold War and the Berlin Wall have disappeared from the front pages. They are no longer recent memory. The Ambassador Theater has brought back those days of duplicity and intrigue when East and West meant the Soviet Union and the United States were at odds. The time is the mid-1970s. And the production is Protest a probing work by Czech playwright and often jailed dissident Vaclav Havel, who later with the break-up of the Soviet Union, became Czech Republic President.

Protest is a compact production with a script built around self-deception and the power of language to confuse in a very murky world. It is built around characters representing two poles of how people can react to artistic censorship and cultural oppression. It is a small-cast, rather literary work in nature, rather than an action adventure. It has calibrated arguments as the weapons of choice.

Havel’s work paints a world composed of two stark opposite positions; either dissident or compromiser. He raises question to ponder. Who can you trust when your own freedom is at stake? What will you do to survive? How far will you go to prevent the loss of your own livelihood, or a risk a prison term for speaking out against the State?

For the Ambassador Theater, Protest is “an indictment of individuals who refuse to protest corrupt political systems and collude for their own personal advantage.” Protest is a pocket-sized, 65 minute intermission-less event that begins with a dissident (Vanek played with cool, upper-class manner by Michael Crowley) who returns home from prison after a protest against the government. Vanek is called by an old friend (a slimy, nervously talkative Stanek played by Ivan Zizek). Stanek is a compromiser who has much to lose including a well-off life.

Director Gail Humprhies Mardiosian has added theatrical flair in her chess match conception for the play. She has brought a twist by including two female “counter egos” to the Vanek and Stanek characters. There is an icy cool, inward-looking Sissel Bakken as Vankova, the counter ego to Vanek and a boundlessly animated, outward-looking Hanna Bondarewska as Stankova the counter ego to Stanek.

With the Ambassador staging, the audience becomes a witness to a duplication of dialogue delivered by the various female and male pairings. It is a deconstruction of the text and reconstruction. It asks if there is a substantive difference with a gender switching of roles. Or is it just unnecessary confusion?

The production pivots on what is to be done for a jailed young musician who has connections to the compromiser Stanek/Stankova. How far should someone go to help; sign a public protest document that risks negative consequences?

The set design by Jonathan Rushbrook immerses the audience into the production as eavesdroppers. There are 15 or so small round tables in the intimate Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint. The audience is in a low ceiling underground café where political debates are thought possible without prying eyes and ears.

The set has an alley down the middle on which the characters pass, bumping into each other. At either end are risers where much of the narrative of the play transpires. Over time the swiveling needed to keep up with the change of direction of the action and dialogue was disconcerting even with Zachary Dalton’s helpful lighting.

Music by Jerzy Sapieyevski is a score with electronic synthesizer. It is a key ingredient to the production’s overall experimental styling. And playwright Havel was known for his interest in music as a subversive device. And as aside, with the recent death of Lou Reed the media made mention of Havel’s interest in Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground and the term “The Velvet Revolution” for the Czech actions against the Soviet Union in the late 1980’s.

Protest is fascinating, but it may not be for everyone. It may have greater allure for those with awareness of Vaclav Havel’s remarkable life and his development as an artist and a dissident. It will also be an attraction to those with a historical absorption with the Cold War.

But then again, as one of Havel’s Protest characters suggests, “The more you’re exposed, the more responsibility you have towards all those who know about you, trust you, rely on you and look up to you, because to some extent you keep upholding their honour, too!” Those are timeless words not connected to a particular time and place.

Note: For mature audiences. The performance of Protest is part of the Mutual Inspirations Festival 2013, celebrating Vaclav Havel’s life and legacy as a former president, playwright and human rights advocate.

Cast

• Vanek: Michael Crowley
• Vankova: Sissel Bakken
• Stanek: Ivan Zizek
• Stankova: Hanna Bondarewska

Technical Artisans

• Directed: Gail Humphries Mardirosian
• Music: Jerzy Sapieyevski
• Set Designed: Jonathan Rushbrook
• Costumes: Sigrid Johannedottir
• Sound Design: George Gordon
• Light Design: Zacarhy Dalton
• Stage Manager Jim Vincent
• Technical Director: Joseph Walls

Disclaimer: Ambassador Theater provided a complimentary media ticket to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Under the Shadow of Wings is actually two different one act plays, Death of Tintagiles by Maurice Maeterlinck and Karna and Kunti by Rabindranath Tagore. Maeterlinck and Tagore each won the Nobel Price in literature in the early twentieth century. Karna and Kunti was a 20 minute play focusing on Kanta’s preparations for war until his mother, the goddess Kunti, appears. Death of Tintagiles follows Tintagiles as he is pursued by the Queen and his sisters Ygraine and Bellangere try to protect him.

Karna and Kunti took place at a stream as Karna (Gavin Whitt) was prearing for battle. He sees a vision of Kunti (Meera Narasimhan) in the surface of the water. Excellent music, sound and visual effects by David Crandall and Marianne Meadows’ lighting design created a mysterious ambience. Caridel Cruz’s costumes were colorful and ornate. Karna and Kunti was more literal than Death of Tintagiles.

