Portuguese company Mundo Perfeito brings its vision to Kennedy Center

The Portuguese company Mundo Perfeito assumes theatergoers are educated types. Making a U.S. debut at the Kennedy Center, as part of the Iberian Suite: Global Arts Remix festival, the troupe presents a double bill that breezily references authors ranging from Sophocles to Pirandello to George Steiner. In the case of both short plays -- which add up to a smart, funny and bracing, if less-than-succinct, theatrical evening -- the name-dropping contributes to a vision of literature as power.