Judy Richter

To have a chance at happiness, two mismatched people must take risks and let go of their fears.

That’s the challenge in Lanford Wilson’s 1980 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Talley’s Folly,” presented by Aurora Theatre Company.

One of the two, Matt Friedman (Rolf Saxon), a 42-year-old, European-born Jewish accountant, takes the first risk by driving 300 miles from St. Louis to the small town of Lebanon, Mo., to woo the gentile Sally Talley (Lauren English), a 31-year-old nurse’s aide he had met the previous summer.

They meet in a decrepit boathouse near the Talley family farm in the early evening of July 4, 1944, during World War II.

Matt appears first, telling the audience in an extended monologue that this is a waltz. When Sally arrives from work, their encounter is prickly. She rebuffs his efforts to win her over and tells him to leave. Yet when he starts to go, one or the other finds a reason to continue their conversation.

Eventually they reveal what lies behind their fears. And it’s more than just the surface differences between them and the fact that Sally’s family doesn’t think he’s suitable for her.

This production takes place in Aurora’s second space, Harry’s Upstage. This intimate setting works well for the one-act, 97-minute, two-person play, especially with Jon Tracy’s rundown boathouse set and ambient lighting, aided by Chris Houston’s sound design.

The play’s title comes from the boathouse, which was built by Sally’s grandfather to resemble a Victorian gazebo. A folly is defined as a decorative structure that looks as if it has some grander purpose.

For the most part, director Joy Carlin paces the show well, but there’s not enough chemistry between the actors. Saxon’s performance as Matt can seem repetitious, a problem mainly with the script but partially with the actor. The role of Sally is more challenging because she has fewer lines, requiring the actor to convey reactions with body language and facial expressions. English does well with both.

This play is part of a trilogy that includes “Talley & Son,” set in the farmhouse on the same day, and “Fifth of July,” set at the farm 33 years later. Aurora will present staged readings of “Talley & Son” and will soon open “Fifth of July.”

“Talley’s Folly” will continue through June 5 at Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, through June 7. For tickets and information, call (510) 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org.

After years on the road as a traveling salesman, 60-year-old Willy Loman is exhausted, yet he continues to dream big, perhaps fooling only himself.

Willy (Randall King) is the title character in Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning American classic, “Death of a Salesman,” presented by San Jose Stage Company.

Willy lives in New York with his loyal, loving wife, Linda (Lucinda Hitchcock Cone), but his territory is in New England, requiring lots of travel and days away from home.

As the play opens, his two sons, 34-year-old Biff (Danny Jones), and the younger Happy (Jeffrey Brian Adams), are visiting for some time. Neither has successfully found himself. Biff and Willy continually clash even though — as seen in flashbacks to the boys’ high school days — both Biff and Happy once adored their father.

Willy is inspired by memories of his older brother, Ben (Kevin Blackton), who took chances and made a fortune. Also playing roles in Willy’s life are his neighbor and friend, Charley (Michael Bellino); Charley’s bright son, Bernard (Joey Pisacane); and Willy’s young boss, Howard Wagner (Will Springhorn Jr.).

Although the play focuses on Willy and his problems, it also looks closely at Biff as he tries to resolve his feelings about Willy, especially after a shattering discovery when Biff was still in high school.

As directed by Kenneth Kelleher, this production features fine acting from not only the principals but also from secondary and minor characters. Kudos especially to King’s Willy and to Cone’s Linda, who has some of the play’s most memorable, wrenching speeches.

Aided by projections, Giulio Cesare Perrone has designed a versatile set enhanced by Maurice Vercoutere’s lighting and Tanya Finkelstein’s costumes. However, the almost omnipresent music and sound by Cliff Caruthers, apparently meant to heighten the drama, become obtrusive, as if he and director Kelleher didn’t trust the power of Miller’s writing.

The two-act play runs about two hours and 40 minutes with one intermission. Written in 1949, it raises human concerns that are as profound today as they were then. This production reflects that relevance.

“Death of a Salesman” will continue through April 26 at San Jose Stage Company, 490 S. First St., San Jose. For tickets and information, call (408) 283-7142 or visit www.thestage.org.

“Hard Working Miner” provides an apt opening to “Fire on the Mountain,” a musical examination of Appalachian coal miners’ lives presented by TheatreWorks as its 400th production.

