The Motion: Nancy Robinette – Photo: Kian McKellar
Following closely in the wake of courtroom drama Inherit the Wind, Arena opens the forum of its in-the-round Fichandler Stage to another heated debate on the nature of humanity, among other things, in Christoper Chen’s The Motion.
A new play by Obie Award-winning writer Chen, The Motion may someday prove to have the lasting cultural impact of Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee’s 70-year-old courtroom drama. For now, audiences can weigh its impact nightly, enjoying this gripping production, staged by Arena artistic director Hana S. Sharif.
Sharif uses the space fluently for what begins as a straightforward two-on-two debate between scholars arguing either side of a hot-button bio-ethical issue. Seated at a table in one corner, Dr. Alan James (Barzin Akhavan) and Professor Lily Chan (Peregrine Teng Heard) face-off against Dr. Sarah Matthis (Nikkole Salter) and Professor Neal Bharara (Nehal Joshi), in the opposite corner.
Set designer Tim Mackabee’s blue-carpeted debate hall, ringed in LED light, registers as slightly futuristic. The lively moderator, played in a puckish turn by D.C. theater treasure Nancy Robinette, keeps the debaters and the audience alert and engaged. And the subject at hand — involving the sentience of non-human beings, be they animal or artificial — steadily intrigues.
The whole setup feels decidedly civil and accessibly cerebral, until that civility is punctured, one jab at a time, and intellectual arguments start to get personal. Predictably, it’s the men who first cross the line, with Joshi’s needling Bharara overstepping to, at first, amusing effect.
As the discourse gets testy, especially between Bharara and James, Chen’s script stirs both pots — intellectual and emotional — to a nice simmer and invites the audience to add heat of their own.
At each performance, the audience votes before the debate, offering a rough but insightful gauge of where the gathered public stands on the issue at hand. Then, after the debate and events of the play, the audience votes again, providing a differently insightful — or potentially shocking — measure of how minds might have shifted.
Thanks in no small part to Robinette’s sure-footed moderator, the interactivity fits comfortably into the show’s debate format. And, in the case of the second vote, audience participation even heightens dramatic tension during the suspenseful finale.
Building towards that big finish, The Motion makes bold moves beyond straightforward debate into unexpected realms of science fiction and romance. The ensuing plot turns and personal turmoils that bond the four professionals aren’t as compelling as their main subject of debate, but Sharif keeps the current flowing through inventive staging.
A well-deployed lift reveals a mysterious new world. A wordless montage of scenes depicting the passage of a year in the characters’ lives ambles to its own tender rhythm. Theoretical debate gives way to life-or-death stakes with the insistent flash of a weapon.
Ultimately, The Motion‘s intellectual and emotional arguments boil down to one powerful moment of decision, testing what it means to be human, or humane. The two might not be mutually exclusive for that much longer, Chen cheekily implies, regardless of what any audience decides.
The Motion (★★★★☆) runs through June 14 at Arena Stage, 1101 6th St. SW. Tickets are $44 to $112, with discount options available. Call 202-488-3300, or visit arenastage.org.
Art imitates life making art in GALA Hispanic Theatre's disappointing world-premiere musical Aguardiente: Where Magic Transcends Borders. Presenting a show within the show, Aguardiente burrows into the creative process of friends and collaborators Alberto (Samuel Garnica) and Alejandro (Sebastián Treviño), struggling to create a musical that draws from and celebrates their Latino roots and culture.
Their struggle to define what they want to say is perhaps too aptly reflected in the scattered script and production of this show, directed and choreographed by Luis Salgado (GALA's Helen Hayes Award-winning In the Heights).
One notable name never comes up in 44: The Musical, a raucously funny trip back to the Obama era, written, composed, and directed by Eli Bauman, and currently onstage at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre.
Historically and satirically speaking, you would think the show’s creator, who worked on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, then briefly in Washington, D.C., wouldn’t choose to leave any prime targets off the table. Then again, as Bauman expresses in his recorded greeting that kicks off the show, 44 is about escaping the maelstrom of current events.
A scintillating take on an enduringly modern musical, Signature Theatre’s Pippin succeeds as the sum of bold and exciting choices in every detail.
The lighting, the costumes, cast and orchestra, makeup, wigs, choreography, and, of course, the staging by Signature artistic director Matthew Gardiner, all appear designed and executed to realize a singular, sensual vision for the 1972 musical, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Roger O. Hirson.
A completeness covers the whole shimmering production from top to bottom. Even the stage is aglow, an in-the-round light installation from scenic designers Christopher and Justin Swader serving as center of the action.
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