'King John' is another Shakespeare to see before you die

Charles A. Buchel (1872-1950), Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852–1917), as King John in 'King John' by William Shakespeare, Victoria and Albert Museum/Wikipedia

Australia's national Shakespeare theatre company, Bell Shakespeare calls William Shakespeare's King John, one of his five most underrated plays "to see before you die," and lucky for those of us in the DMV, there's still time to see it before the play closes July 26 at Washington's Shakespeare Theatre Company.

“No, I defy all counsel, all redress,
But that which ends all counsel, true redress.
Death, death, O amiable, lovely death!
Thou odoriferous stench, sound rottenness,
Arise forth from the couch of lasting night,
Thou hate and terror to prosperity,
And I will kiss thy detestable bones,
And put my eyeballs in thy vaulty brows,
And ring these fingers with thy household worms,
And stop this gap of breath with fulsome dust,
And be a carrion monster like thyself

So speaketh Constance (Molly Malone), the mother of Arthur (Sadie O'Conor), lamenting his death and her own reasons for dying when she succumbs to "madness."

King John hosts matters from its 13th century timeline to today by way of power and the begetting of more. 

Arthur was the nephew of King John (Eric Lane) who went to battle with the French King Phillip II (Amber Mayberry) who thought the English throne belonged to Arthur. King John, a suspected interloper to the crown, thinks France belongs to him. 

Enter the Pope's Cardinal (Maryanne Henderson), the church angry with John over his refusal to acknowledge the Archbishop of Canterbury and excommunicates the king, siding with Arthur's claim to the throne. 

John's mother, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (Tracy Coffey) is a powerful women who dies and so does Arthur, leaping (or thrown a la Russia?) from a castle's walls after his capture by John. 

At the urging of the Cardinal, the French Dauphin Louis (Reese Cowley), who has married John's niece, Blanche (Layali Aljirafi) attacks England. John becomes ill from poisoning (by a monk) and hides in an abbey where his son, Prince Henry (Alex Ross) arrives to witness his father's death and be crowned king amidst peace.  

Got all that?  Good.  

There's lots more to the story, of course, and director Aaron Posner brings out the best in his King John  students from the Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy, a stunning class of soon-to-be graduates of the Master of Fine Arts program STCA conducts in conjunction with George Washington University. 

The performances belie the short time, one year, the students have spent at STCA.

Throughout the production, interjections of lively choreography (by Nikki Mirza) with lip syncing and mime to contemporary music (by Matt Nielson and others) mixes today with yesterday and desired appeal to a younger audience. 

Be great in act, as you have been in thought, King John encourages his nobles to act and not let dreams wander  without action. 

King John's tomb in Worcester Cathedral, England/Greenshed at English Wikipedia

The play is presented in repertory with The Taming of the Shrew,  the final acts for the students in the program. 

Other in the cast are Elizabeth Loyacano as Hubert; Michael Burgos, Lord Bigot; Cammiel Hussey, Angiers citizen and Pembroke; Edie Backman, Earl of Salisbury and executioner; and Sydney Sinclair, Chatillion and Count Melun; and Ali Karambash, Duke of Austria.

Minjoo Kim's lighting is especially effective. The set is the useful remains from STC's Frankenstein. 

Others on the creative team include Renea S. Brown, assistant director; Becca Janney, costumes; Lisa Ann Beley, props; Robb Hunter, fight director; and Bess Kaye, intimacy director. 

What:  King John

When:  Through July 26, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in repertory with The Taming of the Shrew 

Where: Klein Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, 450 Seventh St., NW, Washington, DC 20004

Tickets: $20 

Audience: For adults and mature children 

For more information: Call the Box Office at 202-547-1122, seven days a week, 12 – 6pm. The Box Office windows remain open until curtain time.

Duration:  About 2.5 hours with intermission 

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Four great audiobooks by Dolly, Mel, Rod, and Billie Jean

They would be Mel Brooks, Rod Stewart, Dolly Parton, and Billie Jean King, talking about themselves in their autobiographies (or in Dolly's case, talking about her costumes) which are all spot-on good and often hilarious!