Co-creators Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman interviewed hundreds of miners and their families from throughout the area and interspersed their words with three dozen traditional songs performed by a nine-member cast. Myler also directs the show, while Wheetman serves as musical director.

Four of them play string instruments such as guitar, banjo, fiddle and mandolin. The other five create somewhat consistent characters. All of them sing and dance.

Performed without intermission, the 90-minute show opens with descriptions of the daily lives of the miners and their families. They’re mainly light-hearted at first, but descriptions of their hardships are mixed in. The men worked six long days a week in dirty, dangerous conditions, sometimes standing in knee-deep water or lying on their sides for hours at a time. Photos from the time and place are projected onto two large screens to illustrate situations.

These people were virtually enslaved because they had to live in company-provided housing near the mine, shop in the company store with company-issued scrip and educate their children in company-built schools. One boy, played by Nik Duggan, says that when he was 8 years old, he lied and said that he was 10 so that he could work at the mine for 8 cents an hour.

A miner played by Robert Parsons says that coal company representatives convinced his parents to sell the mineral rights to their 1,000 acres of fertile farm land for 25 cents an acre — a mere $250.

Other issues that arise during the show include deadly black lung disease, acquired from breathing coal dust nonstop; the terrible environmental costs exacted on the land and water by strip mining; and efforts to join a union, the United Mine Workers of America.

One wrenching segment deals with an explosion that killed many workers outright and trapped dozens more with no hope of survival. Some miners always carried a tin of morphine with them, apparently to ease their deaths when no hope was left.

Besides Duggan and Parsons, the cast features Marie Shell, Molly Andrews and Harvy Blanks, who do most of the acting. Blanks and Andrews, an expert in Appalachian music, also do much of the singing. Instrumentalist-singers are Karen Celia Heil, David M. Lutken, Tony Marcus and Harry Yaglijian.

The rustic set is by Joe Ragey with effective lighting by Steven B. Mannshardt, costumes by Jill Bowers and sound by Brendan Aanes.

Although music forms the centerpiece of this show, the real impact comes from its message and its salute to a resilient group of people who endured hard lives for little reward.

“Fire on the Mountain” will continue through April 26 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. For tickets and information, call (463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

Sisterly bonds are enduring, as seen in “Sister Play” at Magic Theatre.

Written and directed by John Kolvenbach, it’s set in a deteriorating Cape Cod cottage where three family members are making their annual visit.

The book-packed, moldy cottage belonged to the father of Anna (Lisa Brescia) and her younger sister, Lilly (Jessi Campbell).

Anna, married to author Malcolm (Anthony Fusco), has been a surrogate mother to Lilly, now 30, ever since their father died some 15 years ago. Their mother had essentially abandoned them before that.

Lilly has floundered in life, drifting from one loser boyfriend to another, while the overly protective Anna tries to serve as her anchor.

In the meantime, low-key Malcolm loves his wife and does what he can to understand the sisterly dynamics and sometimes stay away from them.

Things change one night when Lilly goes out for a drive and brings back a drifter, called Man in the program but named William Casy (Patrick Kelly Jones).

Although his clothing is rumpled and dirty from his life on the road, the Texan is polite and well spoken, even eloquent. He’s attracted to Lilly, who reciprocates.

Malcolm comes to accept him, especially since he’s just read and liked Malcolm’s latest book. Anna wants him to leave and never return. She doesn’t trust him, especially where Lilly is concerned.

Thanks to William’s persistence, however, both sisters begin to alter their stances.

As the playwright, Kolvenbach has written some humorous lines. As the director, he elicits well-timed performances from all four members of this outstanding cast.

The two men are especially noteworthy, as is Campbell as Lilly. Brescia as Anna has perhaps the most difficult role because the character is so controlling and sometimes brittle, yet she means well and deeply loves her sister and husband.

Running just over two hours with one intermission, the play has interesting, sometimes off-kilter insights into family dynamics, especially between sisters.

“Sister Play” will continue through April 19 at the Magic Theatre, Building D, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco. For tickets and information, call (415) 441-8822 or visit www.magictheatre.org.

Ever since it premiered in London30 years ago, “Les Misérables” has seen numerous revivals across the world, mostly by professional companies because of its enormous demands, both musical and otherwise.

Undaunted, the ambitious but non-professional Broadway By the Bay in Redwood City has risen to the challenge and has met it wonderfully.

