Agnes Under The Big Top at Silver Spring Black Box Theater

Agnes Under The Big Top

Silver Spring Black Box Theater
8641 Colesville Road Silver Spring

In an American city, to the sound of the subway, six lives intersect in this comic adventure about immigrant life in America. A Liberian nurse, a Bulgarian one-time ringmaster and his wife, an Indian subway driver trainee, a nomadic busker, and a bedridden woman pursue dreams, peace, and a place in this strange new world.

Thru - Sep 28, 2013

Price: $20 or NYOP

Show Type: Comedy/Drama

Running Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes with 1 intermission

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Agnes Under The Big Top Reviews

Average Rating based on 5 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Somewhat Recommended

"...“Agnes Under the Big Top” makes some playful attempts at an integrated story. Agnes rides the subway train conducted by Christian’s Shipkov, who works with Glass’s Happy, who perpetrates a phone scam at the expense of Houston’s Ella, who also employs Achrati’s Roza. Among other poetic conceits, the playwright invokes circus imagery; hence the title. But the linkages feel incidental and their randomness leaves you cold."

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- Peter Marks

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"...Forum Theatre’s season debut begins with a tongue-in-cheek pre-show announcement. It acknowledges a sort of cultural sameness that we feel as theatergoers, and as city-dwellers, particularly about cell phone and escalator etiquette."

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- Mad die Gaw

Washingtonian - Recommended

"...Agnes Under the Big Top, the season opener from Forum Theatre, doesn’t shy away from these weighty themes and not-quite-storybook conclusions. But at its heart, the mildly fantastical play from Aditi Brennan Kapil is a comedy. Each character is dealing with difficult circumstances—Agnes (Joy Jones), who came to America from Liberia, has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer; Happy (Jason Glass), Shipkov’s coworker at the Metro, is facing a challenging moral dilemma—but the play catches them at their lighter moments as well. Agnes and Shipkov share a drink as the ringmaster comically reenacts scenes from his circus days; Happy and a friend (Jon Jon Johnson) posture over who’s the better joke-teller. Each story is laced with sadness, but though Agnes is definitely pulling at the heartstrings, the gesture doesn’t feel manipulative."

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- Missy Frederick

MD Theatre Guide - Recommended

"...There is much to love about Forum Theatre’s season opening Agnes under the Big Top now playing at its Silver Spring location."

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- Robert Michael Oliver

DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended

Kapil’s beautiful script paints a stirring portrait of those caught in the gears of life. Though their stories are severe, whether tragic or fearless, they’re told and woven together with the effortlessness of a conversation with a good friend. You’re given the opportunity to know these characters. Maybe you are these characters. Maybe you secretly pray to never become these characters. But they’re in front of you, confessing, and it’s damn near impossible to turn away.

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- sarah ameigh

Agnes Under The Big Top at Silver Spring Black Box Theater