After a brief intermission, Death of Tintagiles lasted just over an hour. The piece featured 12 year old Misha Ryjik as Tintagiles, Hanna Bondarewska as his sisyer Ygraine, and Paula Rich as his other Bellangere. The story focuses on the attempts of an unseen Queen who wants to steal Tintagiles. Numerous aspects of the story are symbolic, and the symbolism is very much open to your own interpretation. Again, special video effects were played on the upstage wall throughout and were quite effective, especially as Ygraine was searching for Tintagiles. In this play, the costumes were more simple, which allowed you to focus on the story instead of the details. Acting throughout the two plays was sincere.

After the performance the cast was available for a discussion about the plays. The discussion lasted about 15 minutes, and was very interesting for clarifying a few points of the plays.

With interesting visual and sound effects, and sincere acting, Under the Shadow of Wings is an opportunity to experience an early symbolist play and a portion of the Sanskrit epic The Mahabarata.

Director’s Notes

Death of Tintagiles presents a tale of an innocent party who gets swallowed by evil incarnate. Karna and Kunti depicts a warrior on the eve of the battle he knows in advance will be his undoing. In both cases maternal figures appear to protect the victims and ward off disaster, but the disaster ineluctably takes its course. Both are heavily symbolic, but symbolic of what? The powerlessness of innocence in the face of evil? The danger of attachment? The valor necessary to assume in a world in which the individual has limited control over personal destiny? Both Tagore and Maeterlink joined ancient models-the great Indian epic The Mahabarata and medieval fairy-tales respectively- with modernist retellings, deliberately leaving out essential connective tissue that the audiences accustomed to realism demand; they did so to re-focus the audience on the image rather than the story, and their trust that the audience would be capable of deciphering the mystery bespeaks these large-spirited authors’ ultimate confidence in humanity.

Karna and Kunti dramatizes one small episode in the vast fresco that is The Mahabarata, the classical mystical epic poem that is a bedrock text of Indian culture. Karna, a celebrated warrior with a curse on his head, is meditating on the eve of what he already knows will be his one and only defeat, one which will bring the end of his life. His cousin and opponent Arjuna, will come on him as he is repairing a wheel to his chariot and slay him. Arjuna is fighting for the five intrepid Pandavas, while Karna has affiliated himself with the hundred Karawas, a desultory band who have relied on him for all their previous victories consequently giving in to sloth and carelessness. Karna believes himself to be the son of a humble charioteer, while he is in fact born of the goddess Kunti. The stories from The Mahabarata (akin to Homer’s Iliad in the West) contain esoteric lessons, but can also be taken on their face as adventure stories.

-David Willinger

Photo Gallery

Photos provided by Ambassador Theater.

Karna and Kunti Cast

• Karna: Gavin Whitt
• Kunti: Meera Narasimhan

Death of Tintagiles Cast

• Ygraine: Hanna Bondarewska
• Tintagiles: Michael “Misha” Ryjik
• Bellangere: Paula Rich
• Agovale: Rob Weinzmier
• Servants: Mary Suib, Gavin Whitt, Meera Narasimhan

Crew

• Directed and designed by David Willinger
• Music, Sound and Visual Design by David Crandall
• Lighting Design by Marianne Meadows
• Set Construction by Andrzej Pinkowski
• Costumes by Caridel Cruz
• Stage Manager Adam Adkins
• Produced by Hanna Bondarewska

Disclaimer: Ambassador Theater provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Hopa Tropa! What is that you ask? It is the latest production written and directed by Bulgarian playwright Lilia Slavova, as part of the Kids Euro Festival taking place in Washington DC. Primarily aimed at children, this show is an experience for audience members of all ages. The show is an exciting look into Bulgarian culture and folklore performed through song, dance, and puppetry. Performed by four actors and spoken entirely in Bulgarian, three of the actors were American and had to face the challenge of learning the language, culture and puppetry in order to successfully pull off the show. They did their job well considering one woman in the audience who was Bulgarian claimed she had been completely fooled into thinking that all four of the actors were actually from Bulgaria.

The show was very energetic and funny, set up perfectly to keep children engaged and interested the entire time. The show went through two stages; in the first the actors played a series of traditional Bulgarian games, and in the second there was the puppetry. The puppetry was an element of the show that shone completely on its own. Julia Tasheva, the only Bulgarian actress in the show as well as Master Puppeteer led her fellow actors in creating an amazing array of characters. Unlike any form of puppetry I’ve ever seen, all four of the actors worked together using various objects such as wooden spoons, gourds and blankets to transform them into a single puppet. One actor would be controlling the hands, the other the foot, another the head, and all the while moving as one.

There was a dynamic about Julia Tasheva’s performance that indicated skill and knowledge. Vocally and physically she was very proficient in creating characters and voicing the puppets. Alex Vernon gave an energetic performance and was given a chance to display his improvisational and comedic chops when he voiced one of the puppets and interacted with the children. Ben Gibson gave a charismatic performance, playing clumsy and cute. Sarah Olmsted Thomas also gave a very charismatic performance.

