Kate (Jessica Bates) performs at a local bar after work. Photo by Jessica Palopoli.

Washed Up on the Potomac Was a Hit for Custom Made

Bay Area ferry riders may dread the idea of being “washed up,” both literally and figuratively. Too many Bloody Mary’s and it can be “man overboard.”

Washed up on the Potamac, now playing through Labor Day is as much about loss as it is about redemption.

It’s also is the final show of its 2017-18 Sandbox Series—and the world premiere written by Lynn Rosen. José Zayas is the director.

Cultural Currents was especially impressed with the over-the-top performance of Jessica Bates, as Kate.

Here’s the copy:

Order is the name of the game in this D.C. proofreading office, but everything is a bit off today. It is ninety degrees in October, a costly mistake has been made on an important account, and someone is going to get fired. As three proofreaders ponder their futures, they become haunted and inspired by memories of a coworker whose body may have washed up on the bank of the Potomac today. Who will be the next to go? Or are they already gone?

“Our characters—a budding novelist, a wannabe rock star, a wallflower dreamer and their terror-stricken supervisor—wrestle with the possible death of a disappeared former co-worker whose body may have washed up on the Potomac”, said Artistic Director Bill English. “Many of us will remember that catastrophic event that helped us or drove us to turn a corner in our lives, the crisis whose jolt of adrenaline pushed us out of our comfort zone into a new and terrifying landscape. Washed Up on the Potomac gives its dreamers eloquent and potent language to take us with them on their journey.”