Spooky Action goes Dragon taming
Running from September 25th through October 19th at Spooky Action Theater in Washington, DC is a production of Evgeny Shvarts’ 1944 satirical fable, The Dragon, directed by the company’s artistic director, Elizabeth Dinkova, in a new adaptation by Jesse Rasmussen & Yura Kordonsky.
Shvarts’ play imagined a town cowering under the brutal menace of a fearsome dragon until rescued by Sir Lancelot–who unfortunately finds himself called back into service when the new regime ends up no better than the monster they replaced. A pattern painfully familiar to Shvarts and his original Soviet audiences, but also perhaps all-too recognizable from revolutions throughout history and around the world.
Director Dinkova joined me by phone to talk about the original play’s fantastical, phantasmagoric, and surprisingly playful examination of the authoritarian abuses of Stalinism couched in the guise of a childlike fable, as well as the particular resonance and immediacy sought in this new adaptation.
From small textual changes to casting choices and a framing narrative to the imaginative use of puppetry, choreography, and other theatrical devices, Spooky Action’s production looks to collide the original’s enduring critique with local, contemporary resonance–all while maintaining the wonder of storytelling at the heart of the tale.
We also took a moment to chat about the next two offerings in Spooky Action’s continuing New Works in Action series, which will feature a co-production with Portuguese Colectivo 84, Crocodile Club, on Oct 4th and The White Bitch, a daring reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, on Oct 26th. You can hear that material starting at 3’26”.
Get more info and tickets, for The Dragon here.
