Albert Goodwyn Reviews

To Kill a Mockingbird at The Barn

2011-11-14T15:06:00.000-08:00

In a courtroom scene, Tom Robinson (Wendel H. Wilson lays his good hand on the Bible as Judge Taylor (Alex Ross) presides.

Photo by Robin Jackson

Ross Valley Players just opened their production of the stage play taken from the award-winning book To Kill a Mockingbird. This production stays compellingly true to the original script and realistically portrays the texture of Depression-era rural Alabama. The simple tranquility of a child’s life is disrupted by racism and murder. Some characters show nobility of spirit.

In a small town, Atticus Finch the lawyer dares to defend a wrongly accused black man. The narrator tells the story of the effect this has on him and his son Gem and young daughter Scout. Mary Ann Rodgers as the grown Scout narrator Jean Louise Finch moves seamlessly and invisibly through the cast as she lovingly recreates a tumultuous time.

On a set of three simple home facades, swinging screen doors everywhere, a culture of gentility is assumed, except for neighbor Mrs. Dubose who doesn’t like anybody. Anne Ripley finds great humor in Mrs. Dubose’s crotchetiness. Throughout it all, Steve Price as Atticus maintains a calm, soothing air of complete control, an anchor for the young Scout.

But Mayella Ewell loses her control on the witness stand as she perjures herself. Melissa Bailey as Mayella is able to project frantic tears as she concocts false memories.

On Buzz Night (November 12), a new tradition at Ross Valley Players, the young Scout was portrayed by Katrina Horsey with a good sense of devotion to and reverence for her dad.

Altogether, the cast of seventeen gave a well-coordinated ensemble performance, from friendly neighbors to angry townspeople. The dialect spoken by everyone was consistent and eerily accurate.

Set Designer David Apple keeps his three house fronts in place while he uses simple set pieces to stage other scenes downstage, from the jail to the courtroom. Costumes by Michael A. Berg reflect with verisimilitude a place and timeless style.

Scene changes and cues went seamlessly last Saturday. The show is fast paced, but not without moments of slow deliberation. Price has a fine sense of patience that is not martyred when he explains things to young Scout. He broadly projects his sense of reluctance as he carefully aims the rifle at the rabid dog, having the desired results.

In under two hours, the visual narrative is so absorbing it makes you more intensely interested in the dialogue and Jean Louise Finch’s occasional monologues. The characters are strongly identified and played with an appropriate complexity.

Ross Valley Players’ To Kill a Mockingbird continues through December 11 at The Barn Theatre in the Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Ross. Tickets ($17.00 to $25.00) are available online at boxoffice@rossvalleyplayers.com or by phone at 415.456.9555 ext 3.

To Kill a Mockingbird at The Barn

2011-11-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

Anne Ripley as Mrs. Dubose

Photo by Robin Jackson

Alabama native Harper Lee won a Pulitzer Prize for her book To Kill a Mockingbird. It has been successfully made into a movie and a stage play. Ross Valley Players just opened their production of the play.

Set in rural Alabama in the 1930s, the story embraces deceit and nobility with love. Atticus Finch the lawyer dares to defend a wrongly accused black man.

Ross Valley Players’ To Kill a Mockingbird continues through December 11 at The Barn Theatre in the Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Ross.

Tickets ($17.00 to $25.00) are available online at boxoffice@rossvalleyplayers.com or by phone at 415.456.9555 ext 3.

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An Electric Tempest at Marin Shakes

2011-09-14T01:25:00.000-07:00

The sprite Ariel stands guard at one of Duke Prospero's devices in the Marin Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest

Photo by Eric Chazankin

Jon Tracy adds electricity to Shakespeare’s antique storm. The new production of The Tempest, now at Marin Shakes, updates Duke Prospero of Medieval Italy to a post-Tesla world, where electrical devices and a flock of enchanted spirits dominate the stage. Tracy has inserted sparks in the storm with his choreographed concept of the fairy spirit Ariel.

Wave sounds seep through the outdoor space in the two-act, hour-and-20 play. Three blue traveling boxes face US, not yet revealing their contents. Stage center holds the “Ariel Coil,” a reference to the father of modern electricity, Nikola Tesla, famous for his dramatic Tesla coil display. In his time he was considered a mad scientist.

In his leather apron, in a lab on an unnamed island, Robert Parsons as Prospero seems bewildered or perhaps in awe of the power of the array of electric devices revealed when the Qualities turn around the blue units. The rotations reveal racks of wires and electric equipment (Electronics was a few years down the road in the Victorian era.)

The Qualities are the enchanted spirits left behind by the witch Sycorax who once ruled the island. She left behind Caliban, a slave in chains, and the sprite Ariel trapped in a pine tree. Tracy has split open the pine to unleash a flurry of six Ariels who follow Prospero’s instructions. Shakespeare’s original text identified Ariel only as a single character. The six Qualities here (Silvia Girardi, Maro Guevara, Kimberly Miller, Nesbyth Rieman, Erica Salazar, and Jeremy Vik), in their frock coats, hats and dark goggles all, speak Ariel’s lines in unison. With tight choreography and surprising grace, they make entrances and exits through trap doors in the stage deck.

The set design by Nina Ball draws directly from the 1950s sci-fi genre. The mad scientist rules still, but he has doubts and misgivings here. By using a hundred-fifty year old setting for the ancient story, Director Tracy has opened a new perspective. The Victorian punk style oddly slants the view.

This production adds dimensions to the original while remaining true to the inspired story of a man consumed by the power of intellect, a Victorian fetish. By bringing the story nearly up-to-date – compared to the original – Director Jon Tracy has made the timeless tale more immediate.

The Tempest plays to Sept. 25, 2011 at Forest Meadows Amphitheatre of Dominican University, 1475 Grand Avenue, San Rafael. Tickets ($20 to $35) are available online at www.marinshakespeare.org or by phone at 415.499.4488.

Obama Break Dances in San Rafael

2011-08-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

Mike Mize plays Sophia Vespucci to Cassidy Brown's Amerigo Vespucci. In the middle, Darren Bridgett plays ukelele

Photo by Eric Chazankin

Marin Shakes’ newest production is a spoof that inflicts irreverent mayhem upon the body of American history. Under the trees in San Rafael, The Complete History of America (abridged) recounts events since 1492 and tangentially earlier with only coincidental relationship to the facts. The energy of the three players keeps the timeline churning in the outdoor theater. They go through many costume quick-changes to become anyone from Ben Franklin to B. Obama.

Reed Martin of Sonoma, creator of the play and original cast member (along with Austin Tichenor and Adam Long) wrote it to be improvisational. “In all of our shows we include places to insert local and topical references,” he says. He updated this production to make sure Marin Shakes had the latest version. He edited out Bill Clinton and added W. Bush and Obama. The use of anachronisms and non-sequiturs in this ten-year-old parody of our culture keeps it fresh and current.

On an opening night fraught with danger and annoyances (July 30), the breathless cast of local actors found every one of Reed’s places to insert local and topical references. They took some right-wing digs at Berkeley. A persistent car alarm turned into fodder for laughs. Even a major technical glitch couldn’t stop them.

Darren Bridgett, Cassidy Brown and Mick Mize create an array of familiar characters against a colorful background. They work well together within the script while quickly and seamlessly slipping in another impromptu joke at any opportunity. They are very good at focusing on non-scripted banter and some unexpected mockery of each other, making you believe that they planned it that way. One actor accidentally took a prat fall but carried on like a trouper, giving rise to jokes about splinters.

From an opening scene about the origin of the name of our country to a choice of modern finales, the misguided slapstick humor is incisive. To begin the story, Cassidy plays Amerigo Vespucci with a ship’s helm, Mick plays wife Sophia Vespucci with a Chianti bottle and Darren plays a ukulele. Sophia complains that Amerigo’s name is all over the map.

Running through the years, the actors assume many different characters in quick succession with varying levels of inhabitation. Darren is somewhat mechanical in ensemble scenes, but he is more involved in his solo scenes, such as when he becomes didactic with his easel presentation. He takes mischievous joy in off-color jokes. Cassidy remains stoically patient until the Dance of the Antelope Intestines. Thank you Cassidy for stopping Darren and Mike from singing. Mike Mize as Obama with a partial mask does some amusing break dancing.

In the end, they try to define our post-war sensibilities. Cassidy insists it is all Broadway show tunes and wants to sing and dance. Darren argues that it is “film noir mystery” and becomes Sam Spade. Mike does a stunning star turn as Lucille Ball.

After all the cynicism they give you an encore of a “happy ending.” They run it all backwards. It is a stirringly visual moment when they describe the Twin Towers rising heroically out of the ground.

The Complete History of America (abridged) by Marin Shakespeare Company plays through September 25 at the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, 1475 Grand Avenue, San Rafael. Tickets ($20 to $35) are available online at marinshakespeare.org or by phone at 415.499.4488.
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The San Francisco Mime Troupe Predicts the 2012 Election

2011-07-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

Aliens from the Future Influence a Presidential Election

Photo by Fletcher Oakes

The San Francisco Mime Troupe ensemble seeks to make you laugh by satirizing contemporary life with mimics and mocks. Since the 1960s the Troupe has pushed a message of solidarity and comedy about most of the burning issues of our time. They perform free in public parks every summer. They begin their World Domination Tour with this year’s offering 2012 - The Musical! an exploration of presidential elections, piercingly debunking the official story.

