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Jan 22 2015
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A standing ovation for Angela Lansbury and cast in BLITHE SPIRIT

By Kedar K. Adour

Sandra Shipley as Mrs. Bradman, Charles Edwards as Charles Condomine, Susan Louise O’Connor as Edith, Angela Lansbury as Madame Arcati, Charlotte Parry as Ruth Condomine and Simon Jones as Dr. Bradman in the North American tour of
Noël Coward’s BLITHE SPIRIT.
PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS

BLITHE SPIRIT: Comedy/Farce by Noel Coward. Directed by Michael Blakemore . SHN Golden Gate Theater, 1 Taylor Street at Market, San Francisco. 888-746-1799 or www.shnsf.com.

January 20-February 1, 2015

A standing ovation for Angela Lansbury and cast in BLITHE SPIRIT [RATING:5]

Famed playwright Noel Coward is British to the nth degree and his plays are mostly drawing room comedies about the upper crust of Britain’s society of the 1930-40s. His sharp, acerbic, glib wit requires a light touch, ensemble acting with a delicate balance between the characters. For these reasons theater groups in the United States do not often successfully perform his plays.

In 2012 California Shakespeare Theatre (CalShakes) produced a memorable brilliant production of Blithe Spirit with actors rounded up from A.C.T.’s stable of performers. This reviewer suggested that it was the definitive staging. That honor has been replaced by Michael Blakemore’s staging with Angela Lansbury and a combined British and American cast that received a standing ovation last night at the Golden Gate Theatre.

It was a brilliant move to resurrect this 70 year old drawing room comedy with stage and screen icon Angela Lansbury as the inimitable Madame Arcati who brings to protoplasmic life Elvira who had passed over to the “other side.” Lansbury received a (another) Tony Award for the 2009 Broadway production and played to sold out audiences in the 2012 London production. The present National Tour is the London staging. Charles Edwards and Jemima Rooper from the London cast are recreating the roles of Charles Condimine and Elvira.

Noel Coward wrote the play in one week during a visit in Wales where he had gone to escape the German Blitz of 1941. It opened one month later and ran for 1,997 performances.  It is a delightful comedy-fantasy-farce set in pre-war1937. Charles Condomine, a twice-married novelist living with his 2nd wife Ruth in an elegant English Manor home (Set by Simon Higlett) is doing research for a new mystery book. He arranges for Madame Arcati (Angela Lansbury)the  local spiritual medium and suspected charlatan, to perform a séance. Dr. and Mrs. Bradman (Simon Jones and Sandra Shipley), having shared a pre-séance dinner served by klutzy maid Edith (diminutive, hilarious Susan Louise O’Connor), remain for the séance expecting a bit of fun at Madame Arcati’s expense.

While in a trance during the séance Madam Arcati unwittingly conjures ups the ghost of Charles’ dead wife Elvira. Only Charles can see and converse with Elvira and the fun begins. Conniving Elvira has ulterior motives. The major one is that she wants Charles for herself in the ‘other world’.  The fact that he is married to Ruth is no obstacle to her machinations. Eventually both Charles and Ruth want Elvira to return to her rightful place. . . away from their home and back to the netherworld. Unfortunately Madame Arcati is unable to oblige the Condemines.

The fact that only Charles can see Elvira allows Coward to write some witty bits of dialog between Charles and Elvira that are misinterpreted by Ruth who becomes hysterically distraught. Things go from bad to worse when the selfish and spoiled Elvira, with murder in her heart, decides to sabotage Charles’s marriage to Ruth. Hilarious wildness ensues with surprising plot twists and disastrous results that keep the audience enthralled. Charles Edwards, Charlotte Parry and Jemima Rooper are pitch-perfect in their acting, dialog and physical interaction.

The main character is not Madame Arcati, although actors covet playing the role that is designed to steal scenes. Angela Lansbury is perfect for the part and director Blakemore has created stage action for her that bring down the house. An example is the ritual prancing she performs in preparation for her trance that is stylistic and farcical bringing gales of laughter and applause.  Blakemore’s directional skills carry over to every actor with some of the best reserved for Susan Louise O’Connor’s performance as Edith.

