Playwright Rebekka Kricheldorf has said that her bitingly witty fable, a 2012 commission by Germany\u2019s Staatstheater Kassel, was loosely inspired by a Grimm Brothers folktale in which a father has two sons. The older son is clever and intelligent, the younger one is stupid.\u00a0In particular, the younger son does not know how to feel fear (hence the tale\u2019s title, \u201cThe Story of a Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear\u201d).<\/p>\n Kricheldorf\u2019s provocative parable (translated by Neil Blackadder) sets up a well-to-do patriarch (Fabian) with a good son (Ingo), who is a wimpy surgeon engaged to his therapist (Solveig, who helped him overcome his fear of blood), and a bad son (Raul), whose fearlessness manifests as macho pugnaciousness. Fabian, Ingo, and Solveig, do-gooders to the core, live in smug comfort in Good Neighborhood, a wealthy community not so much gated as barricaded against Bad Neighborhood, where poverty and unrest thrive and hitman-for-hire Raul resides.<\/p>\n Testosterone<\/em> interogates the apparent contradistinction between good son and bad son and in doing so skewers how much the moneyed happiness in Good Nabe is predicated on there being squalor and exploitation in Bad.<\/p>\n As the show\u2019s scenic designer, Jonathan Dahm Robertson evokes upper-crust, earth-toned minimalism in Fabian\u2019s geometric living room furnished in posh leather and fine wood. As the show\u2019s projection designer, Robertson delivers vivid imagery via a wall-mounted video screen that functions as both an alarming news feed and an armed surveillance\/security system.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an unmissable sense of sanctimonious insularity among this household: patriarch Fabian (a properly authoritative Eli EL), good son Ingo (an appealingly dweeby Elgin Martin), and Ingo\u2019s therapist\/betrothed Solveig (a smart-cookie Amberrain Andrews). So you just know there will be intruders.<\/p>\n And sure enough, there comes one: Silvana, a young woman who works the streets in Bad Neighborhood, having been pimped by her father and abuser Slatko. Turns out, Fabian and the fam have been supporting Silvana through the Adopt-a-Hooker program \u2014 a sample of the play\u2019s dark humor of which there is much. Silvana (a lively and likeable Jenna Rossman) has braved the barricades and come in gratitude and hopes of sanctuary.<\/p>\n Also dropping by is bad son Raul (Gary DuBreuil in a chest-pounding, muscle-flexing, showstopping parody of manhood run amok). Moneybags Fabian, in a Li\u2019l Lear gesture, has summoned Raul to learn how he intends to divide his estate.<\/p>\n Raul\u2019s bad-boy badinage is both a blast and loaded with insight:<\/p>\n RAUL:<\/strong> You should be grateful I exist. Because without me, all this couldn\u2019t exist. If everyone was like you, who\u2019d keep your plastic paradise safe from outside? \u2026Never forget: you need me more than I need you.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Ingo and Solveig together on the sofa sing a sweet and silly duet, \u201cDream a Little Dream of Me,\u201d he on uke, she on triangle. But as the tension between bad bro and good bro mounts, we begin to see Ingo disparage Solveig in a sexist way that opens to question exactly how good a guy he is.<\/p>\n A decidedly unwelcome visitor is Slatko, the pimp, who has barged in to retrieve his money-making property, his daughter Silvia. Bruce Alan Rauscher\u2019s portrayal of Slatko is among the production\u2019s priceless surprises; he somehow makes the character\u2019s villainous sleaze hilarious.<\/p>\n Given Slatko\u2019s function in the plot, it almost feels wrong to find him so funny, because in a twist, he abducts Solveig. This precipitates a nervy caper in which Fabian and Ingo retain Raul to rescue her, and Slatko gets killed and becomes a ghost (which would be flagged as a spoiler were there not a press photo showing an axe in his skull).<\/p>\n The show is a wild ride of tone shifts, from simply silly to comic to coarse to grotesque, all of it an adventure conducted and directed masterfully by Karin Rosnizeck. Watching the cast\u2019s broad acting style, with its deft timing and clever excess, becomes an enjoyment all its own.<\/p>\n Donna Breslin\u2019s costume designs \u2014 from Fabian\u2019s gaudily ornate robe, Ingo\u2019s preppy sportcoat and sweater, and Solveig\u2019s sleek fur-trimmed sheath to Silvia\u2019s sparkly short shorts, Raul\u2019s ammo belt and camo pants, and Slatko\u2019s Grim Reaper greatcoat \u2014 conveyed social status eloquently. And there\u2019s a scene in which prop dismembered body parts play a gasp-inducing role, a credit to Lily Gershon, Edith MacCrea, and Sam Buggeln (The Cherry Arts).<\/p>\n One of the deep satisfactions of taking in this ExPats production is tracking the multiplicity of targets of the show\u2019s ceaseless satire. So much is spoofed, the play seems at times like sketch comedy on steroids \u2014 which in itself is a hoot. Holding the whole together, though, grounding it politically at this fraught moment in history, is some serious significance about inequality, hierarchy, and identity: Those who have not only need<\/em> there to be have-nots. Those who dominate not only need<\/em> their victims. Those who have and those who dominate are afraid they would be nobody otherwise.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t miss Testosterone.<\/em> Get juiced on tough truth.<\/p>\n Running Time: Approximately one hour and 40 minutes with no intermission.<\/p>\n Testosterone<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0plays through April 6, 2025, presented by ExPats Theatre,<\/a> performing at Atlas Performing Arts Center, Lab 2, 1333 H St NE, Washington, DC. Showtimes are Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2:30 pm. Tickets ($49 general admission, $44 for seniors, and $25 for students) are available online<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Testerosterone-800x600-1.jpg\")
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