On a small portable stage the Troupe continues to pound out their political message about the desperate plight of the under trodden in our corporatized society.

This year’s annual show lampoons the dynamic between profit-seeking entities and underfunded artists, with a bit of a dig at green industries thrown in. For the July 4 opening, fans packed the hillside in Dolores Park. The Troupe will return to Dolores in September after performing in such far-flung places as Napa and Nevada City.

The afternoon show on July 4 began with two Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence on stage for some topical shticks, and then moved on to parody everyone from President Obama to Jesus Christ. The ‘60s liberal leanings of the players rings out stridently.

Pat Moran, a past contributor to the Mime Troupe, and Bruce Barthol, former Country Joe & The Fish bassist, wrote the music and lyrics for Michael Gene Sullivan’s play within a play. An idealistic theatre company seeks any contribution to stay afloat. A large corporation will underwrite a production for them if they will toe the capitalist party line.

The ensemble enacts the struggling, artistically focused company Theater BAM! In order to stay in business, they eventually give in to “corporate fascism.” Their devil-on-the-shoulder takes the form of Green Planet Inc. company evangelist Ms. Haverlock (Keiko Shimosato Carreiro). The corporation will supply the money if Theater BAM! will write the play 2012 – The Musical!

The stage curtain opens to another curtain as the new show begins. They parody the next President with Senator “Skip” Pheaus (writer Sullivan, who also plays Obama and Jesus). He claims there are terrorists outside children’s windows. In the end, Theater BAM! thanks International Amalgamated Cheese Industries and is “ready to par-tay!”

Wilma Bonet directs this musical satire about the art of Mass Distraction. The ensemble of Lizzie Calogero, Cory Censoprano, Siobhan Marie Doherty, Michael Gene Sullivan, and Victor Toman takes on characters ranging from Nostradamus and an alien to a Mayan Priest. Barthol’s lively music is performed by a three-man band. The songs are competently voiced.

Bring your picnic blanket and relax to this fast eighty-minute play. This new show has red-state edges, a departure from the Troupe’s tradition. Sometimes they seem to doubt Obama’s message.

2012 – The Musical! by San Francisco Mime Troupe will be touring through California and beyond past Labor Day. Their next performance is 7:00 pm Wednesday July 13 at Mitchell Park, 600 East Meadow Drive, Palo Alto. See the full schedule at http://www.sfmt.org/index.php.

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Be a Pelican Rooster in Chinatown

2011-07-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

Bob Greene and Zoe Conner explore geriatric activities at Pelican Roost.

Photo by David Allen

Aging is a funny thing, and Assisted Living: The Musical® proves it. The revue debuted two years ago in a Florida retirement community and has rolled its wheelchair into San Francisco’s Chinatown. The singing duet of Zoe Conner and Bob Greene goes through 19 songs about the problems of seniors. The seventy-five minute show is lively and wickedly funny.

The Act

Piano accompaniment is provided by actor Robbie Cowan, whom they claim is their nephew. The music is diverse and familiar, with take-offs of well-known songs. The writers Rick Compton and Betsy Bennett have created new lyrics for old songs. The show is tightly staged with hilariously descriptive costume changes.

Against gold framed red velvet panels Bennett and Compton act as denizens of the Pelican Roost nursing home, or “Senior Village.” The players circulate through the house in character as the show begins. Compton introduces himself as Andy, saying “I’m the handyman around here.” Bennett is Marge the Social Director. Their nephew is Lou. Andy also becomes a cowboy lawyer and Marge also plays a nurse and Naomi Lipschitz Yamamoto Murphy who upgrades her living quarters every time her next husband dies.

The music styles range from doo-wop to a slow ballad. The duo laughs at everything from dentures to Viagra. Andy’s opening solo “Help! I’ve Fallen For You And I Can’t Get Up” is a reference to the little blue pill. In one scene Andy wears a deely-bobber with big blue pills. His “A Ton-And-A-Half Of Cadillac Steel” is a litany of senior driving errors sung while Bob mimes using a stool as a steering wheel.

For comedy hour at Pelican’s Roost, Marge welcomes the audience to “Poughkeepsie-by-the-Sea” where she introduces Bob as a Catskill comedian. He tells every lame joke from the borscht belt circuit and acts surprised when nobody laughs. “Haven’t you ever been to the Catskills?” he asks.

The Actors

Both actors are remarkably versatile. Bob in his hideous yellow and green golf clothes looks like he can play the game when he sings the blistering “Golf Cart Seduction.” For his geriatric solo “Lost-My-Dentures-On-Steak-Night BLUES” he stoops as he slowly shuffles across the stage with his dinner tray. Bob’s sleazy cowboy-hat lawyer insists that he can be trusted as he looks at the audience with wide-eyed innocence.

Zoe switches characters easily. She is very efficient in her white nurse uniform and very cold as Naomi singing about how she is able to capitalize on the deaths of her husbands. Her voice is pleasant and well controlled. At the end of her slow ballad about an online love affair (“WalkerDude@Facebook Dot Com”) she rises effortlessly to a high C.

Robbie as Lou is personable and interacts with the audience. Sometimes he has to set things up, such as for “WalkerDude,” where he had to explain some Internet terms. He got the audience to sing along “Happy Birthday” twice for people in the house. When Marge and Andy sing about “The AARP,” he plays along the score to “Ghost Riders In The Sky.” Andy and Marge plan to “go out rock and rolling.”

Assisted Living: The Musical® has an open-end run at The Imperial Palace, 818 Washington Street, San Francisco. The second-floor dining room has room for 150 people at large tables. A Chinese food banquet precedes the show. Tickets ($79.59; $99.50 VIP) are available online at AssistedLivingTheMusical.com or by phone at 888.885.2844.
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The Verona Project at Cal Shakes

2011-07-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

Dan Clegg as Proteus and Arwen Anderson as Julia in Cal Shakes' world-premiere production of The Verona Project

Photo by Kevin Berne

Playwright Amanda Dehnert has updated William Shakespeare’ s The Two Gentlemen of Verona for Cal Shakes. From the Sixteenth Century play she has teased out a rock musical, The Verona Project, just opened (July 9) at California Shakespeare Theater, Orinda. The original play about cross dressing and false identities takes on new meaning when homosexual love and a secret gay elopement are added to the mix.

The Verona Project isn’t just a romantic play. It’s also a band. Telling their story, the eight actors sing and play a wide variety of instruments, from guitars and drums to clarinet and triangle. The band “The Verona Project” recorded a concept album based on The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and they tell that story live in the play The Verona Project, a hybrid of theater and rock concert.

These eight actors are thoroughly competent musicians, but the stronger ones burst through. From the first, the vocals and stage presence of mezzo-soprano Marisa Duchowny dominate the stage. She has a powerful voice. Her head boom mike is probably superfluous in the tight Bruns Amphitheater. She sings well and also plays guitars and keyboards.

Arwen Anderson as Julia carries the show. The actress is able to project a calm blend of determination and ditziness. When she dresses in her father’s military coat (not a page as in the original) she convinces the men she is actually Sebastian, until she reveals herself. Her voice is a high soprano with some beguiling innate tonality. Her guitar playing and abrupt physicality give unusual dimensions to her character. She sings about Julia’s story (“Julia knows she’s a freak show.”) in a well-controlled rock soprano voice. In this show, she has overgrown her house with plants.

TVP remains true to Shakespeare’s original story while deftly modernizing it with musical interludes and contemporary dialogue. While expanding the farce with the implications of male lovers and unrequited love, the musical reshapes a repressed Elizabethan moral landscape.

The Verona Project continues through July 31at Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way. (formerly 100 Gateway Blvd.), Orinda, California. Tickets ($35 to $66) are available online at calshakes.org or by phone at 510.548.9666.

Joan Baez for Dinner on The Embarcadero

2011-07-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

Joan Baez as Madame ZinZanni
Photo Credit: Mark Kitaoka

Yevgeny Voronin as The Maestro and Svetlana Perekhodova as the Puppet

Photo Credit: Tracy Martin

The newest offering from the irrepressible, ever-zany Teatro ZinZanni, Maestro’s Enchantment, brings back two long-time favorites for another five-course-dinner spectacle under the tent on The Embarcadero.

The Maestro, played by the eerie Ukranian illusionist Yevgeny Voronin, is the leader of a mixed band of weirdoes who serve only to entertain you while your meal is being served. Joining Voronin, singer Joan Baez returns for the fifth time as Madame ZinZanni. The evening of song, live music, aerial acts both comic and graceful, and magic serves as a delightful accompaniment for scrumptious dining among friends and party people.

ZinZanni shows are loosely themed and largely free of plot. An attentive wait staff serves a respectable menu, while the cabaret show distracts you from your plate. While you are still savoring that last bit of cheese, salad or entrée the singers and acrobats demand your attention. In this new show, The Maestro, when he can be found, superciliously keeps the action moving with his precise timing and startling sleight of hand. In a cast of ten, he leads the strongman, the juggler, the trapeze artists, the magician, and Joan Baez.

