Arts & Entertainment
The art of the matter
‘Old Masters’ presents intriguing theatrical dilemma
Conrad Feininger, left, as Sir Joseph Duveen and David Bryan Jackson as Bernard Berenson in Washington Stage Guild’s production of ‘The Old Masters.’ (Photo by C. Stanley Photography; courtesy WSG)
‘The Old Masters’
Through Jan. 26
Washington Stage Guild
Undercroft Theatre, 900 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
$40-$50 (half price student discount)
866-811-4111
Simon Gray’s thoroughly enjoyable drama “The Old Masters” is indeed about important art. It’s also about the art of the deal. But mostly it’s about the interdependent professional relationship (and sometimes friendship) between famed art historian Bernard Berenson and the equally famous art dealer Joseph Duveen.
Washington Stage Guild’s take on Gray’s 2004 work currently playing at the intimate Undercroft Theatre features a very capable cast in a production straightforwardly staged by Laura Giannarelli.
Set in the storied Villa I Tatti, Berenson’s residence near Florence, the action unfolds over one long evening in 1937. The scene is tense. A Lithuanian-born American, Berenson (BB to his friends) and his terminally ill wife Mary aren’t happy. Money is tight and war is looming. She is preoccupied with the financial wellbeing of her adult children and grandchildren from a previous marriage in England, and he misses the fat checks he once collected for authenticating Renaissance paintings. Yet a veneer of domestic civility prevails, thanks mainly to Nicky, Berenson’s longtime factotum and mistress (and now Mary’s caregiver).
On the fated night, Duveen drops in uninvited. He and BB have been on the outs, but Duveen softens the estrangement by paying an old debt to his host and proposing a lucrative business partnership. But first (and here’s the rub), Duveen wants a favor. He asks that BB pipe down on the authentication of a painting that he is selling to patrician American industrialist Andrew Mellon. BB says it’s a Titian. The world credits Masaccio. A great showdown ensues.
“The Master Works” is the last published play by British playwright Gray who died at 71 in 2008. Though not acquainted with his protagonists in life, he knows them well. Gray brilliantly conveys his aging characters’ urgency in terms of time and concern with legacy — both monetary and reputation. While an interest in art and a little background on the characters might prove helpful to audiences, it’s not necessary. This well-made play stands on its own.
Duveen is played with bigger-than-life gusto by Conrad Feininger. He envelops the smaller, less demonstrative BB (David Bryan Jackson) with roaring compliments and great hugs, bending his frenemy to his will with a tidal wave of bonhomie. It’s a wonderful performance.
And Jackson (wearing a neatly trimmed Van Dyke beard) gives a nuanced portrayal. His BB is a fastidious sensualist who falls into raptures when he sees “The Adoration of the Shepherds” (the painting in question). He’s a self-centered man who expects a lot of from his women (including his Swedish masseuse who visits daily) yet he cares for them deeply in his own way.
Jewel Robinson is compelling as Mary, BB’s wife who tolerates her husband’s weaknesses. Rounding out a very strong cast are Thomasin Savaiano as charming and efficient Nicky, and Steven Carpenter as Fowles, Duveen’s assistant derisively referred to as the “lift boy” by BB. (Fowles was once in fact the elevator operator in Duveen’s apartment building.)
Marianne Meadows gently lights set designer Carl F. Gudenius’ pretty Italian garden and later a well-appointed library. Sigrid Jóhannesdóttir’s costumes exude quality and taste except for those worn by Nicky, who’s a tad flashier than the others.
“The Old Masters” has great local resonance. “The Adoration of the Shepherds” hangs in Washington’s National Gallery, one of many Renaissance paintings collected Mellon, Samuel Kress (the five and dime millionaire), and others to be found in the building’s West Wing. While brush stroke technique and revered names like Titian are tossed about throughout much of the play, the audience sees only the backs of canvases. A visit to the Gallery might make a nice follow up.
The Petal Release Party and Drag Show was held at Spark Social on Friday, July 31. Performers included Tiara-Missou, Labianna and Darcy de la Cuadra.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Celebrity News
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon
AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.