Based on Victor Hugo’s French novel, “Les Misérables,” or “Les Miz,” is a sprawling story covering more than 17 years and dealing with the rampant poverty and oppression endured by many people.

The central character is Jean Valjean (Adam S. Campbell), paroled in 1815 after serving 19 years in prison for stealing bread for his sister’s starving child. Breaking his parole, he assumes a new identity, becoming a businessman and community leader.

When one of his fired factory workers, Fantine (Mia Fryvecind Gimenez), dies in 1823, he assumes guardianship of her young daughter. Nine years later inParis,  talk of revolution is brewing among university students.

Their talk becomes armed resistance, which is quickly squelched by the authorities, led by Javert (Anthony Bernal), who has pursued Valjean for more than 17 years.

With its soaring music by Claude-Michel Schönberg and quasi-operatic style, “Les Miz” needs outstanding singers for the principal and the many secondary characters. The BBB cast is equal to the task, with outstanding contributions by Campbell as Valjean and Bernal as Javert.

Other fine principals are Jason Rehklau as Marius, one of the students; Erin Ashe as Eponine, whose love for him is unrequited; and Samantha Cardenas as the adult Cosette, who captures Marius’s heart.

In secondary roles are Melissa Reinertson and Joseph Hudelson as the Thénardiers, unscrupulous innkeepers; Matthew Thomas Provencal as Enjolras as the students’ leader; and Gimenez as Fantine.

Numerous other people in this 33-member cast have their moments in the spotlight as soloists and in the ensemble. Music director Sean Kana elicits fine contributions from all of the singers as well as the 16-member orchestra.

Some of the more memorable songs include “At the End of the Day,” “Master of the House,” “A Heart Full of Love,” “One Day More,” “Bring Him Home” and “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables.”

Kudos to director Jasen Jeffrey, assisted by Maureen Duffey Frentz, and choreographer Devon LaRussa for keeping the action moving almost seamlessly amidst all the scene changes.

The set by Kelly James Tighe is part of this process, as are projections by Erik Scanlon.

Running about three hours with one intermission, this BBB production is one of the company’s most ambitious and successful undertakings in recent years. It’s a must-see.

Unfortunately it runs only through March 22 at the Fox Theatre, 2215 Broadway St., Redwood City. For tickets and information, call (650) 579-5565 or visit www.broadwaybythebay.org.

For those who don’t see it in Redwood City, it’s worth a trip to see it when it travels to the Golden State Theatre in Monterey from March 28 to April 5. Call (831) 649-1070 or visit www.goldenstatetheatre.org.

“Proof” playwright David Auburn has given his drama at least two meanings, one mathematical, the other more personal or psychological.

Presented by Hillbarn Theatre, “Proof” takes place in a Chicago backyard in September. Robert (Steve Lambert), the father of 25-year-old Catherine (Ali Marie Gangi), died five days earlier. She had been taking care of the once-brilliant mathematician andUniversityofChicagoprofessor because he was mentally ill for the past five years.

It’s the day before his funeral. She has allowed Hal (Brad Satterwhite), Robert’s former doctoral student, now a math professor, to go through his hundreds of notebooks in case they hold something important rather than gibberish.

They are joined by Claire (Cynthia Lagodzinski), Catherine’s older sister, a currency analyst in New York.

As Catherine and Hal become attracted to each other, she allows him to see one more notebook. It contains what Hal believes to be a profoundly important, even revolutionary mathematical proof.

Catherine has had relatively little formal mathematical training (she dropped out of Northwestern to care for Robert). Therefore, Hal challenges her to prove her contention that she developed it. There’s also an implication of sexism — that a woman couldn’t have accomplished such a feat.

Because Catherine has suffered from bouts of depression, she fears she might have inherited Robert’s mental illness. Claire is worried about her, too, for she urges Catherine to join her in New York.

“Proof” won both the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best play after its premiere in 2000. Auburnhas created an absorbing plot and intriguing relationships between his characters.

Hillbarn director Greg Fritsch has hit the mark with three of his actors, but he has allowed Gangi too many shrill, over-the-top moments when Catherine becomes angry, which is fairly often.

Satterwhite’s Hal and Lambert’s Robert (seen in flashbacks) provide needed moments of calm to offset her. Lagodzinski’s Claire is both controlling and condescending, two hallmarks of the character.

Because the play opened on March 13, the eve of Pi Day on March 14, or 3.14.15, the refreshment stand featured pie. The number pi, 3.1415 to infinity, has major significance in math because a circle’s circumference is slightly more than three times longer than its diameter.