Madame ZinZanni is somewhat recalcitrant, but she and Voronin dance romantically while the salad is being served. Miss Baez has a beautifully distinctive voice. Her songs to the live Teatro ZinZanni Orchestra include the Italian funicular tune and Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.”

Acts continue while you eat. Some are understated. The pacing of the floor show is closely aligned with your consideration of the next course and the intensity of the stage action. When you first are served your next dish, the activity is low-key. By the time you are finishing that delicious zucchini-squash soup, the action picks up.

Aside from magicians, acrobats and jugglers, the acts include some beautiful singing by soprano Kristin Clayton, the human cannonball who fizzles and a spectacularly intimate aerial silk artist (Bianca Sapetto.)

Voronin takes over as the master for Russian contortionist Svetlana Perekhodova as the Puppet who pops out of a valise. With her pink bob hairdo, her tiny pouty red lips and her vacant stare, she wordlessly does fake pliés while Voronin in his formal jacket with eyeballs for buttons is burning the book Puppetry for Dummies. She adopts some unlikely positions and speaks when he kisses her.

Artist Kristin Clayton, a graduate of San Francisco Opera’s Merola and Adler scholarship training programs, is identified here as “Opera Diva.” She presents a lovely solo aria during the entrée and gives ample voice to her acting talent as Isabella (EES-a-bella), a screaming woman with an Italian accent who rushes on seeking the eerie Maestro. If you can tear your attention away from the salad long enough, you might notice the entwining of a slight romantic entanglement.

The voices and musicianship are a rich background for a sumptuous feast. Baez and Clayton flow together in a duet of Louis Armstrong’s “When You’re Smiling” that seems to be one effortless voice. Clayton’s physical instrument is reaching the peak of her performing power, a mighty force with her acting ability and stage presence. The voice of old folkie Baez has substantially withstood the ravages of time. In her closing solo number of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” her voice is trademark distinctive and whole.

Fun and indulgence are smoothly accommodated. While you are still nibbling that last bit of cheese, salad or entrée the singers and acrobats demand your attention. But don’t delay. Melanie Stace takes over from Baez on August 4.

Maestro's Enchantment plays through October 9 at Pier 29, The Embarcadero, San Francisco. Tickets ($117 to $167) are available online at http://tzsf-tickets.zinzanni.org or by phone at 415.438.2668.
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Tigers Be Still at The SF Playhouse

2011-06-27T01:15:00.000-07:00

Sherry (Melissa Quine) sinks into her sisters’ depression and sing-a-long to Top Gun.

Photo by Jessica Palopoli

Depression and humor get neurotically blenderized in Tigers Be Still by Kim Rosenstock. The SF Playhouse has just opened a deliciously staged production of the ninety-minute off-Broadway hit comedy. The play documents the frustrations of a newly minted Art Therapist. Practicing her chosen profession from her home office does not provide the rewards she was expecting. The other three characters plague Sherry in her apartment with their own anxious needs.

The Setup

Sherry Wickman (Melissa Quine) has earned her master's degree in art therapy and expects her career and life to fall into place perfectly and immediately. However, OCD Sherry in her home office has to argue with her self-indulgent sister over the use of the couch for her therapy sessions. Sherry’s well-directed interactions with sister Grace (Rebecca Schweitzer) establish the sibling dynamic. Then playwright Rosenstock introduces further complications.

The Neurotics

In this incongruously enchanting play, all three women deal with depression in different ways. Their mother upstairs won’t get out of bed or let anyone see her after being abandoned by Sherry's father. They only communicate by telephone.

Despondent about having broken up with her fiancé, Grace spends her days in a boozing on the couch and watching one movie over and over. She steals stuff from her ex-boyfriend's condo in hopes it will make him give her a call.

Sherry has sexual yearnings and a desire for “only reasonably attractive children.” For an unusually intimate effect, Quine delivers this as a monologue to the audience meant to heard by her sister. Sherry also has regular classroom duties at a middle school. Her boss, Principal Joseph Moore (Remi Sandri) has asked Sherry to take on her first client, his troubled teenage son Zack (Jeremy Kahn), who still hasn’t gotten over the recent death of his mother.

From the unseen mother to the teenage son with anger-management issues, the characters are dealing with deadly serious issues, but Rosenstock's distinctive dialogue finds laughter at their pain while giving you an empathetic cheer for their recovery.

The First Client and the Tiger

And now Sherry faces her first client in her home, Zack a dim, slow patient who readily misunderstands anything. Kahn plays this role with a genuine sense of distraction. Then to set Sherry more on edge she hears that a tiger has “escaped from the local zoo.”

The Acting and the Production

When the first student rings the doorbell, Quine makes Sherry effusively happy. She projects an exciting sense of eager anticipation. Schweitzer as Grace seems to wallow in the laziness of her character. She appears to like her misery. Sandri as Joseph seems right in his self-effacing character with an agenda. Kahn as student Zack marvelously projects the attention span of a slacker. They all interact with a high degree of verisimilitude under the guidance of esteemed Bay Area director Amy Glazer on an intricate, compact set by SF Playhouse Artistic Director Bill English.

There is solidly consistent character inhabitation between the sisters. Zack and Joseph are forthrightly and sensitively delivered. A script problem is that these characters as written do not have a lot of room for imaginative inhabitation. They are not fully dimensional; they are one-trick ponies. They are their hapless, neurotic selves and that is all, funny as they are. “This is the story of how my mother got out of bed,” Sherry declares in the end.

This is the west coast premiere of a quirky dark comedy that was featured in SF Playhouse’s 2008 reading series. It then went on to a critically acclaimed 2010 New York premiere.

Get Tickets through July

Tigers Be Still plays through July 30 at The SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter Street (between Powell & Mason Streets), San Francisco. Tickets ($30 to $50) are available online at http://www.sfplayhouse.org or by phone at 415.677.9596.

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Harper Regan Disappears into a Netherworld at SF Playhouse

2011-02-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

Harper (Susi Damilano) is denied time off to see her dying father by her boss, Mr. Barnes (Richard Frederick)

Daughter (Monique Hafen) and Harper (Susi Damilano) bond.

Harper (Susi Damilano) boldly converses with stranger (Daniel Redmond)

After learning of father's death Harper heads to bar and seeks solace from stranger, Mickey (Richard Frederick)

Continuing her search for connection, Harper answers personal advert and meets
James (Michael Keys Hall) in a hotel.

Failing to find fulfillment with strange men, Harper reconnects with estranged mother (Joy Carlin)

Photos by Jessica Palopoli

Harper Regan, in the play named after her, steals a black leather motorcycle jacket and becomes a rebel without a cause. The depressed English housewife takes a sabbatical from her life and wanders aimlessly into a world so foreign to her that she finally realizes she was already in the best of all possible worlds. This two-hour production, just opened at SF Playhouse, features some outstanding Bay Area acting talent on a clever set in a well-written play by Simon Stephens.

Harper’s rootless drifting begins in a modern office setting at an employer/employee meeting with distinctly sexual overtones. Susi Damilano creates a sympathetic Harper with a complex depth of character. She keeps a desperately professional attitude when Richard Frederick as boss Elwood Barnes puts his arm around hers, but the fear of and loathing for this sort of life read distinctly in her eyes. Elwood says, “If you go, I don’t think you should come back.” She leaves.

Harper's journey

Susi’s sense of unease and her skill at projecting it, along with her spot-on British accent, give a fine sense of yearning to be free from entrapment. She is burdened with not only a scut job but also with an unresponsive husband and a pseudo-punk teenage daughter at home. Still in her work clothes she goes to a familiar bridge to experiment with her newly found freedom. She opens a conversation with a stranger who will come to symbolize an anchor of stability in the maelstrom of her new life.

Seventeen-year-old engineering student Tobias Rich (Daniel Redmond) says he does not like ladies in fancy dresses. When he asks why she left, she replies, “I wanted some time off [from life], that’s all.” Tobias says, “I like white women. And I like older women.” Then she flirts with and touches him. She later returns to the bridge for a reality check, but first she tests her possibilities elsewhere.

After confronting her daughter Sarah (Monique Hafen) in the home kitchen for a bout of mother/daughter bonding to show the gravity of what she’s leaving, she winds up flirting with a lager lout in a pub. Monique effectively presents a sassy rebellious nature covering a deep seated sense of fear and uncertainty, but Richard Frederick returning now as Mickey Nestor presents a character entirely different from Elwood Barnes, yet he still wants to paw Harper.

On the set by Artistic Director Bill English, they converse, she in a credible English middle-class accent and he in more low-class Cockneyfied style. Mickey in his black leather jacket moves closer to Harper and praises her shoulders. It’s eleven AM at the pub, and he looks rough in the jacket like that worn by the iconic rebel James Dean.

Mickey strokes her breast casually, then stops. The slightness of her discomfort surprises her.     He asks if she wants to go back to his place. Another caress and he suggests they get a hotel room. Susi at blackout radiates with surprised pride at the deed she has done, stealing the jacket. And that’s just Act I.

