Next Fall at Round House Theatre

Next Fall

Round House Theatre
4545 East-West Highway Bethesda

Adam and Luke are an example of opposites attract ‑ Adam is older, neurotic, and an atheist; Luke is impulsive, a struggling actor, and devoutly religious. After Luke is involved in a serious accident, family and friends descend upon them and these longtime differences collide, forcing opposing views on faith and family into a stand-off. Hilarious and heartbreaking, it exposes the fundamental truth that we love people both because of – and in spite of – who they are.

Thru - Feb 26, 2012

Show Type: Comedy/Drama

Running Time: 2 hrs, 15 minutes with 1 intermission

www.roundhousetheatre.org/

Round House Theatre Seating Chart

Next Fall Reviews

Average Rating based on 8 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Highly Recommended

"...The emotional stakes are high in Geoffrey Nauffts’s “Next Fall,” an affecting tragicomedy about love, faith and death, at Bethesda’s Round House Theatre through Feb. 26. Thanks to a gifted cast and a sensitive director in Mark Ramont, the emotional rewards are high for audiences, as well."

- Jane Horwitz

MetroWeekly - Somewhat Recommended

"... I mean, maybe Episcopalians with ennui on the Upper East Side wouldn't make the most gripping family-and-friends milieu, but there's such a rich diversity of Christian belief that Next Fall ignores. And there are surely richer gay characters who, when faced with enemy forces, aren't looking at themselves in the mirror."

- Jonathan Padget

Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended

"...Playwright Geoffrey Nauffts takes material that could be simplistic or preachy, and instead makes it true and moving. The center of the drama is the comfortable love between Adam (Tom Story), a 40-year-old struggling author and a hypochondriac, and Luke (Chris Dinolfo), a younger aspiring actor, and the dynamics that arise after one of them is seriously injured in an accident."

- Susan Berlin

Washington City Paper - Somewhat Recommended

"... All indications from the play’s celebrated 2009 run at Manhattan’s Naked Angels, where Nauffts was the artistic chief, are that Next Fall benefits from an intimate production and a light touch. Those, alas, are not virtues that Round House Theatre has brought to it; Daniel Conway’s double-turntable set adds fuss and time to scene transitions, and Matthew M. Nielson fills the dead air with sober musical interludes that seem ever more insistently melancholy as the night goes on. And perhaps because the company’s Bethesda space is too big to allow for an immediate connection to the characters, the production’s energy seems a little frantic."

- Trey Graham

Washington Blade - Somewhat Recommended

"...Sex and spirituality — or the lack thereof — intersect in thought-provoking ways in the flawed-but-worthy play ‘Next Fall,” a 2009 piece that’s enjoying a post-Broadway local run at Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Md."

- Brian T. Carney

Gazette.net - Not Recommended

"... There is a very good possibility that this reviewer’s perception of the play as being gravely flawed is very much a minority opinion. In the end, I have only my own critical faculties to go by. “Next Fall” has much about it that is clever and movingly poignant at times. I can only report that I left somewhat saddened by what I consider to be the vast unmet potential of the play."

- Larry Bangs

MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

"...Round House Theatre is presenting a gripping production of Geoffrey Nauffts’ play Next Fall. The play explores the highly-charged dynamics that exist in the world of two gay men who are struggling to find acceptance with themselves, each other, and with society. The play is a heartfelt plea for people to accept what is different in other people and in the world. Under the taut direction of Mark Ramont, the two protagonists struggle to reconcile their vastly different belief systems in an often hostile and indifferent world."

- David Friscic

DCTheatreScene - Recommended

A faith compromised is an odd beast indeed. Take Luke, the young, beguiling object of affection in Round House Theatre’s new production of Geoffrey Nauffts’ Tony-nominated Next Fall, as performed by the exuberant Chris Dinolfo. Luke, a Tallahassee native and a struggling actor in New York, is both gay and a devout Christian.

- Andrew Lapin