Steve Nyberg’s homey backyard set features the Greek letter pi spotlighted overhead (lighting by David Gotlieb). The sound is by artistic director Dan Demers. Costumes are by Mae Matos. Lagodzinski does double duty as hair and makeup consultant.

This well-written two-act  play runs about two hours with one intermission.

“Proof” will continue through March 29 at Hillbarn Theatre, 1285 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City. For tickets, call (650) 349-6411 or visit www.hillbarntheatre.org.

Long-held family secrets and resentments surface in Rajiv Joseph’s “The Lake Effect,” presented by TheatreWorks.

Anyone who has spent a winter east or southeast of a Great Lake knows about the lake effect. It’s heavy snowfall resulting from cold wind blowing over the warmer water and picking up moisture, which becomes snow. In the play, lake effect also has an allegorical meaning, which becomes clear near the end.

The action takes place during the winter in a dingy, now-closed Indian restaurant in Cleveland, along the Lake Erie  shoreline. Because its longtime immigrant owner is ailing, his estranged son, Vijay (Adam Poss), goes there for the first time in 15 years.

While Vijay reviews his father’s financial records, Bernard (Jason Bowen), a black man, comes in. He says that he always has lunch there and that the father, Vinnie (not seen), is his good friend. That’s when the first secret comes to light. The ever-frugal Vinnie has taken to betting on pro football. As his bookie (Bernard denies that status, says he just place bets for Vinnie), Bernard wants to give him his latest winnings.

Vijay is dismayed when Bernard tells him that Vinnie never mentioned a son but that he often talked about his daughter. Soon Vijay’s younger sister, Priya (Nilanjana Bose), arrives. Sibling rivalry is evident. Even more conflicts arise after Vinnie’s death.

All three characters have their own issues and problems, but Bernard copes more effectively in part because of his optimism. That attitude gradually affects the siblings and allows the three to form a quasi-family.

Set designer Wilson Chin (with lighting by Matthew Johns) recreates the lake effect with several inches of snow piled on a car parked outside the restaurant as more snow falls. Sound by Brendan Aanes evokes the cold, blustery weather every time the door opens and a bundled-up character enters (costumes by Jill Bowers).

Although the emotions can run high, the tension is often leavened with humor. Sensitive direction by Giovanna Sardelli capitalizes on this ebb and flow.

All three actors do well, but Bowen as Bernard has perhaps the deepest role and mines it well.

This intriguing play runs just under 90 minutes without intermission.

“The Lake Effect” will continue through March 29 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. For tickets and information, call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

As the audience files into Dragon Theatre for the opening of its 15th season, a recording of Ethel Merman singing this line, “There’s no people like show people,” can be heard.

It’s an apt way to settle into “Show People,” Paul Weitz’s often funny salute to the people who bring plays and musicals to life.

As the play opens, two actors, Marnie (Monica Cappuccini) and Jerry (Bill Davidovich), who have been married to each other for a long time, are arriving at a beach house owned by Tom (Casey Robbins). He has hired them for the weekend to impersonate his parents in order to impress his live-in girlfriend, Natalie (Sara Renée Morris).

She in turn tries to impress them. For example, she bakes blueberry muffins, but she adds some horseradish, rendering them almost inedible, but everyone else is too polite to say so.

To say much more about the plot as it twists and turns would be to spoil the surprises except to say that little is as it seems on the surface. However, one thing is clear: Despite all the trials and tribulations Marnie and Jerry have gone through over the years, they still love each other and the theater.

Astutely directed by Austin Edgington, all four actors fully inhabit their characters and their shifting relationships while mining both the humorous and the serious moments of the play.

Cappuccini’s performance as Marnie is especially noteworthy. In addition to impeccable comic timing, she relays volumes with her unspoken reactions to various situations and the other characters.

The tall, deep-voiced Davidovich allows Jerry to be something of a ham most of the time, but he can also tone him down to become serious and sincere when necessary. Robbins as Tom and Morris as Natalie are believable.

Kirsten Royston’s two-level set, with lighting by Leonardo Hidalgo, works well in Dragon’s intimate space. The character-appropriate costumes are by Jeff Hamby, the sound by Jesse Scarborough.

This 2006, two-act play runs just over two hours with one intermission. It’s an enjoyable production for the audience and a great way for the company to begin its new season.

