Arts & Entertainment
Maintaining mystery
Out actor Spinella says ‘Velocity’ better experienced blind
Estelle Parsons as Alexandra and Stephen Spinella as Chris in “The Velocity of Autumn’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. It runs through Oct. 20. (Photo by Teresa Wood; courtesy Arena)
‘The Velocity of Autumn’
Through Oct. 20
Arena Stage
1101 Sixth Street, SW
$40-90
Arenastage.org
Broadway star Stephen Spinella almost never leaves New York City to work.
“I’ll only go for incredibly special situations,” he says. “I love my apartment. I have a great support system of friends. I’m just not a happy camper outside of New York. It’s got to be something really great to tempt me.”
Playing opposite Academy Award-winning actress Estelle Parsons in Arena Stage’s “The Velocity of Autumn” is one of those impossible-to-refuse situations.
“Last winter I got a call from Molly Smith [Arena’s artistic director and ‘Velocity’s’ director] offering me the job,” says Spinella, who is gay. “I asked why they’d reached out to me. Molly said I was Parsons’ first choice to play her son. You don’t say no to that.”
Penned by Cleveland-based playwright Eric Coble, the two-character play focuses on 79-year-old Alexandra, who is experiencing the early signs of dementia. Holed up in her Brooklyn brownstone with a cache of homemade explosives, she threatens to blow up the house and herself rather than rethink a less independent living arrangement. It’s then that her estranged gay son Chris is brought in to mediate.
Spinella, widely known for his brilliant Tony Award-winning performances as Prior Walter (a gay man with AIDS) in “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” and “Angels in America: Perestroika,” won’t reveal much — he believes an audience should experience a play blind. But he will say that in 90 uninterrupted minutes, Chris and Alexandra must find out where they’ve been, where they are now and how they’re going to resolve her issues. It’s a lot to cover.
In real life, Spinella’s 90-year-old mother suffers from dementia. She lives in a care facility in Arizona. But unlike his mother, says Spinella, “Alexandra is still very alert and aware. She’s an artist and very self-reliant. Her character is processing what is happening to her and what she wants to do. That’s a big part of what the play is about.”
And while we’re told Spinella’s character is gay, it’s mentioned rather offhandedly. The straight playwright Coble, says he was intrigued with the idea of Chris’ sexuality not being the focal point.
“So often when being gay is used as a dramatic device it’s the entire focus of the character,” Coble says. “I wanted to write a character who’s not struggling with his sexuality. There are other reasons why he needed to get out of New York City and live far from his mother and more conventionally successful siblings.”
Spinella concurs: “The fact that he’s gay is almost completely unimportant to the play. It’s a minor revelation. When he left home, it was probably more important but it’s essentially dissolved in the way that it has for so many of us in this country.”
For Coble, having Parsons (who won her Oscar for “Bonnie and Clyde” and hilariously played Bev on “Roseanne” for a decade) and Spinella bring his characters to life has been a joy and slightly unnerving. “They’re so good and so smart,” he says. “Their ‘truthometers’ are very high — they have a way at getting at the kernel of truth in every moment. It’s an incredible thing to see and experience.”
And Spinella is rhapsodic about 85-year-old Parsons: “She has that frank New England aspect. It’s great for the character. She’s always surprising — incredibly smart and sensitive with a steel trap mind. She and her husband Peter are both like jocks. They cycle, walk, swim and hike. They’re also fun — really wonderful people.”
Next year, Spinella can be seen HBO’s movie version of Larry Kramer’s seminal AIDS play “The Normal Heart.” He describes the experience as fantastic and intense. His part (Sanford) is small but important. “Early in the play his KS lesions are revealed in the doctor’s office,” says Spinella. “And later, in a newly added scene set in a hospital, he is wild with dementia, calling for his dog. He totally loses it and falls apart.”
But for today, Spinella is happily immersed in “Velocity.” When the show closes next month, he returns to New York City, that place he hates to leave.
The 2026 Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather competition was held at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill on Sunday. Seven contestants vied for the title and Gage Ryder was named the winner.
(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Theater
Voiceless ‘Antony & Cleopatra’ a spectacle of operatic proportions
Synetic production pulls audience into grips of doomed lovers’ passion
‘Antony & Cleopatra’
Through Jan. 25
Synetic Theater at
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre
450 7th St., N.W.