With a simple moving element, Act II opens in an opulently elegant but simple set, where she meets an anonymous older man. Harper says she’s never before seen a hotel room with two floors. She also says, “I’ve never answered a personal advert before.” She wears the jacket.

Michael Keys Hall as James Fortune is gently blunt as he simply states to Harper, “I’m married.” And “I want to f… you here.” In pre-coital small talk, he asks her why she left. Susi gives Harper a blend of loss and resignation when she explains she just “walked out.” Harper is awkwardly shy and tenuously aggressive when she asks to touch him. But first he must sing a song for her and dance with her. Michael’s seduction song was tuneful and his ballroom dancing was graceful.

Bay Area favorite actress and director Joy Carlin appears as Harper’s mother in a homey setting with chairs, table, mantle with clock, and paintings hanging. Joy as mom Woolley does not like the jacket Harper is wearing and wonders where she was. “You were ‘orrible to ‘im,” she chides her for her treatment of her husband Seth (also Michael Keys Hall). After that Harper goes back to the bridge.

“You’re ‘ere,”    Tobias says to her in a Caribbean Island-inflected British accent. In this place of truth she has found a reliable witness. She shows no great sense of contrition when she confesses to him she had used a ploy to start speaking the first time. “I lied to you about thinkin’ you were somebody else … I’ve been following you …” “You’re f…ing crazy,” he tells her. She takes his cap and caresses his hair.

Harper's family

The finale finds her back home gardening on the patio and casually telling Seth that she had sex with a stranger in a hotel room. Sarah and the home life now seem pleasant and secure.

The part of Harper Regan takes skilled creative artistry because she has no antagonist to play against. She is both protagonist and antagonist at once. She is not battling against anyone and does not hate anyone, only the drudge that she perceived herself to have become. The other members of the excellent cast are assiduously attentive supporting actors. Harper is the show in herself, and Susi Damilano is fascinating to watch as she puts Harper through her inward journey. This play is a star vehicle and it’s no jalopy. Susi steers and she drives the whole play to distinction.

Harper Regan runs through March 5 at The SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter Street (one block off Union Square), San Francisco. Tickets ($30 to $70) are available online at www.sfplayhouse.org or by phone at 415.677.9596.

For a full review please visit www.DoctorTheater.com.

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A.C.T.’s Hilarious Clybourne Park Brings a Chicago Slum to San Francisco

2011-02-07T14:15:00.000-08:00

Beverly (A.C.T. core acting company member René Augesen) and Russ (A.C.T. core acting company member Anthony Fusco), a married couple in 1959, are packing to leave their family home.

Beverly (René Augesen) offers a chafing dish that she never uses to her maid, Francine

(Omozé Idehenre).

Neighborhood association representative Karl (Richard Thieriot, left) discusses the sale of the house with Russ (Anthony Fusco), while their wives, Betsy ( Emily Kitchens, back left) and Beverly (René Augesen), make conversation.

Photos by Erik Tomasson

Clybourne Park, now at American Conservatory Theater, pays particular ironic attention to the marvelously comic lines of playwright Bruce Norris. A.C.T. Company core veterans René Augeson, Anthony Fusco and Gregory Wallace warmed up to make the production itellingly hilarious and sharply critical with an engrossing story that spans decades.

They try to sell the house.

René gloried in her ditzy character in Act I, and then reveled in the ennui of her different Act II character. Anthony sat in his grumpy chair mostly making unpleasant noises, as well he should considering what happened in the neighborhood he is moving out of, as he later intones vociferously. When the comic satire picked up steam, other characters were introduced to illustrate the plight of Bev and Russ (René and Anthony) as they are selling their family home.

Norris’ work is funny and provocative. The keen social insights of this play are chillingly obvious behind the broad overlay of incisive wit. The A.C.T. cast of seven (René Augesen, Manoel Felciano, Anthony Fusco, Gregory Wallace, Omozé Idehenre, Emily Kitchens, and Richard Thieriot) works enthusiastically as an ensemble in less than two hours. When they argue over buying Bev and Russ’ house years later, the actors allow their characters to be wholly focused on their own immediate needs to the exclusion of the larger issues of urban decay and racism raised by the play.

In 1959 Act I a middle-class white couple sells their home in a Chicago neighborhood to a black family, causing uproar. Neighborhood association representative Karl (Richard Thieriot) explains the differences between the races to house maid Francine (A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program graduate Omozé Idehenre) and her husband Albert (A.C.T. core acting Company member Gregory Wallace). Unctuous Karl seeks to undo the sale to Negroes by trying to convince them that they won’t be able to find their preferred foodstuffs in this lily-white area. René comes in and tries to give a castoff chafing dish to the maid. “We got our own things,” Omozé as Francine proudly refuses, saying she prefers spaghetti and meat balls.

They try to buy the house.

In the same house in 2009 Act II, the stakes are different, but the debate is strikingly familiar. The nabe has deteriorated drastically and the house is an empty derelict with wallpaper stripped and spray-paint tags on the bare walls. As an anomaly, a white couple is trying to buy into the now-black neighborhood. Worse, they seek to improve, tearing down the two-story and erecting a three story totally out of line with the local architectural aesthetics.

Between acts, the ensemble smoothly shifts from an Archie Bunker milieu to a contemporary property acquisition. In this story about race and real estate in America, the Act II characters discuss with barely contained hostility the deterioration of the neighborhood. In Act I, the local pseudo-activists want to keep blacks out of the neighborhood. In Act II, the same sorts of organizers want to keep the gentrifying whites out.

While the opening scenes focused on Anthony as Russ in his chair with his radio down stage left, the cast of seven actors eventually used all the stage under the direction of Jonathan Moscone, Artistic Director of California Shakespeare Theater, in his A.C.T. main stage debut. His CalShakes directing style is greatly different from what is usually seen at A.C.T. Though uneven or static at times, the staging picks up and becomes engrossing. The running gag of the trunk is handled with surprising humor moving into bitter-sweet poignancy. Moscone handled the surprisingly redemptive, optimistic ending simply and with no distracting flourishes.

The West Coast premiere of Clybourne Park by adamant provocateur Bruce Norris plays through February 13 at the American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco. Tickets (starting at $10) are available online at www.act-sf.org or by calling the A.C.T. Box Office at 415.749.2228.

For a full review please visit www.DoctorTheater.com

Spalding Gray left more stories to tell in a church on Gough Street

2011-02-07T00:11:00.000-08:00

Richard Wenzel as Love
Photo by Jay Yamada

In Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell a five-person ensemble performs his beloved classics and never-before-heard stories. Custom Made Theatre Company’s Bay Area premiere of Spalding Gray’s autobiographical monologues embraces his wit and wisdom and touches on subjects ranging from a child in a high chair being subjected to Beethoven, a visit to “the Bermuda Triangle of health care,” a car explosion, and his first communion. In 50 recitations, the cast takes him from Vineyard Haven and Provincetown in Massachusetts (getting away from his mom) to a prison mess hall in Nevada (watching a barbecue on a prison bunk).

Spalding became world-famous for such monologues as Swimming to Cambodia, Monster in a Box and Gray’s Anatomy. His widow Kathleen Russo conceived of a tribute to him using five actors of mixed age and gender to take on parts of Spalding’s psyche in the reading of his works. The five (miming reading from book props but obviously having memorized the lines) have symbolic names: Love (Richard Wenzel), Family (AJ Davenport), Career (Patrick Barresi), Adventure (Leah S. Abrams), and Journal (Gabriel A. Ross).

He was shockingly neurotic, brutally funny and amused by the irrational world around him. She put together beloved sections of his famous works with unpublished private writings into a vibrant, creative 90-minute narration that is both familiar and unexpected. The result is a collage of his reactions from the 1960s to the ‘90s.

There is very little interaction between the players. Each one having a unique style, they create a synergy of self-exposure with their personal inhabitations of Spalding’s storytelling. The professional intonations of the cast dramatically underscore the genius of his lines. This staging does involve some slightly choreographed group dancing, but there is no drama in the production, only in the lines. With their caring involvement in the text, the ensemble gives insight to his complex, funny and touching private life. Even so, the finale degenerates into a cacophony of individual voices proclaiming all at once.

Custom Made Theatre Company produces plays of literary significance and social conscience in their intimate space attached to the historic Trinity Church. Their core of actors has great talent, but the paucity of its display in this production screams out for a better presentation of this new, beautifully poetic prose. The individual personal narratives leave no room for interaction between the actors.

Directed by Brian Katz and Daunielle Rasmussen; Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell continues through February 19 at The Gough Street Playhouse (formerly The Next Stage), 1620 Gough Street (at Bush), San Francisco. Tickets ($20 to $25) are available online at 510.207.5774.

For a fuller review visit www.DoctorTheater.com.

San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Announces 35th Annual Awards Ceremony on April 4

2011-01-31T13:45:00.000-08:00

Celebrating Bay Area Theatre Excellence

On April 4, 2011, the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle will proudly host its 35th Annual Awards Ceremony, celebrating Bay Area theatre excellence during 2010. Awards will be given for touring productions as well as dramas and musicals in the following categories: Over 300 Seat Theatres; 100-300 Seat Theatres; and Under 99 Seat Theatres.

A complete listing of nominees will be available in mid-February at www.sfbatcc.org.