I listened to their audiobooks on my phone, compliments of the Fairfax County Public Library, and they are listed in the order I listened. 

Except for Stewart's, the authors read their own works which is sometimes a rarity that an author reads her or his own book, but the author adds more credibility, depth, and true emotion to the product and it's a highly desirable feature.

In her charming East Tennessee voice, Dolly (b. 1946) lays it all out about her costuming, her hair, her appearance with the perfect title of her book to boot:  Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones (2023, 4.5 hours).

And you know it's all got to be true since Dolly says it. 

She talks about the designers, how she met them, hired them, and how she fits inside their creations. She even has her own archivist, Rebecca Seaver, who helped with the production of the book, with Holly George-Warren who, presumably, interviewed Dolly in the Q and A style presented. 

Is it true that Dolly wears makeup to bed? 

That she bucked the era's styles and hairdos at an early age won't surprise anyone who knows the least thing about her. Dolly insisted on her own wants and comfort in her clothing and skin. To heck with fashionistas and styles. Dolly Parton has always been her own woman and listening to this book can instill a lot of confidence in readers. 

She talks about her fittings which, one time, didn't go so well when she popped out of her costume on stage (those danged buttons!), but a rush job to refit her quickly was (not surprisingly) successful and away she flew back to the audience.

Natch, the book has a lot of country music history in it.

The book by Billie Jean King (b. 1943) All In: An Autobiography (2021) with Johnette Howard and Maryanne Vollers, 18 hours, is excellent, about her upbringing, her supportive parents, her growing tennis passion as she matured, and she reveals for the first time the assault she endured by a friend's father when Billie Jean accompanied the family on a trip when she was a teenager.

The book is long and mostly worth every minute of listening (with the exception of the lesbian relationships which I mostly skipped since they were unappealing to me).  

The portion about her 1973 match with Bobby Riggs could be a separate book itself! 

Her honesty, like Dolly's, like all of them here (!), shine through pure and simple.

This is a must book by anyone serious about tennis, especially women.

Rod Stewart (b. 1945) - oh, my! In Rod: The Autobiography (2016), read by Simon Vance, 11.5 hours, the subject admits he is a bad boy....quite an understatement.

With so many encounters with women I’m surprised he’s still kicking.

He's now on marriage #3 and relationship, # ???  His children (eight by five women) don't seem to mind though, since they've recently gotten together for a group photo.

He doesn't leave much hidden and talks about his youth and how important and supportive his loving parents were.  That Rod was the youngest of five children may have played a role in his success.

Now, at age 80, he's on a world tour, including a six-night stand in Las Vegas this fall. 

And then there is Mel Brooks (b. 1926; 99 last month!), making me laugh almost all the way in Mel Brooks: All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business (2021), 15 hours.

He's as hilarious as you'd expect, beginning with his childhood and gradually growing into a comedian's role, including an Army stint. He describes his nurturing family background, his brothers, learning and life on Broadway and movie productions, of especial interest to me with small knowledge of how they're done. 

His magical marriage to Anne Bancroft (1931-2005) and their loving relationship are what many of us can only dream about, but a 2021 interview in (I think it was) the Guardian reveals her death is still too painful for him to discuss. 

He says almost nothing about his first marriage (to Florence Baum) although it produced three children, with whom it appears he gets along. Mel's attention to offspring is devoted to his and Anne Bancroft's son, Max (b. 1972 ) the one who, during covid, encouraged his dad to write his autobiography for "what else are you gonna do?"  

In all the hundreds of people Mel Brooks worked with in film and theater, the book or audio contains nothing negative about anyone, that I recall. 

If you have any interest in performing arts production and/or Broadway, this is a must read/listen book.

Treat yourself to some fun and diversion and listen to these;
I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

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Super-humans dazzle at Shakespeare

7 Fingers in Duel Reality/Photo by Zemi Photography

Unless you’ve lived with monkeys, you have never seen dance, acrobatics, leaps and bounds like this.

The gasps filled the hall at Shakespeare Theatre Company where members of the 7 Fingers troupe flew through the air hanging onto chains, ropes, poles and each other.

