Tag: Penumbra Theatre

Review | benevolence: scary-powerful

Penumbra Theatre, through March 10

Difficult. Difficult, and presented with unrelieved intensity. This is an apt description of benevolence (playing at Penumbra Theatre Company through March 10). If you’re looking for feel-good entertainment, a sweet and undemanding play to watch while you digest a rich…

Review | Black Nativity: pure delight

Penumbra Theatre, through Dec 24

Great balls of Gospel fire! Toe tapping tuneage! Satan-busting religiosity! Take me now, Lord! If Black Nativity (Penumbra Theatre, through, appropriately, Dec 24) doesn’t utterly transport you into an exquisite world of Gospel-fueled Christmas passion, well then, you have deep…

Wedding Band: a frightening love story

Penumbra Theatre, through November 12

Interracial marriage used to be illegal? Yikes. That was in the Bad Old Days. We now live, thank heaven, in an era in which love = love. Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court (Loving v. Virginia in 1967; the recent…

365 Days/365 Plays: a breezy and enjoyable collection of skits

Full Circle Theater Co., performing at Penumbra, through June 11

Full Circle Theater Company, presenter of Suzan-Lori Parks‘s refreshingly unpretentious 365 Days/365 Plays, lists, in the program, “Co-Artistic Directors” – Rick Shiomi and Martha B. Johnson. As well as a “Core Artistic Group” – James A. Williams, Stephanie Lein Walseth…

Black Light: Be A Witness. Shine A Light.

Penumbra Theatre through February 12

You could go to Jomama Jones‘s BLACK LIGHT, and just enjoy Jomama’s considerable talent as she presents herself in sparkling evening gowns, a foot long afro and four-inch spiked heels. You could listen to the songs, bask in the talent of…

Jitney at Penumbra Theatre

August Wilson’s plays are not slice of life dramas with straight-as-a-knife plotlines. They embody broad swaths of Black history played out decade by decade. Jitney, now at Penumbra Theatre, is no exception. Set in the 1970’s, Wilson employs gossip, personal…