The public is invited to join the Critics Circle in recognizing and applauding the talented theatre artists who entertain and educate local audiences year round. The Awards Ceremony will be held at the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts Theatre Lobby, 3301 Lyon Street, SF (free parking). Doors open at 6 pm with the awards beginning at 7:30 pm. Dress is business casual to formal.

To purchase tickets in advance, call 800.838.3006 or go to www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/145208. On the day of event, tickets may be purchased at the door (cash only). In addition to the awards’ ceremony, the evening includes refreshments and entertainment.

Representing print and electronic media, the 28 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle members attended over 400 productions in 2010 in venues from San Jose to Santa Rosa and San Francisco to Martinez. On April 4, the group will present 37 Drama Awards and 38 Musical Awards to outstanding artists involved in these productions.

Again this year, Actors' Equity Association, representing over 1000 actors and stage managers in the Bay Area, will sponsor the awards.

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A Companion Piece for vaudeville at Z Space in San Francisco

2011-01-23T18:10:00.000-08:00

Christopher Kuckenbaker and Beth Wilmurt as a performing duo struggling and failing to make an act in Companion Piece, a new play by Mark Jackson at Z Space

Jake Rodriguez performs the Headliner in Companion Piece

Photos by Pak Han

Beth Wilmurt and Mark Jackson have produced Companion Piece with a frantic, madcap glory that that gives striking insights to the creative process. While the polished vaudevillian Headliner (Jake Rodriguez) mugs the audience and chews gum endlessly, the Duo (Beth Wilmurt and Christopher Kuckenbaker) are backstage with a variety of props trying to create an act to upstage him – and each other. Now playing at Z Space, this is a “devised” work: the skits the Duo goes through were developed through improvisation and set for the play, appearing to be spontaneous acts.

The Headliner

As “The Sensation of The Stage” against a painted drop canvas with flowery drapes and cherubs, the Headliner is dapper man with a formal bow tie. He is lively, athletic and frenetically leers at the audience with exaggerated gestures. His act bookends the backstage activity, appearing at the beginning and end, bracketing the failed efforts of the Duo to come up with an act.

The canvas drop covers only about a third of the opening to this large, open stage space. On the sides can be seen various backstage detritus, such as costume racks, a piano, rolling spotlights, rolling ladders, a large trunk, trampolines, and other props to draw from as the Duo’s imagination works. The Lonely Vaudevillian raises the curtain to reveal the otherwise bare stage. Mr.Kuckenbaker takes a rolling ladder to the star’s dressing room door, located high in an otherwise blank wall with no step.

The Duo

The Duo sets folding chairs together center stage and over a microphone requests responses from the audience. On their post-mortem of the show they supposedly just finished, they answer fake questions. Ms. Wilmurt charmingly demonstrates her wonderful ability to appear naïve and trusting when she euphemizes the activity as a “post-show discussion.” She natters on about the “structure” of the show until Mr.Kuckenbaker takes away the mic.

At a table they circle each other in rolling chairs, a physical metaphor of their constant attempts to one-up each other with their acts. As they move through various skits, there is a running gag with a potted plant: no matter where Mr.Kuckenbaker places it Ms. Wilmurt moves it.

Vaudeville with a bite

In an hour and a third with no intermission, this wacky comedy is like a play-writing workshop, with brainstorming people unafraid to confront the ludicrous as part of the creative process. Amazingly, this comic duo, while small, is broad enough to fill the huge stage area. Quick access to props gives the production added immediacy. The subtext of this competition for the winning idea is a poignant story of identity and success.

The world premiere of Companion Piece, directed by Mark Jackson, conceived by Beth Wilmurt and produced in association with Encore Theatre Company, continues through February 13 at Z Space,
450 Florida Street, San Francisco. Tickets ($20 to $40) are available online at www.zspace.org www.zspace.org or by phone at 800.838-3006.

For a slide show please visit http://www.examiner.com/performing-arts-in-san-francisco/a-companion-piece-for-vaudeville-at-z-space-review.

For a more complete review please see Doctor Theater.
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Cutting Ball Digs up the Bone to Pick

2011-01-22T17:13:00.000-08:00

Paige Rogers as Ariadne in Diadem at Cutting Ball

Paige Rogers as Ria in Cutting Ball's Bone to Pick

Photos by Rob Melrose

Cutting Ball Theater brings Paige Rogers back to their stage with her critically acclaimed one-hander Bone to Pick. This re-imagining of the ancient Greek myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur takes place in a diner at the end of the world. Cutting Ball Playwright in Residence Eugenie Chan penned a special one-act companion piece Diadem about Ariadne’s early days. Together they tell a gripping love story and showcase Ms. Rogers’s remarkably diverse talents.

She wears a sinuous silvery gown as Princess Ariadne for the romantic Diadem. The script of this world premiere play is filled with lush and lyrical poetry. Ms. Rogers gives due diligence to her enunciation and delivery of the lines. She dramatically and decisively finds her character at the finale when she writhes on a box and expresses her longing for her husband.

Bone to Pick takes place on a mostly bare stage against a back drop of smoky mirror panels. Lighting instruments on poles reflect in the mirrors. With a longhorn steer skull, a worn plastic chair and a mechanical cash register on the deck, Ms. Rogers plays Ria, a soiled pink waitress with bare feet and a hick accent. With her only prop a coffee pot, she mimes interactions with other characters. She introduces Theo (Theseus the lover who left her in the original myth) to the sounds of processed audio echoes.

She laments that there will be no more rib eye and beans because of the fighting, no more “sody crackers.” Just as she praises beans as “earthquake food,” explosions sound and the lights make blinding, gradually fading glare across the mirrors.

Ms. Rogers is immensely skilled at her earnest inhabitation of differing characters. Her description of the half-man half-bull is intensely personal. The faraway look in her eyes tells a vivid story. When she explains to Theseus her plan to give him a long thread and a sewing needle so he can find his way out of the labyrinth after he kills her brother the Minotaur, she is solely involved in an imaginary character on stage with her, bringing to life a form not seen. Her projected sense of resignation at the end gives personal insight to her equating “my world” with “my desert.”

Ms. Rogers confidently occupies the entire stage at the EXIT on Taylor theater in these two short plays of classical young love and post-modern satire. She explores the character Ariadne, as well as the myth, with tender care. The program not only gives new insights to an aged story, but it also gives her the opportunity to exhibit her bravura acting skills.

Bone to Pick and the World Premiere of Diadem .play through February 13 at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco. Tickets ($15 to $50) are available at www.cuttingball.com or by phone at 800.838.3006.

For a fuller explanation please visit www.DoctorTheater.com.
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The Last Cargo Cult Lands at Berkeley Rep

2011-01-13T22:43:00.000-08:00

Mike Daisey

Photo courtesy of KevinBerne.com

Mike Daisey returns with another scathingly hilarious monologue

Mike Daisey is an accomplished storyteller. His spirited monologues humorously relate his adventures through exotic places. In The Last Cargo Cult, now at Berkeley Rep, he sits at a table and tells about his trip to the island Tanna in the South Pacific. His keen societal observations are generously laced with cynical, harsh wit and coarse language.

Downstage of a cyclorama of stacked cardboard cartons, he tells his story with enthusiasm. His monologue seems to be wandering at times with jumpy transitions, but he has a point to make, and it all ties together.

The narrative

With broad, energetic gestures he describes his scary flight into Tanna. He calls the primitive South Seas jungle outpost, “the island that is just beyond the reach of money.” Through all his meanderings about climbing to the crater rim of the active volcano Mount Yasur and sleeping with a baby pig, he always brings the subject back to money. He is not vituperative in his disdain for consumerism, but uses it to highlight the money-less economy of Tanna.

His vivid and evocative imagery detail his encounters with people so primitive they burn money and use their solar powered cell phones only as flashlights. He does not appear judgmental of the natives but describes them with sympathy. The object of his scorn is “financial terrorism.” To him, all money is a pyramid scheme.

The style of Daisey

Daisey is indefatigable in his non-stop monologue, and unhesitant to use shock or profanity to emphasize his point. He presents an appealing presence on stage, and his demeanor is self-effacing enough that we forget about him and concentrate on what he is saying. When he does use his hands for emphasis and added explications, they move like a ballet. His face is very motile and can move in perfect synchrony with the ideas he is presenting. His perceptions are unique and give insight to many aspects of the world we might not ever be acquainted with.

Mike Daisey's two-hour monologues perform in repertory on differing days and times. The last performance will be on February 27 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison Street, Berkeley. Tickets ($39 to $59) are available on line at www.berkeleyrep.org or by phone at 888. 427.8749.

For a more complete review, please visit www.DoctorTheater.com.

The Christmas Ballet by Smuin

2010-12-19T00:22:00.000-08:00

Smuin Ballet tappers

Photo courtesy of Carla Befera Public Relations

Smuin Ballet presents its annual return with a perfect gift for audience members of all ages, a snow-filled extravaganza with everything from ballet, tap and swing to a wealth of other international dances. Michael Smuin’s elegant creation includes beautiful and charming traditional performances along with humorous and sexy dance pieces.