The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.
“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.
Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.
Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”
Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.
Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.
Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.
“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”
Theater
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
First five shows a reminder that ‘pressure is a privilege’
Madly talented and preternaturally energetic, Reggie D. White, 38, is about to launch his first season as artistic director of D.C.’s boundary-pushing Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
White brings a lot to the job. As actor, playwright, and director, his varied resume includes a 2019 Broadway acting debut in Matthew López’s Tony Award–winning play “The Inheritance,” his semi-autobiographic play “Fremont Ave.” that opened to acclaim last season at Arena Stage, and a number of exciting regional directing credits.
A longtime admirer of Woolly, the out theater-maker was selected from a pool of candidates before receiving the offer last November and starting work in January. His season of five world premieres kicks off with gay playwright Steve Yockey’s “Venus” (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), a darkly funny study of modern relationships told through two lesbians looking back on their first encounter.
White was introduced to Woolly Mammoth as a pre-law student at Cal State Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, long before he foresaw a life in the arts. “As part of a random theater history course, I was assigned to write a paper on a counterculture company called Woolly Mammoth,” he recalls “Strange name. I was like what the hell is that?”
Nineteen-year-old White was intrigued. Research acquainted him with Howard Shalwitz who co-founded Woolly in 1980, and the company’s commitment to living playwrights and new work. He also learned how theater could be used as a tool for difficult conversations and shape the way people thought about social issues by employing imagination and rigor.
“Never in a million years did young me envision that one day I’d be Woolly’s third artistic director in its 46-year history,” says White. “It’s kind of serendipitously insane.”
WASHINGTON BLADE: Was there a moment when the enormity of the job hit you?
REGGIE D. WHITE: After I’d signed my contract and finished all the paperwork, I got my keys and sat in the theater by myself in the dark and thought about what an incredible honor it is to be trusted with what happens in this beautiful space [in D.C.’s Penn Quarter]. I might have cried. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember it’s real.
BLADE: Are you curating the upcoming 2026–2027 season?
WHITE: Yes, I am. It’s very rare that an incoming artistic director gets to program their first season, but I was lucky in terms of time. After being hired late last year, I asked Woolly’s managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, if she thought it would be crazy if I programmed the season. She warned me it would be hard.
I invoked tennis legend Billie Jean King’s maxim “pressure is a privilege” and got to work.
These plays [dubbed White’s “first five”] represent both the kind of theater that Woolly can do really well and speak directly to my voice as curator and how I want to contribute to the larger theatrical conversation in the DMV.
Getting here has meant a lot of late nights. But I knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.
BLADE: As a queer artistic director, what makes you unique?
WHITE: When I was playing in “Inheritance” on Broadway, after a performance, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer came backstage to meet the cast. She spoke about how her lens on the world as a Puerto Rican woman shapes her decisions. Similarly, because I’m a queer Black man I see through a lens that shapes my work.
I know I’m not the only queer artistic director in town. For me, it influences how I make editorial decisions. Out of this season’s five plays there are explicitly queer characters in four [“Venus,” “Chanukkah Spectacular,” “Ten Grand,” and “Love I Awethu Further”] and I’m directing two [“Venus,” “Ten Grand”].
BLADE: Will we see familiar faces?
WHITE: Every show this season will feature a Woolly Mammoth company member in its cast. Our company also includes designers and directors who we’ll include. I’m invested in continuing to provide a showcase for their work.
BLADE: How do you think queer audiences will receive the season?
WHITE: Very well, I think. For queer people who’ve had to navigate the world subversively and solve problems in unique ways, I think it will be especially interesting. I find theater a potent place for questions.
Like all artistic directors. I’ll show up for the job in my own way. I’m just excited that I’ve been invited to bring the fullness of myself to the role.
PHOTOS: Petal Release Party
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
PHOTOS: Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade
Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade draws hundreds of thousands
Madonna to perform at World Pride in Amsterdam
BLADE ENDORSEMENT: Susan Stewart for mayor of Rehoboth Beach
PHOTOS: Lambda Legal in the Pines
Calendar: July 31-August 6
