Two Minutes' Traffic: Venus, Woolly Mammoth

There is a simple rule of DC theatre: if Kimberly Gilbert is in it, then I want to do everything I can to see it. Very few actors are as good as she is at playing every beat within a single line and finding the nuance and complexity in the human she's playing, while also being blisteringly funny. It's a relief, then, to have her as half a two-hander in Venus, the new play by Steve Yockey in a production directed by Reggie D. White, the new artistic director of Woolly. Yockey's play is deeply funny and very sad, and also far more interested in Regina Aquino's Nicole than Gilbert's Beth. Yockey introduces strange, supernatural elements tying both characters together, but it's Nicole who breaks occasionally into staccato monologues, beautifully performed by Aquino, that give insight into the lifetime of Nicole, what shaped her into who she is and guides her choices now.

Yockey doesn't give those moments to Beth, or any real equivalents, which seems distinctly unbalanced in a show for only two characters. The fact that Beth still feels real and whole and an equal onstage to Nicole feels due to careful direction by White and the mighty skillset of Gilbert as a performer. Combined with the towering set design by Gisele Estrada and beautiful light design by Nic Vincent, Venus is a memorable night at the theatre, filled with dark humor and surprising moments.