In two acts he blended classical with sexy. "The Classical Christmas" is dressed in white and danced to timeless seasonal music ranging from carols to Elvis to klezmer. "The Cool Christmas" is red hot and sassy, danced to new holiday favorites. As always, there is new choreography with surprises. This year’s edition includes new choreography from acclaimed Choreographer in Residence Amy Seiwert and Smuin Ballet Master Amy London in an always-changing feast of holiday fun.

To get an idea of this holiday show based on Smuin’s choreography, please look at my review from 2006: http://www.sfbaytimes.com/article_p.php?article_id=5906

The Christmas Ballet plays through December 24 at Novellus Theater in Yerba Buena Center, 701 Mission Street, San Francisco. Tickets ($20 to $62) are available online at http://www.ybca.org/tickets/production/view.aspx?id=11818 or by phone at 415.978.2787. Find the complete schedule at www.smuinballet.org.

Shrek Is Not like Us. He’s Green, but He Sings Well

2010-12-15T18:15:00.000-08:00

Haven Burton as Princess Fiona with her Ensemble

Alvin Mingo, Jr. as Shrek's friend the Donkey

Photos by Joan Marcus

Being green is not easy, whether you are an environmentalist, a frog or an ogre. The green ogre Shrek, now singing at the Orpheum Theatre in SHN’s Touring Broadway production of Shrek The Musical, makes a compellingly sympathetic case for being part of “The Other,” those who do not easily mesh with polite society.

Eric Petersen in the title role delivers a winning character with strong vocalizations. As he seeks the hand of Princess Fiona his supporting cast of fairy-tale personae is superbly choreographed and vividly brought to life, but none so starkly as Shrek’s only real friend the Donkey.

The Ogre Gets the Girl

Petersen artfully tells his sad tale with his baritenor voice. When he sings along with “Big Bright Beautiful World,” a song full of optimism, his vaguely British accent lends credence to his immense stage presence. He holds audience attention without hesitation and is the star of the show, regardless of his hideous nature.

Petersen portrays the loner in a cabin in the woods, the misshapen creature no one comes near because of his funny ears and his colorful skin, or some other superficial aspect. Too bad no one ever tried to know him for the wonderful, kind, compassionate being he is. The Donkey doesn’t care about his looks. Asses are as unloved as ogres; two of a kind.

Eventually, despite his appearance, he wins over Fiona (Haven Burton singing in a convincingly innocent little-girl voice). Her acceptance of the outsider is the climax of this musical which appeals to adults and families alike. Fairy tales can come true.

The struggle of the play is about Shrek’s efforts to convince Fiona that he is genuine, not just a stereotyped monster. Fiona eventually turns green with envy when she finds he is not so awfully different and has much love to give.

Madison Mullahey plays Young Shrek with all her heart, as well as also playing the Young Fiona and a Dwarf. Shrek parents Mama Ogre (Carrie Compere also plays Tweedledum from Lewis Carroll) and Papa Ogre (Brian Gonzales as also a Knight, a Bishop, a Pied Piper overrun by his mice, and Straw the pig) seem to love their baby ogre.

A Grand Production

Alvin Mingo, Jr. plays the Donkey in a body suit with ears and hooves. Costume Designer Tim Hatley, who also designed the elaborate and whimsical scenery, gave great license to Mingo and he ran with it. His interpretation of a flighty beast of burden is a wonderfully fey show in itself, immensely suitable for children and jaded grownups alike.

The grand staging of this fantasy allegory produced by Dreamworks Theatricals and Neal Street Productions involves highly descriptive costuming and lively, unadorned choreography. The twenty-one member ensemble moves easily between characterizations, from blind mice to knights in shining armor. They explore their parts with enthusiasm.

Fairy-tale creatures cavort through a colorful world of fantastic story-book settings. The huge rod-puppet dragon is fascinating, and everybody sympathizes with the hideously different creature who might be better than us. If the producers of this play had set out to create a two-hour childrens moralistic fable about tolerance and acceptance, they succeeded admirably.

Shrek The Musical continues through January 2, 2011 at Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market Street, San Francisco. Tickets ($30 to $99) are available online at https://tickets.shnsf.com/Online/ or by phone at 888.SHN.1799.

For other reviews please see Doctor Theater and Bay Times.

Melodrama and Murder at the Eureka Theatre

2010-11-08T02:12:00.000-08:00

Murder for Two, a comedy murder mystery musical now being produced by 42^nd Street Moon, is a tour de force, frenetic ninety minutes of inquiries by Adam Overett as investigating Officer Marcus Moscowicz. His only suspect is played by hyperkinetic Joe Kinosian as all the usual suspects. Joe and Adam both swap off on playing the onstage grand piano as the clueless Moscowicz tries to get a straight answer from Joe while he plays nine different characters, all having something to do with the murder of novelist Arthur Whitney, an invisible dead body lying downstage center during the entire show. The two earnest actors play seriously but never pretend that they are not having fun.

The Agatha Christie-inflected story opens with a histrionic death in blackout at the home of the celebrated novelist Whitney. When the lights come up Moscowicz tries to sort out the clues he can get from the constantly changing array of characters Kinosian deftly portrays. As an impressionist Kinosian makes abrupt, well delineated changes between implicated characters such as Mrs. Dahlia Whitney, the ditzy widow sure to be guilty of something, Steph Whitney, obviously with underhanded motivations, the impenetrable psychiatrist Dr. Griff, and various nefarious others such as Yonkers and Skid. Kinosian’s sweat-drenched stage crossings from a chair upstage of a screen to the grand piano are non-stop and his nellie leg crossings are vampy.

The clues develop through dialogue and songs by Kellen Blair and Kinosian. “Waiting in the Dark” portends the invisible death scene of the invisible corpse. Two tenuously related themes of formality and theft resonate through songs such as “Protocol Says” and “Solving the Crime” to the finale, the question of who stole a certain substance. The piano playing duo present workman-like voices that are very pleasant and do not try to stretch themselves. Their keyboard staging is phenomenal.

Officer Marcus poses questions with a wide-eyed innocence as he dashes with well-motivated questioning gestures from the piano to the murder scene. Just as he jumps up from the piano to see the non-existent dead body, Kinosian as Mrs. Dahlia or some lesser character takes over the keyboard without missing a beat. This seamless live music continues through the play. Kinosian seems to do all the work for Overett as his straight man. The wide variety of his impressionisms, from a ballerina to an aspiring detective, reaches an artistic peak in his portrayal of a 12-member boys’ choir.

The set and musical stylization of Murder for Two are a departure from the usual 42^nd Street Moon productions. This musical comedy was developed at The Adirondack Theatre Festival in New York state for their 2010 season and is presented here in association with The Eureka Theatre. Their usual ensemble performances are here replaced by a musical theatre duo which has refined its act to rote through several performances. The wit, spark and energy of Overett and Kinosian have definitely been polished to a high sheen by multiple performances.

Murder for Two: A Killer Musical continues through November 21 at Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson Street, San Francisco. Tickets ($24 to $44) are available online at 42nd Street Moon or by phone at 415.255.8207.

Play the Great War Game at Berkeley Rep

2010-10-25T23:33:00.000-07:00

Tom McKay stars in Canopy of Stars by Simon Stephens, part of the epic production from London
The Great Game: Afghanistan, receiving its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep.
Photo by John Haynes

Berkeley Repertory Theatre boldly and ambitiously sheds some enlightenment on the current Middle East situation with their current production The Great Game: Afghanistan. The lack of artistic response to Barry’s war prompted this collaborative effort touring here with the support of the British Council. The festival comprises three different full-length works consisting of six and seven short plays each by a dozen different playwrights. The fully staged readings of these playlets explore the reactions of the people involved in the fighting. Part Three: Enduring Freedom presents vignettes tangentially but strongly related to each other through the binding tissue of the war. The human drama in each scenelet is sometimes tense, sometimes humorous, but always deeply probing into motives, goals and results.

On a simple set with starkly functional furniture and few props, an ensemble of fourteen actors from Tricycle Theatre offer dramatizations of foxhole conditions, high-level diplomatic meetings and simulated verbatim enactments of media interviews. Characters depicted range from the Ambassador to India and a profiled narrator to an actor in a burqah, perhaps the most difficult and effective role in the play. Understated hints of cultural artifacts, such as an elaborate and showy high pouring of tea, set the milieu unobtrusively, a place where people wear flak jackets every day and money is opium poppies. Multimedia effects include explosions, footage of the Twin Towers attack on a projection screen and cricket sounds.

Many thought-provoking moments weave through each other in a temporally loose time line. The explorations into human destiny and extreme conflict develop high levels of taut audience involvement. The three plays were designed as a day-long event, with time-outs for refreshments. They can be viewed individually.

The Great Game: Afghanistan continues in a limited run through November 7 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison Street @ Shattuck, Berkeley, California. Tickets ($34 to $73; varying performance times and dates) are available online at www.berkeleyrep.org or by phone at 510.647.2949.

For a more complete review and a different pic please visit www.DoctorTheater.com.

Scapin Showcases Clown Bill Irwin

2010-10-10T22:23:00.000-07:00

Hyacinth (A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program student Ashley Wickett, left) and Zerbinette (A.C.T. core acting company member René Augesen) eagerly await the result of Scapin’s machinations.

