Hundreds of years after Shakespeare wrote “All the world’s a stage,” his namesake DC institution, Folger Shakespeare Library, is taking the quote literally. The library is staging a romantic comedy, DC, I Love You: First Dates, with vignettes performed across Mount Pleasant Street. Rather than watching from a seat, the audience moves from location to location for a production that is part live theater, part street tour. Performances take place Saturday May, 31 and June 1, with shows every half hour from 1 PM to 3:30 PM. Another version of the show, DC, I Love You: Ready or Not, is happening at the Folger Shakespeare Library on June 14, 15, 21, and 22.
The play is created by Folger Shakespeare Library artist-in-residence and director of engagement Katherine Harroff. She first launched the show in San Diego more than 10 years ago, though the DC version has a distinctly local flavor, thanks to romantic comedy writing workshops Harroff ran across the city, collecting stories and inspiration from the community.
My fellow audience members and I meet at Lost Origins Gallery, where we receive headphones so we can hear the actors amid the hubbub of daily life. Stepping onto the gallery’s balcony, we come across our first date, an artist and a nonprofit auditor sipping wine and painting canvases. Punctuating their flirtations about go-to karaoke songs are the natural sounds of the street: a dog barking, construction hammering, and a truck backing up. “Some people are probably so annoyed by this, but I just kind of love that it’s part of the soundtrack,” says Harroff. “It’s fun to be outside and suddenly the whole world is a part of this.”
We follow Harroff to the next location, trailing her tour guide sign as she shares details about the neighborhood’s history. While some scenes take place in public areas such as the alley next to Elle or Lamont Park, others require the buy-in of local businesses. Longtime dive bar the Raven is opening early just for play patrons, and you can get a drink while watching a meet-cute move from the bar to the booth. Another scene takes us inside Marx Cafe for a political trivia night, where two Hillary Clintons in wigs and pantsuits play under a painfully Washington trivia team name, “what about her emails?”
While live theater is always a gamble, the presence of the unscripted public adds another element of risk. A scene in Lamont Park gets some unexpected Smell-O-Vision, courtesy of a random onlooker smoking a joint. And in one outdoor scene, I face perhaps the best metaphor for DC dating I’ve seen in a while: the most apocalyptic-looking rat you can imagine scurries under the streatery table where I’m sitting. “The rules in DC, I Love You are the audience doesn’t exist, but the rest of the world does,” says Harroff. “[The actors] didn’t see the rat, but I was going be like, ‘you interact with that rat!’ No one is ignoring that guy!”
In some ways, the production is a litmus test for the community’s social anxiety: Some passersby pause next to a scene, unsure whether it’s safe to walk past, while others barrel through without a second thought. Because the audience is sometimes at a distance listening through headphones, it wouldn’t be surprising if pedestrians thought they were actually seeing an actual date.
The next iteration of the play, DC, I Love You: Ready or Not, kicks off in mid-June. While it won’t perform across a street, it will bring audiences around the recently renovated library. The tone of this version is different, too—a little more skeptical, a little more jaded—as it follows a character who suddenly wakes up in the middle of a romantic comedy. But for Harroff, it felt important for the first performance to sprout from a place of optimism, especially given the current vibe in the city.
“I think as an introduction to DC, it’s always good to start with the really joyful, loving version of this.” says Harroff. “I really want people to walk away from this feeling like there’s hope.
Daniella Byck joined Washingtonian in 2022. She was previously with Outside Magazine and lives in Takoma.
