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We didn’t see In DisDress, Marya Sea Kaminski’s one-woman show, when it was part of On the Boards' Northwest New Works Festival last June, but from what we gather, it involved a huge red dress, a television set, and porn. The Washington Ensemble Theatre restaging of that show, In DisDress Now Redux, doesn’t involve any of those things (though porn does get a shout out), and the title primarily exists to allow for the Apocalypse Now reference. Though originally intended to be an expansion of last year’s show, this performance is completely different. As the playwright explains, “I am not capable of and am absolutely not interested in being the person I was seven months ago, even in performance.” Fair enough. more ›

Saturday we went to go see The Museum Play at WET. We've been musing over what to tell you about it since then. It's a world premiere, see, and why give the story away? So few things these days have the opportunity to surprise us. If you don't care about that then by all means, read this Weekly review, or this bizarre, what-was-he-drinking? one in the P-I. [UPDATE: Here's the Stranger's AW! with a response within shouting distance of ours, and the Times' Misha Berson, with whose review we also find ourselves nodding agreeably.] more ›

The one-woman show Child of Hungry Times is being hosted by WET, which is holed up in the former Little Theatre space, at 608 19th Avenue East. more ›

In the final show of its second season, the Washington Ensemble Theatre tackles a question for the ages: The answer is not so much a play as a series of ruminations, borne of an open-ended actor's game in which several of WET's founding members (amongst other UW theater students) participated. The ensemble developed it further over the past year into the work as it now stands, buoyantly directed by Marc Kenison and playing until May 29th. more ›

While there are other characters in Swimming in the Shallows---a lesbian couple ready to get gay-married and a straight couple whose marriage is falling apart over the literal number of things they own---as far as we're concerned, this is the "gay sharkboy" play. Or at least, the love story between a man and a shark is the plot point everyone seems to cite when it comes to this production, currently showing at the Washington Ensemble Theatre. Quirky and engaging, quite simply, this is the funniest play we've seen in a long time. more ›

On Friday night Seattlest caught the Washington Ensemble Theatre's production of Crave. Not to be confused with one of our favorite restaurants in town, this play is the handicraft of Sarah Kane, a brilliant, troubled artist who spat out five intense and violent works before hanging herself at age 28. The marketing we've seen for the play would like you to think that the play is "sexy and brutal." Make no mistake---this play is definitely brutal, but focusing on the topic of sex does not automatically make something sexy. Crave is certainly anything but. more ›