Photo by Kevin Berne.

American Conservatory Theater brazenly tickles with broad physical humor in their current production of Moliere’s French farce Scapin. Since the title character is played by San Francisco’s Pickle Family Circus clown Bill Irwin this is a sane approach. Irwin also adapted, along with Mark O’Donnell, the original Seventeenth Century play, and he directed it. It’s no surprise that Irwin’s antics dominate the stage.

Irwin’s script calls for two named musicians off the stage where they can be seen and interact with the players. Here on keyboard and percussion in one of the house box seats, Randall Craig as George and Keith Terry as Fred also partake in some of the stage relationships. Comically fast paced action takes place on a cartoonish, vaguely Alpine set by Erik Flatmo. Delving through themes of mistaken identities, calculated deceit and romance, the eleven characters include the requisite fathers with sons and daughters, two pairs of young lovers, and two Gendarmes (Keith Pinto and Ben Johnson) armed with floppy rubber truncheons.

The actors liked it.

The lively slapstick nature of the entire show is typified in the scene where the Gendarmes in Beaver Bauer’s whimsical and specifically characterizing costumes enter to beat Sylvestre (Jud Wiliford) with their limp clubs when he refers to a time “before my brush with the law.”

The physical puns permeate the action and dialogue. Irwin acts with gleeful sympathy for the numerous dirty deeds of his character, and he is almost constantly in motion. His adaptation modernizes the language with some non-French, like “I’m a little lost here.”

His supporting cast is ready for his exuberant commedia dell’arte. They eagerly and breathlessly keep up with him. Skilled mime Geoff Hoyle as Geronte, father of two, worked with Irwin at Pickle, so he knows what to expect. ACT Core Company member Steven Anthony Jones as Argante, father of a boy and a girl, artfully uses his bluster to cover up his miscomprehension of Scapin’s tricks. Jud Wiliford as Sylvestre, Valet to Argantes’ son Octave, who is played by Greg Wallace, another Core Member, respond to Scapin with their own brands of enthusiastic humor.

Laughter rings out.

American Conservatory Theater’s reimagining of this antique comedy has delightfully retained much of the structure of the original French play while adding a purely American interpretation: vaudeville. The gags, some totally unexpected and some deliberately corny, come fast and furious as Scapin schemes fiendishly and comically to seek money and revenge, spinning out a story of a dark heart reaching a happy ending. And at the finale, Irwin still holds the stage, even when being at the end of the bow line.

Scapin plays through October 23 at American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco). Tickets ($23 to $88) are available on line at www.act-sf.org or by phone at 415.749.2228.

Shocktoberfest!! 2010 for Halloween at Hypnodrome

2010-10-08T22:23:00.000-07:00

Kara Emry and Flynn DeMarco in Thrillpeddlers’ Shocktoberfest!! 2010: Kiss of Blood

Photo by www.DavidAllenStudio.com

A severed finger, a severed hand, detached heads, torture devices, and a lot of stage blood. Welcome to San Francisco’s Halloween season. Thrillpeddlers puts on the eleventh annual production of their signature show Shocktoberfest!! Three one-act plays at the Hypnodrome Theatre explore themes of bondage, discipline and sado-masochism, the clever effectiveness of a scold’s bridle, stolen pharmaceuticals, and a psychotic desire to assuage guilt by amputation, all with shamelessly superficial acting and gleeful delight in over-the-top horror.

Thrillpeddlers producers Russell Blackwood and James Toczyl artfully recreate the French theatrical style of Grand Guignol, after the tradition of a 1920s Parisian theater. Gore permeates the atmosphere of eerie props and ghastly consequences. Russ, Jim and their ensemble of performers enthusiastically embrace the brazen pageant of terror and sexual titillation. The half-hour title piece “Kiss of Blood” is an English adaptation by Daniel Zilber of a 1929 French-language play presented first at Théâtre du Grand Guignol in Paris. The first two contemporary pieces were penned by New York playwright Rob Keefe. All take place in the whimsical production space near Division Street in SF.

Keefe’s “Lips of the Damned” uses an onstage guillotine prop known as “The Widow.” James Toczyl plays the smarmy Curator in his “museum of atrocities.” Although Kara Emry as the wife of The Widow’s inventor binds her dockworker lover Andre (Daniel Bakken) and whips him into position in the guillotine, she falls for the inventor’s urgings to find the secret of The Widow by wearing the scold’s bridle, a metal cage for the head, and biting on the projection into the mouth. She bites and the blood starts flowing. Meanwhile, the rodent exterminators are releasing their poison gas.

The next play, “The Empress of Colma,” uses music at first to explain the history of the scold’s bridle and why the mouth projection was involved. The well-choreographed ensemble (by Michael Phillis and Rory Davis) sings of the magnificent device. “It makes all your nagging problems go away.” This is an artful transition.

The scene change between the two plays is smooth and seamless, but scene two of “Colma” enters an entirely different milieu. Russ Blackwood as Crystal, holder of a Colma beauty pageant ribbon, refuses to give up her title to either Patty Himst (a very masculine Eric Tyson Wertz) or Sunny (Birdie-Bob Watt trying to iron her long platinum wig). Their friend Marcie (Kara Emry again) was to score for the three drags, but all she could manage on her way back from her dental school studies was to steal some sodium pentothal. They decide to huff it on a rag. Then they bare their souls to each other while Grandma upstairs (L. Ron Hubby with a suitably discordant voice) screams not to go down there with the queens because of the evil. The results of the truth serum cause dissension among the group. Then out comes the hypodermic syringe.

After intermission, “Kiss of Blood” is set in a hospital brain surgery. A frenzied, deeply troubled crazy man (Birdie-Bob Watt) insists that the Dr. Leduc (Flynn DeMarco, who also played in “Lips of the Damned”) amputate his trigger finger because it pains him so. Watts’ stage reaction to the plot between Dr. Voulone (Bonni Suval) and Dr. Leduc to frighten the Patient out of his psychosis does not go the way it was intended. As Dr. Voulone slowly passes each sharp shiny instrument to the operating surgeon, Watt’s eyes especially, but also his whole face light up with fascination.

Thrillpeddlers’ relentlessly brutal staging makes the amputation itself nightmarishly entertaining. The denouement of this short play occurs when the Patient encounters the ghost of his former wife (L. Ron Hubby in ragged widow’s weeds). The production uses strobe-lit entrances with a very short reading time to introduce her. When she stands with him and demands revenge for her murder, the Patient’s guilt forces him to make a further amputation.

The Shocktoberfest signature tradition is to completely black out the house and float glowing apparitions through the audience. Past night-light shows have been longer with more flying elements. Thrillpeddlers take joy in presenting horrible scenes with the loving menace of such authors as Edgar Allen Poe and Steven King, those who want to show just how horrible they can be and rub your nose in it. This is the time of the season to get in the spooky spirit, especially now that the costumes are starting to come out.

"The Forsaken Laboratory," a co-production between Thrillpeddlers and Vigor Mortis (Brazil's Grand Guignol theatre company), will be performed at the end of the Shocktoberfest!! 2010 Kiss of Blood bill on October 21 and 22, and 28 - 31. There will be a Halloween show at midnight.

Shocktoberfest!! 2010: Kiss of Blood continues through November 19 at The Hypnodrome,

575 10th Street, San Francisco. Tickets ($25 general admission; $35 premium for “Shock Boxes” and “Turkish Lounges,” sold in pairs only) are available at Brown Paper Tickets or by calling 800.838.3006. Also visit www.thrillpeddlers.com.

