Location Review: District of Columbia Arts Theater

Jay Bowman, House Manager

My last weekend had only one saving grace. On a rainy Friday night I took the X3 bus in Tenley to Adams Morgan and got off on 18th St to visit the free District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC). All I expected from my visit was a little bit of art. I got magic. Thanks, in no small part to certain Extremities.

The DCAC, located just above the hookah shop on 2438 18th St, is the hidden gem of Admo. Open from 2pm-7pm Weds-Sundays House Manager, Jay Bowman, can tell you the DCAC has housed wild works of art from webbed contraptions that visitors could skateboard beneath to a gala that transformed the entire edifice into a pseudo-functioning spaceship. Galas change monthly with the express intent of “showcasing the typically unshowcased emerging artists [and grass root theatre companies].” The next gallery, “Hubs Feeders,” opens Monday 10/14 presenting works of digital and charcoal photographs. Attached are photos of DCAC’s previous gallery “Non Serviam.”

The gallery was well-crafted and thought-provoking but what kept me in the DCAC’s keen embrace for an additional three hours was their housed theatre company and their chilling one-act play. Before I type on any further, indulge my brief lack of subterfuge. GO SEE EXTREMITIES by the Molotov Theatre Group! SEE IT RIGHT THIS INSTANT.

From 2pm-7pm the DCAC is a single room expanse of an art gallery. At 7:30pm it’s reincarnated. You walk up the flight of stairs to the main body of the art gallery. You are couriered past the ticket desk and you walk through the midroom, down the wooden steps –nevermind the inexplicable park bench- and enter the theatre.

I was not unfamiliar with the Molotov Theatre Group. In 2012, I saw their adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Their spin on the work had the eponymous title-character transform into a vampire and smite his backstabbers. For Extremities, I was bracing myself for almost anything. The gentleman sitting next to me chided: “it’s a Molotov play, it’s sure to get you in the jugular.”

Extremities is a chest-clutching, jaw-gaping play of terror that details the crisis that follows in the immediate wake of a foiled rape. You will stare boggle eyed as you watch the vicious would-be victim exchange roles with her attacker. Perhaps a testament to a controversial truth: we’re all screwed up. It just takes someone especially so to show us just how so.

See this play. It will disturb you in its wicked brilliancy. Be warned though, this play is a psychological thriller and certainly not for the dull of thought.

DCAC is open to the public, Extremities runs from Oct.10- Nov. 3. Tickets $25 from Molotovtheatre.org.

http://www.dcartscenter.org/
http://www.molotovtheatre.org/