The War of the Worlds presented by Scena Theatre at H Street Playhouse

The War of the Worlds

H Street Playhouse
1365 H Street NE Washington

A series of frightening and very realistic news bulletins followed, lending credibility to the purported alien attack. These radio reports were heard by millions of Americans at a tenuous time when threats by Hitler were looming and war in Europe seemed imminent. As a result, panic ignited among an estimated 1.2 million Americans. SCENA's riveting stage adaptation of this great American classic explores the masterful exploitation of the media by Orson Welles—as well as the media’s crafty propensity to manipulate the public. The central underlying issue is America’s readiness to blindly believe whatever the media reports as factual “news”. SCENA’s dynamic revival is timely and intriguing given the current controversy over the trustworthiness of major American media outlets.

Presented by Scena Theatre

Thru - Nov 28, 2010

Price: $25-$40

Show Type: Drama

Running Time: 1hr; with no intermission

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The War of the Worlds Reviews

Average Rating based on 5 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Highly Recommended

"...Scena Theatre is reviving its 2006 revival of one of the great entertainment pranks of all time, Orson Welles's 1938 Halloween week radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds." As before, director Robert McNamara has assembled a large cast to re-create not only the mischievous men sowing mayhem from the safety of a CBS radio studio, but also to voice the reactions of the widely duped public."

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- Nelson Pressley

Washington Examiner - Recommended

"...The use of fake news reports as a narrative device has long since become ubiquitous in genre movies and TV shows, because it’s an efficient way for storytellers to offload big, doughy chunks of exposition. When Welles dreamt it up, he was just trying to give his update of a then-40-year-old novel (“The War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells, no relation) — one he fretted was too widely familiar to be of any use to him — a contemporary sense of menace. His fake-news gambit didn’t just work: He sparked a bloody panic, driving tens of thousands of people from their homes with his reports of advancing Martian war machines. Some later said they’d heard radio reports of “German” war machines — this was 1938 — and a few even claimed to have seen the mechanical three-legged behemoths trundling across the Jersey countryside."

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- Chris Klimek

MetroWeekly - Highly Recommended

"...There is something completely engaging about War of the Worlds. Maybe it's that SCENA leads us to believe that we're in on the greatest Halloween prank of all time. And maybe, just maybe, it's because they're showing us just how easily such a trick could be pulled again. What a treat."

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- Tom Avila

WeLoveDC - Somewhat Recommended

"...In SCENA Theatre’s recreation of the October 30, 1938 broadcast, Regen Wilson nails that Wellesian voice just right. But the production itself is too faithful to a fault. Simply too much of a recreation, it strangely fails to mine the greater implications of the original broadcast. It feels like a dusty museum piece, playing to an almost empty house the night I visited. Talented actors, a fine production design, all on display for what purpose? When one can download the original in a few minutes and be frightened by Welles himself, what could the intent of such a performance be?"

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- Jenn Larsen

DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended

Regen Wilson took a while to get into the admittedly larger-than-life character of Orson Welles, but gained in resonance as the play progressed. His right-hand-at-headphoned-ear stance recalling the classic photograph, his peremptory shouts and cues to cast and crew, eyes blazing (the signature Welles pipe in mouth at all other times), accompanied by fiery thrusts of arm and extended pointer finger, brook no hesitation or argument, and he ends with a Harry Lime-like smile — the one Welles was probably wearing inside during his public, post-show press-conference profession of innocence. In the end, it works.

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- Leslie Weisman

The War of the Worlds presented by Scena Theatre at H Street Playhouse