2010-10-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

Carl Lumbly and Charles Dean in The Sunset Limited

Photos by Jessica Palopoli

Devil or angel? Cormac McCarthy’s play The Sunset Limited, now playing at San Francisco Playhouse, toys with this question in a tense two-man drama starring luminous Bay Area actors Charles Dean and Carl Lumbly, identified in the script only as Black and White. McCarthy’s play does not cast racial judgments, but religious concerns are a major factor in the onstage discussion between a Jesus freak and the ultra-liberal atheist he rescued from attempted suicide. In Director Bill English’s production, the two men argue passionately about the meaning of life, only to end with notes of hope and despair. The play script depends heavily upon dialogue, with little motivation for stage actions. Director English and his cast have wildly succeeded in keeping this production from being static and interrogative. The tension between the two veteran players is palpable and holds intense interest without unnecessary stage activity. The novelistic approach is barely noticeable because these two characters are decidedly at each others’ throats every moment, although with differing methods of attack. Charles Dean as the liberal professor is ultimately unable to counter the religious arguments of the ex-con black guy who saved him. To Carl Lumbly the black, the prof went far astray of the teachings of Jesus, as personified in a rumpled Bible on the table in his single-room-occupancy welfare hotel room. Carl brought the prof there for intervention after he had tried to jump under The Sunset Limited train as a relief to his anxieties. After being in prison, Carl has found the way to salvation of his soul. He wants to share his vision with Charles. The bloodied Charles Dean just wants Carl to unlock the door so he can leave. But Carl will not until his fire-and-brimstone preaching has been heard. The intellectual prof feels compelled to respond to the black man’s certainty of salvation as found in the Bible. Dean as the prof projects an urgent professional need to educate the somewhat literate savior, but that welfare case has more to teach than the professor, especially when they both admit to the existence of “the trick bag.” English’s staging on a set partially attenuated from the available space keeps the tension between the two men focused and intense. Lumbly tries to hammer home the necessity for belief to the progressive atheist Dean. His arguments are convincing to Dean, who is able to accept the logic and truths of the sermons, yet still appear unfazed. Dean as an actor can present inner turmoil while keeping a believable outward presence of denial. Lumbly with his persistent rage and references to his hopeless rescue of the prof from “the hope of nothingness” presents a fully dimensional character who Believes, no matter what. In the end he lets the prof go to try again tomorrow to end it all. But Lumbly will be there. The male bonding in McCarthy’s story is strong and poignant, regardless of the differences in socio-economic status and intellectual achievement. The love Lumbly wants to give is callously rejected by Dean’s character, on the surface. The two form a relationship. With all of Dean’s angst, and with all of Lumbly’s belief in salvation, they reach a tacit agreement: you don’t jump under the train, and I will be there to save you anyway. English’s direction, and the fine acting talents of Dean and Lumbly make this printed-page dialogue into a tense ninety-minute confrontation. The intellectual elements of the arguments between a fundamentalist Christian and a despairing agnostic are clearly expressed, and then shown to be irrelevant to a suicidal maniac. The use of street lingo while discussing literature creates a divisiveness that the two men seem to conquer and accept, reluctantly. Dean’s resistance to spirituality becomes the crux of the play. In the end he acquiesces. Some might think the black man with his devotion to biblical literalism to be crazier, but even after his drug and prison episodes, he seems more level-headed than the leftist thinker who wants to cast his own body under The Sunset Limited. McCarthy’s use of the word ‘sunset’ speaks volumes about the prof’s alienation. Lumbly’s prized possession in his SRO aptartment, the ruffled Bible, tells of infinite wisdom and hope. This production presents a tense interaction between truth and despair. The Sunset Limited continues through November 6 at San Francisco Playhouse, 533 Sutter Street (between Mason and Powell), San Francisco. Tickets ($40) are available online at http://www.sfplayhouse.org/pages/tickets.php or by email at tickets@sfplayhouse.org and by phone at 415.677.9596.

Hail Caesar! under a Tent on The Embarcasero

2010-09-21T23:34:00.000-07:00

Dreya Weber as Cleopatra

Photo courtesy of Teatro ZinZanni

Teatro ZinZanni presents a lavish theatrical evening of “Love, Chaos & Dinner,” as they call it. With an overall food theme, their latest show Hail Caesar! uses interactions between actors whimsically based on ancient characters, exquisitely skilled acrobats, a juggler, a skilled wait-staff, and some members of the audience. HC! presents seven interrelated performances studded with servings of a five-course gourmet dinner, all in a jewel-box setting under a tent with live music by The Teatro ZinZanni Orchestra.

Old-world traditions come back to life in the Spiegeltent imported from Belgium and erected on The Embarcadero in San Francisco. The hyperactive, brightly costumed players move across the floor and through the tables while the audience sits at tables being served courses ranging from antipasto and soup with choice of entrée to desserts. But the imperialistic chef Caesar proclaims protractedly and loudly that his salad is the best. Master impressionist Frank Ferrante as Caesar exhibits no shame at all about having named his fabulous salad after himself. Then the salad is served. Timing the servings to occur between the acts, or at least during lulls in the frenetic activity of the cast, is an art form in itself.

Ferrante the chef emcee selects occasional audience members to join him on the floor for extended Q & A sessions. His victims ranged from a theatre reviewer to a pregnant kindergarten teacher. His improvisational abilities and effortless way of keeping the show moving are impressive. The audience members seemed to enjoy themselves.

Dreya Weber is a glamorous vamp in her Cleopatra costume. She’s a quick and witty actress. She is stunning in her aerial act with white ropes and abrupt drops. Her aerial red silk act is sensuous and beautifully choreographed. Although she is sometimes too focused on technique to relate to the audience, and one sequence featured a seemingly endless number of gyrations, her quick and surprising technique is flawless and her technicians made fantastically well coordinated hoists.

Tim Tyler in shorts and pith helmet plays Mr. PP, an anachronism explorer, charmingly funny. He interacts with Caesar and Cleopatra in what is assumed to be ancient Egypt, complete with Cleo’s onstage barge. Then he balances an egg and a chopstick on his nose, continuing the food theme of the show and the evening. His later act of spitting out ping pong balls – and perhaps even an egg – is impressive in the number of balls he must have swallowed, but the regurgitation connotations are not appetizing. Please! I’m eating.

Music in the show includes the Orchestra on a small circular stage off to the side of the dining and performance floor. Singer Christine Abraham has a lovely voice. Acrobatic gymnast Alexa Hukari uses seemingly effortless grace on the pole. “Vertical Tango” takes Sam Payne and Sandra Feusi in a sinuous dance in the air high above the tables. Tumblers Ming and Rui leap over and make graceful and challenging callisthenic movements on a dinner table. A large ensemble of costumed extras perform such vital functions as roll on Caesar’s chariot, carry on a sarcophagus in an operatic triumphal procession, bring on the barge, and erect the pole at the center of the tent with guy wires. The complicated technical timing of the production is flawless.

The show on San Francisco’s waterfront is a fine evening out and you don’t have to worry about getting something to eat beforehand. The acts are always entertaining and professional in cabaret and cirque vernaculars. The food is good and the staff and actors all seem to want you to have a good time.

Hail Caesar! plays through October 31 at Pier 29 on The Embarcadero (at Battery Street), San Francisco. The regular schedule runs Wednesday through Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m. Tickets ($117 to $145; includes dinner) are available at the on-site Box Office weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and weekends from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., online at www.lovezinzanni.org or by phone at 415.438.2668.

More information can be found at http://www.examiner.com/x-32303-SF-Performing-Arts-Examiner~y2010m8d9-Love-Chaos-andDinner-at-Pier-29-The-Embarcadero-San-Francisco.

Doctor Theater has more to say and show.

Trouble in Mind in Berkeley? It’s funny and throught-provoking.

2010-09-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

Al Manners (c. r, Tim Kniffin) directs Wiletta Mayer (c. l,Margo Hall) in front of cast and crew (l, Melissa Quine, Rhonnie Washington, r. front-back Patrick Russell, Elizabeth Carter, Jon Gentry) in Trouble in Mind

Photo by David Allen

In the Alice Childress play Trouble in Mind, now at Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre, a Broadway stage director from Hollywood has to cope with an actor who does not like the script and an African American actress asserts her objections to lynching. The two threads twine inextricably together in a whimsically gripping melodrama. Does the humorously imperialistic director prevail or will the actress get her way? Robin Stanton’s staging in this three-quarter round space carefully provides deep personal involvement with the characters by keeping the faces of most of the nine actors equally visible to all sides. Eric Sinkkonen’s set design eloquently speaks the vernacular of a theatre stage.

Act I takes place at a table reading rehearsal on a stage. For the play-within-a-play, the texture of a backstage is thoroughly realistic with a rough brick wall, a rope gallery and guarded radiators mounted high. The first reading is tense as the actors enter and get ready to rehearse with each other, sight unseen. The mixed-race cast members seem affable enough toward each other, but when the director Al Manners enters in his “Hollywood director tweed.” Callie Floor’s costume design gives Tim Kniffin the sleaze and style to flesh out his overbearing, pseudo-creative character.

But Al Manners begins to meet his equal when his white skin and his play written by a white man, Chaos in Belleville, an anti-lynching drama referencing the segregationist period around Montgomery Alabama, meet his leading lady Wiletta Mayer, a gifted African American actress fiercely and sympathetically played by Margo Hall. Wiletta will not compromise and wants the script changed to eliminate mention of lynching. Sometimes, in the real-life of theatrical endeavors a cast member or even a director will storm off the set because of artistic differences, drastically changing the original concept of the show.

The structure of this under two-hour play uses an ancient plot device (e. g. “The play’s the thing / By which we’ll catch the king” ~Hamlet; Bottom and The Mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) to make a special pleading. The recalcitrant actor in this setting could have been upset about anything. I have seen actresses demand the director rewrite their lines while the camera was rolling (He did sit down and change the script for her.) All too often it’s just plain personality differences that break up a promising production. Childress could have chosen anything from disagreements over Nazi Germany (Having lived through World War II, Childress died in 1949.) to esthetic considerations of the script phrasing as a contentious point in the rehearsal process. Instead she chose to intimate an emotional fervor to deny the existence anywhere of lawlessness.

Aurora’s production and Jessica Heidt’s casting show us believably genuine people in their normal work environment. For instance, Earll Kingston as the octogenarian stage electrician Henry is lovably avuncular and picks up the loose end of the play script’s ending. Michael Ray Wisely is a versatile Bay Area favorite and his blowhard Alabama politician Bill O’Wray is spot-on.

Trouble in Mind continues through September 26 at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison Street, Berkeley. Tickets ($34 to $55) are available online at Aurora Theatre or by phone at 510.843.4822.

For more information please visit Doctor Theater.