The set was designed by Antonio Petrov who created a beautiful and colorful set reflecting the vibrancy of the show that coincided beautifully with the traditional Bulgarian clothing worn by the actors. Musical Arranger Petko Kolev composed a series of upbeat traditional songs, some of which had a very pop like contemporary feel to them. Ivan Dimitrov choreograhed a series of traditional dances that were performed throughout the show. In the end the audience had the chance to get off their feet and join the actors in dancing a traditional Bulgarian dance, a good way to keep the energy going and end with a bang!

Children are the target audience for the show, which is easy to forget since the fascination of the puppetry bought out the giddiness in everyone. Throughout various times in the show children are bought on stage to interact and play with the actors. There is always something entertaining about seeing young children being thrust on stage in hopes that they will say or do something cute and funny, and they do. This show is a must for children, as well as parents who will surely be just as captivated by the beauty and vibrancy of Bulgarian culture.

Director’s Notes

It all happened really over night! I was give the chance to be part of the Euro kids festival and most important to do it in Ambassador Theatre I went…crazy! I was so excited about the opportunity that in a few seconds I decided everything about the show. It seems I have been waiting for that chance! I knew what I wanted to direct, the idea was born in a few seconds, the name ever faster. What is more stimulating than the chance to introduce your own culture to American audiences, and even more, to American children? I have been directing shows from all over the world, but now I was given the chance to show the folklore side of my own culture. I used to dance in a children folklore group, sing in children’s chorus in my country, and I studied puppetry in the institute of Dramatic Arts. This, plus my years of teaching kids (30!), all put together made sense to me. The idea to also have American actors doing it was uplifting! Dances, songs, games, sounds, traditions, rituals, and colorful costumes, plus authentic objects that are part of our near past, all that material inspired me to write a play with almost no words. For me, the images are enough to tell a simple story! I want the show to cheer our patrons; take them on a journey to my beautiful country-Bulgaria. The best way to educate children is through playing, that’s how they learn the best and retain the longest. Let’s take our children on a short trip to a lovely little country where the traditions are still alive! I am one lucky, lucky director! I have the best actors who with the enthusiasm and not only some of the best in this business, but they all are my dear friends as well!

Come and enjoy a taste of Bulgarian culture! -Lilia Slavova

Cast

• Julia Tasheva, Master Puppeteer
• Sarah Olmsted Thomas
• Ben Gibson
• Alex Vernon

Crew

• Director: Lilia Slavova
• Set Design: Antonio G. Petrov
• Choreography: Ivan Dimitrov
• Stage Management: Amanda Grossman
• Puppet Design: Julia Tasheva
• Musical Arrangements: Petko Kolev
• Lights: Stephen Shetler

Disclaimer: Ambassador Theater provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Three men stranded on a raft in the middle of the ocean are hungry and tired of waiting. They want food and they want it now. What will they do to satisfy their hunger on this raft with no resources? Their appetites are strong, and the men do what they must in order to survive. As the play moves along, there comes a point where everyone is seemingly happy and satisfied, depending on how you look at it. Needless to say, the ending will leave you fairly perplexed, in the same way the movie Dogville by Lars Von Trier left people scratching their heads trying to figure out the true message. One minute you think you have got it, the next you may even be a little offended, but the most important thing is that you are thinking. And that is the intent? To make a point, and at the same time never quite get to the point, which forces you to come to your own conclusion. Within the lines of absurd theatre, the playwright’s message on human nature and the will to survive is backed by a bitter political undertone.

Out At Sea–written by Polish Playwright Sławomir Mrożek–is the Ambassador Theatre’s premiere production performed at the Flashpoint Theatre in Washington D.C. Director Hanna Bondarewska has generated a production that is both haunting and powerful. The intimate space forced awareness to the message of the play. The set seemed to fill up a space that is considerably small, creating a larger than life effect.

This play could not be done without a cast of actors who have an intricate understanding of the characters that they portray. While all questions may not be answered, their understanding is what brings such depth to the script. The three main characters played by David Bryan Jackson, Stephen Shetler, and Rob Weinzimer did not have names; they were considered to be “thin, medium, and fat.” Through physical and vocal expression, the notion of these words was brought to life. I applaud all three actors for embodying “their word,” with the complexity that is necessary for a piece such as this. This must have been a very exciting and challenging concept for the actors to grasp, revealing deeper meanings within the process. Delivering an equally notable performance, T. Anthony Quinn played minor roles throughout the production. His presence delivers a message that seems to be overlooked by the men on the raft.

To say that director Hanna Bondarewska is happy to be premiering Out At Sea at the Flashpoint Theatre would be an understatement. She is ecstatic and has good reason. Out At Sea is a play with a message that still stands strong today, despite the fact that it was written over forty years ago. She has opened the eyes of many theatre fans, to international playwriting that many are not too familiar with. Ambassador Theatre is new on the scene, but their message is both exciting and innovative. I sincerely enjoyed this production, and recommend it to anyone who would like to expand their theatrical repertoire, and explore all perceptions of theatre. After all, as theatre goers, that is our responsibility.