“Show People” will continue through March 22 at Dragon Theatre, 2120 Broadway St., Redwood City, through March 22. For tickets and information, call (650) 493-2006 or visit www.dragonproductions.net.

Storytelling becomes a powerful survival tool in “Mr. Burns, a post-electric play,”  presented by American  Conservatory Theater in a co-production with the Guthrie Theater.

Playwright Anne Washburn sets the action in California after meltdowns at nuclear power plants across the country have knocked out the electrical grid, causing massive death and destruction.

As the play opens, a group of survivors is gathered around a campfire trying to reconstruct “Cape Feare,” an iconic episode of TV’s long-running “The Simpsons.” The approach of a stranger puts them in a defensive mode, guns drawn, but he’s just another survivor, and he brings news, none of it good.

The next scene fast-forwards seven years when the band of survivors has become a seven-member theater troupe. They’ve moved into an abandoned warehouse where they rehearse their performance of  “Cape Feare,” making due with limited resources. By now, lines from “The Simpsons” have become valuable currency for which the troupe must compete against others doing the same thing.

The second act is set 75 years later when a theater troupe is staging “Cape Feare,” complete with a mix of popular songs from the era of the Simpsons.

Although the play is filled with pop culture references that can evade some audience members, it’s still enjoyable for the strength of Washburn’s writing and her lyrics for the score by Michael Friedman.

It’s also enjoyable for the outstanding performances that director Mark Rucker elicits from the engaging ensemble cast: Nick Gabriel, Anna Ishida, Kelsey Venter, Ryan Williams French, Charity Jones, Jim Lichtscheidl, Tracey A. Leigh and Andrea Wollenberg. Wollenberg also works with musical director David Möschler as part of the two-person, offstage band.

The set by Ralph Funicello (with lighting by Alexander V. Nichols) becomes ever more fanciful, as do the costumes by Alex Jaeger. The sound is by Jake Rodriguez, the choreography by Amy Anders Corcoran.

Although the play stresses the importance of storytelling, it also honors humankind’s instinct for survival no matter how dire the circumstances.

After closing in San Francisco, the production will move to the Guthrie in Minneapolis.

Irony ultimately rules in “The Convert,” presented in its Bay Area premiere by Marin Theatre Company.

Danai Gurira sets her play in Salisbury, Rhodesia, (present day Harare, Zimbabwe), between 1895 and 1897. A young African woman, Jekesai (Katherine Renee Turner), is taken to the home of Chilford (Jabari Brisport) by her cousin, Tamba (JaBen Early).

Because Tamba’s mother, Mai Tamba (Elizabeth Carter), works there as a maid, Tamba hopes that Jekesai can find refuge from her uncle (L. Peter Callender) who would force her to marry a much older man, whom she despises.

Chilford is an African who has renounced his tribal heritage and become a lay Roman Catholic minister trying to convert other Africans. He changes Jekesai’s name to Ester.  She comes to embrace Catholicism and to join him in his missionary work.

Over time, however, the natives begin to rebel against the white English settlers who have repressed them. Violence follows on both sides.

Chancellor (Jefferson A. Russell) warns Chilford that their fellow Africans regard him and other converts as traitors. Chancellor’s fiancee, Prudence (Omoze Idehenre), urges Ester to be her own woman.

Although Ester is presumably the title character, Chilford, too, is a convert, and both become increasingly conflicted between their new faith and their tribal traditions. Tragedy ensues.

Playwright Gurira, who was born in the United States to Zimbabwean parents and reared in Zimbabwe, is a promising young playwright. However, this nearly three-hour play could benefit from judicious pruning to reduce it from three acts and two intermissions to two acts and one intermission.

MTC artistic director Jasson Minadakis directs the outstanding cast, eliciting strong performances from everyone. The simple set is by Nina Ball with lighting by Gabe Maxson. Fumiko Bielefeldt designed the mix of Western and African costumes. The music and sound are by Chris Houston.

Dialect coach Lynne Soffer deserves credit for the accents, which are usually understandable if one listens carefully. Julia Chigamba, a native Zimbabwean, served as cultural consultant and guest vocal artist.

Despite its length, “The Convert” makes for fascinating drama while shedding light on a part of African history that probably is unfamiliar to most Americans.

It will continue through March 15 at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. For tickets and information, call (415) 388-5208 or visit www.marintheatre.org.