Synetictheater.org
A spectacle of operatic proportions, Synetic Theater’s “Antony & Cleopatra” is performed entirely voiceless. An adaptation of the Bard’s original (a play bursting with wordplay, metaphors, and poetic language), the celebrated company’s production doesn’t flinch before the challenge.
Staged by Paata Tsikurishvili and choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili, this worthy remount is currently playing at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre, the same venue where it premiered 10 years ago. Much is changed, including players, but the usual inimitable Synectic energy and ingenuity remain intact.
As audiences file into the Klein, they’re met with a monumental pyramid bathed in mist on a dimly lit stage. As the lights rise, the struggle kicks off: Cleopatra (Irina Kavsadze) and brother Ptolemy (Natan-Maël Gray) are each vying for the crown of Egypt. Alas, he wins and she’s banished from Alexandria along with her ethereal black-clad sidekick Mardian (Stella Bunch); but as history tells us, Cleopatra soon makes a triumphant return rolled in a carpet.
Meanwhile, in the increasingly dangerous Rome, Caesar (memorably played by Tony Amante) is assassinated by a group of senators. Here, his legendary Ides of March murder is rather elegantly achieved by silver masked politicians, leaving the epic storytelling to focus on the titular lovers.
The fabled couple is intense. As the Roman general Antony, Vato Tsikurishvili comes across as equal parts warrior, careerist, and beguiled lover. And despite a dose of earthiness, it’s clear that Kavsadze’s Cleopatra was born to be queen.
Phil Charlwood’s scenic design along with Colin K. Bills’ lighting cleverly morph the huge pyramidic structure into the throne of Egypt, the Roman Senate, and most astonishingly as a battle galley crashing across the seas with Tsikurishvili’s Antony ferociously at the helm.
There are some less subtle suggestions of location and empire building in the form of outsized cardboard puzzle pieces depicting the Mediterranean and a royal throne broken into jagged halves, and the back-and-forth of missives.
Of course, going wordless has its challenges. Kindly, Synectic provides a compact synopsis of the story. I’d recommend coming early and studying that page. With changing locations, lots of who’s who, shifting alliances, numerous war skirmishes, and lack of dialogue, it helps to get a jump on plot and characters.
Erik Teague’s terrific costume design is not only inspired but also helpful. Crimson red, silver, and white say Rome; while all things Egyptian have a more exotic look with lots of gold and diaphanous veils, etc.
When Synetic’s voicelessness works, it’s masterful. Many hands create the magic: There’s the direction, choreography, design, and the outrageously committed, sinewy built players who bring it to life through movement, some acrobatics, and the remarkable sword dancing using (actual sparking sabers) while twirling to original music composed by Konstantine Lortkipanidze.
Amid the tumultuous relationships and frequent battling (fight choreography compliments of Ben Cunis), moments of whimsy and humor aren’t unwelcome. Ptolemy has a few clownish bits as Cleopatra’s lesser sibling. And Antony’s powerful rival Octavian (ageless out actor Philip Fletcher) engages in peppy propaganda featuring a faux Cleopatra (played by Maryam Najafzada) as a less than virtuous queen enthusiastically engaged in an all-out sex romp.
When Antony and Cleopatra reach their respective ends with sword and adder, it comes almost as a relief. They’ve been through so much. And from start to finish, without uttering a word, Kavsadze and Tsikurishvili share a chemistry that pulls the audience into the grips of the doomed lovers’ palpable passion.
Out & About
Love board games and looking for love?
Quirk Events will host “Board Game Speed Dating for Gay Men” on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. at KBird DC.
Searching for a partner can be challenging. But board games are always fun. So what if you combined board games and finding a partner?
Picture this: You sit down for a night of games. A gaming concierge walks you through several games over the course of the night. You play classics you love and discover brand new games you’ve never heard of, playing each with a different group of fun singles. All while in a great establishment.
At the end of the night, you give your gaming concierge a list of the folks you met that you’d like to date and a list of those you met that you’d like to just hang out with as friends. If any two people put down the same name as each other in either column, then your gaming concierge will make sure you get each other’s e-mail address and you can coordinate a time to hang out.
Tickets cost $31.80 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.
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