Breathtaking! 

Thrilling! 

Unbelievable! 

I have never seen anything like it: performers flying, quoting Shakespeare on the swing and soaring up, up and up to take flight, and they did! 

Cast in Duel Reality's "Romeo and Juliet"/Photo by Zemi Photography 

Flipping over and under, somersaulting, hanging upside down while they joined each other in air, zipping up and down as if they were monkeys swinging high on banana trees. 

The performers were ice skaters without ice, ballet dancers in the air, dancing pas de deux, ending with "Romeo and Juliet" (Gerardo Gutiérrez and Michelle Hernandez) as peace enveloped them and they moved back and forth on a swing, high in the air, their silhouettes contrasted against a sunset backdrop, a romantic ending after they had enraptured the audience who breathed a sigh of relief that no one had fallen, lost a limb, or stumbled (well, a teeterboarder a time or two for extra thrills).  

7 Fingers in Duel Reality/Photo by Emmanuel Burriel

The scariest of the performances had to be the "teeterboard" (or seesaw to those who teetered on them as children), the board bouncing back and forth as a man on each end leaped in the air somersaulting, maybe, 50 feet high before landing on the board again, his weight propelling the other man up into the great blackness of the stage.

Being off a millisecond can spell immediate injury; the hours spent rehearsing can only be guessed. (Teeterboarders in the troupe are Nino Bartolini, Einar Kling Odencrants, and Carlos Francos Péré.)

Notwithstanding (!) the greatest hula hooper you will ever see, Ashleigh Roper who, at one point twirled (I think it was) six hoops (I lost count) around her waist, her arms, her legs and standing on one foot, twirling, twirling the hoops nonstop.

To the outstanding show, Colin Gagné's original music added depth and emotional enjoyment, sometimes with a single piano key joined by a bass or violin, guitar, sometimes a harmonica to create tension and expectation. 

I don’t usually care too much for audience participation (I'm coming to be entertained, after all, not to be the entertainer) but the number which introduced Duel Reality was all right: Upon entering Harman Hall, we were given red or blue wristbands to support the red or blue team on stage and shout encouragement as a judge determined the winner of each match. 

We threw our wristbands towards the stage to show our favs, and in the end, we all came together in a show of unity (reminiscent of but, sadly, not realistic of the current political state of affairs in the U.S.A).  

What better place to mix Shakespeare than at the Shakespeare Theatre Company? 

Duel Reality is part of the DC International Theatre Festival and a small portion of the repertoire of 7 Fingers, a Canadian company founded in 2002 by seven circus artists. 

But these perform without nets!

They come from all over the globe, many who began their training while still in single-digits.

Other members of the ensemble are Daniela Corradi, Adam Fullick, Vitor Martinez Silva, Miliève Modin-Brisebois, Anton Persson, Méghane Poulet, Santiago Rivera, and Colin Vuillème.

Members of the artistic team: Shana Carroll, director, writer, choreographer;  Alexander Nichols, lighting; Camille Thibault-Bédard, costumes;  Maude St-Pierre, production; Simon Carrière and Audrey Belzile, technicals; Anna Kichtchenko, assistant to the artistic director; and Francisco Cruz, acrobatic coach.

WHAT:  Duel Reality by 7 Fingers

WHEN:  Through July 20, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 2 p.m. matinees, Saturday and Sunday; and 1 p.m. matinee, Wednesday, July 16, 2025.  

Special performances: Open captions, 2 p.m., July 12, and 7:30 p.m., July 17. Audio-description, 2 p.m., July 19. Audio-enhanced system available at all performances.

WHERE: Harman Hall, Shakespeare Theatre Company, 610 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20004

HOW MUCH: Tickets start at $39 (with fee included). 

AUDIENCE: For ages 6 on up although I dare say, younger children will be mesmerized, too.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Call the Box Office at 202-547-1122, seven days a week, 12 – 6pm. The Box Office windows remain open until curtain time.

DURATION:  About 80 minutes without intermission (but the time seemed half that).

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