Chair: Robert Fenton, MSW
Post-performance discussions of plays are held at metropolitan area theaters. A psychotherapist will discuss each play after the performances listed in our schedule. The goal of the discussion will be to provide a psychological perspective that will enrich and deepen the theater experience. Discussions are sponsored by the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis.
Tickets for the plays must be purchased directly from the theaters.
The discussions will take place after performances, except where noted otherwise.
Theater Program 2012-2013
Coming Soon
Previous Events/Discussions
Really, Really (March 20th) 
Really Really is pointedly set “now,” on a college campus, and its concerns are the concerns of a young, careless group of graduating students that aspires – in the most hateful, self-absorbed way imaginable – to outdo their peers and accomplish their dreams. The majority of its twisty storyline is best left unspoiled, but the play centers on the immediate aftermath of a single, dramatic transgression at a wild college party, with substantial ramifications for everyone involved. “Nice guy” athlete Davis (Jake Odmark), still mourning a breakup, is needled by roommate Cooper (Evan Casey) about an apparent drunken tryst with Leigh (Bethany Anne Lind) the girlfriend of a mutual friend. Across campus, Leigh is processing the prior night’s events with roommate Grace (Lauren Culpepper) – and harboring several secrets of her own.
Whipping Man(April 29th) 
1865; Richmond, Virginia: Two newly-freed slaves and the son of their former master—a Jewish Confederate soldier who has retreated to the burnt remains of his home—inhabit the disordered aftermath of the just-concluded War between the States. As the three men celebrate a most unconventional Passover Seder, they uncover a snarl of secrets and examine what it really means to be free .
God of Carnage (May 6th) 
It is about two pairs of parents, one of whose child has hurt the other at a public park, who meet to discuss the matter in a civilized manner. However, as the evening goes on, the parents become increasingly childish, resulting in the evening devolving into chaos. The play was a success in its original language, French, and has been equally acclaimed in its other.
The Taming of the Shrew (June 2nd)
Love and marriage are the concerns of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The play offers us some strikingly different models of the process of attracting and choosing a mate and then coming to terms with the mate one has chosen. Some of these models may still seem attractive to us, some not.
