Les Justes (The Just Ones) presented by WSC Avant Bard at Artisphere

Les Justes (The Just Ones)

Artisphere
1101 Wilson Blvd Arlington

Following Henry (I)V, we return to the work of another favorite author, Albert Camus (some of you may remember our recent production of his Caligula), as we present a new adaptation of his eerily relevant exploration of politically-motivated violence, Les Justes. Rahaleh Nassri, who has acted in WSC productions including Caligula and Titus Andronicus, will provide a new adaptation. Jay Hardee, a WSC Company Member who has achieved directorial success with The Gnadiges Fraulein, Richard III, and Every Young Woman’s Desire, will direct our premiere of that adaptation.

Presented by WSC Avant Bard

Thru - Mar 11, 2012

Show Type: Drama

Running Time: 1 hour 30 mins with no intermission

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Les Justes (The Just Ones) Reviews

Average Rating based on 7 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Somewhat Recommended

"...As it is, director Jay Hardee speeds it up. The actors hit the small stage with maximum adrenaline, biting off sentences and firing speeches with breathless energy. As Yanek, the “poetic” rebel tasked with bombing a tyrant, James T. Majewski’s every movement is an explosion. Nora Achrati is equally wired as Dora, the woman of the group. At one point Dora speaks of the ecstasy of their deadly mission, and Achrati is right in tune with her fervent performance."

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- Nelson Pressley

MetroWeekly - Recommended

"... Set in the round, with an evocatively sparse set and harsh lighting, director Jay Hardee very much suggests that this is a place in which arguments will be made and, ultimately, judgments delivered. And, as if pleading their respective cases, the characters expound on what drives and troubles them not only to each other, but also occasionally to the audience. The breaking of this invisible barrier is an unsettling reminder that extremism is closer than one might wish it to be, as is Hardees's choice to have the audience enter in what turns out to be the conspirator's door."

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- Kate Wingfield

Washingtonian - Somewhat Recommended

"...All of this leads up to Les Justes’ most affecting scene, in which the duke’s wife (Karen Novack), who was spared from the attack, comes to confront Yanek about his crimes. The duchess, played with strength and complexity by Novack, is a layered character who wants Yanek to repent. Though her love for her husband seems genuine, she isn’t entirely unsympathetic to his assassin’s motivations. Her appearance unsettles Yanek, and the audience waits to see whether it will ultimately sway him in another direction. It’s a scene with nuance and tension, qualities that often are lacking in this morality play."

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- Missy Frederick

Washington Blade - Recommended

".... Translated and adapted by D.C. actor/director Rahaleh Nassri, the production’s script remains faithful to the 1949 source while sounding completely contemporary. Director Jay Hardee (who’s gay) puts the diverse nine-person cast through the paces in this brisk 90-minute production. Here and there, performances might ring a little one note in their intensity, but overall they’re more nuanced than not."

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- Patrick Folliard

ShowBizRadio - Recommended

"... The current WSC Avant Bard production of Les Justes condenses Camus’ five acts into one. The play consists largely of self-justification and rationalization along the lines presented in Brecht’s highly condensed poem. Translator adapter Rahaleh Nassri and director Jay Hardee make clear that Camus’ characters’ extreme unkindness is intended to lay the foundations for kindness, justice, equality, love, happiness and every sort of wellbeing. These blessings were to be delivered in some distant utopian future. The vehemence of the repetitious declarations of good intentions are convincing only in one sense. They convince the audience that these five characters are desperately trying to convince themselves that the end (utopia) justifies the means (bombs.)"

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- Joe Adcock

MD Theatre Guide - Recommended

"... The most powerful of these long emotional monologues comes from Voinov (Theo Hadjimichael) when he breaks down before Annenkov (Frank Britton). The scene leaves Hadjimichael raw and emotionally naked –standing before the eyes of judgment as he confesses his cowardice. In that moment he is so absorbed in his personal expression – his body trembling, sweating nervously, frantically pacing and spinning in tiny circles; that the words almost become unimportant, everything that needs to be expressed coming across his face, his body, and even just the sound of his voice without needing the articulation to understand that he is frightened and ashamed. A remarkable moment of individualistic expression."

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- Amanda Gunther

DCTheatreScene - Recommended

If you think furs, Fabergé eggs, ballet when you think about 20th century Russia, Les Justes is here to remind you that for every lithographed Russian noblewoman traipsing around St. Petersburg in the latest Parisian fashions, there were hundreds of thousands of unseen serfs living on moss and wild roots in the countryside. For most Russians, life was spent in slums, sustenance farms, and purgatory prisons.

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- Steve Hallex

Les Justes (The Just Ones) presented by WSC Avant Bard at Artisphere