The richly appointed setting of the play designed by Simon Higlett is a book-lined drawing room, with fireplace and ubiquitous wide French doors with billowing sheer curtains. What happens to that tidy set in the final scene is shocking. Not to be outdone by the acting, directing and sets are Katherine Roth’s costume designs and Martin Pakledinaz specific costumes for Lansbury’s Madame Arcati that earn their own accolades.

The play is performed in two acts with written projections informing us where and when each scene takes place. Running time is two hours and 30 minutes including a 15 minute intermission. This is a must see play.

Cast: Angela Lansbury as Madame Arcati; Charles Edwards as Charles Condomine; Jemima Rooper as Elvira; Charlotte Parry as Ruth Condomine; Simon Jones as Dr. Bradman; Susan Louise O’Connor as Edith and Sandra Shipley as Mrs. Bradman.

Creative Staff: Simon Higlett, scenic and costume designs;  (Lansbury’s costume designs are by Martin Pakledinaz); Mark Jonathan, lighting design;  Ben and Max Ringham, sound design; John Atherlay, stage manager.. 

Kedar Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagzzine.com

 

Jan 20 2015
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Ruhl’s ‘Eurydice’ moves slowly at Palo Alto Players

By Judy Richter

 

Playwright Sarah Ruhl gives the classic story of Orpheus and Eurydice a new interpretation in “Eurydice,” presented by Palo Alto Players.

Rather than focus on musician Orpheus’s efforts to retrieve his deceased wife, Eurydice, from the underworld, Ruhl makes Eurydice the center of attention. In Ruhl’s version, Eurydice (Sarah Moser) reunites with her father (Scott Solomon), who has been trying to contact her. Father is a character invented by Ruhl.

Orpheus (Wes Gabrillo) goes to the underworld to bring his wife back. However, the Nasty Interesting Man/Child (Evan Michael Schumacher), who rules there, tells him she will follow him back to the upper world, but if he looks back, she’ll die again.

Director Jeffrey Lo has assembled a solid cast, which also includes Maureen O’Neill, Monica Ho and Monica Cappuccini as the Chorus of Stones in the underworld. He also has a good design team with the set by Janny Coté, lighting by Nick Kumamoto, costumes by Tanya Finkelstein and sound by Jeff Grafton.

However, neither strong acting nor first-rate designs can overcome the production’s slow pace and the plot’s lack of compelling interest, thus making the 90 minutes without intermission seem much longer.

It’s a disappointment after Ruhl’s more successful plays, such as “Dear Elizabeth,” “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” and “The Clean House.”

“Eurydice” will continue through Feb. 1 at the Lucie Stern Theater, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. For tickets and information, call (650) 329-8583 or visit www.paplayers.org.

 

Jan 20 2015
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Dreams die hard in ‘2 Pianos, 4 Hands’

By Judy Richter

Becoming a truly great classical musician requires extraordinary talent and dedication. Without both of the latter, one’s dream of greatness won’t come true.

That’s the hard lesson learned by young Ted (Darren Dunstan) and Richard (Christopher Tocco) in “2 Pianos 4 Hands,” the autobiographical play with music by Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt, presented by TheatreWorks.

Directed by Tom Frey, the two-act work follows the boys’ journey from their first piano lessons through harsh assessments when they’re about to embark upon higher training.

The two actors play all of the other characters, both male and female. Most of those other characters are parents or teachers, some more competent than others. The two also play smatterings of music ranging from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and others to Rodgers & Hart, Billy Joel and John Lennon.

The first few minutes go slowly as the formally clad musicians (costumes by Noah Marin) get settled at the two Steinway grand pianos that dominate the stage, along with two large suspended picture frames, on the set by Steve Lucas, who also designed the lighting.

Things pick up after that as Ted and Richard are about 9 years old when they learn basics such as scales, chords and rhythms. This act is highlighted by their disastrous appearance in a duet contest. It carries them through age 12.

Act 2, which continues through age 17, features more advanced lessons and parental conflicts. Finally the bitter truth surfaces, and both young men have to settle for far less than they had hoped.

Besides being talented actors, the men in this show must be accomplished pianists. Dunstan and Tocco fill the bill on both.

Although they specifically deal with classical piano, the play’s themes could apply to other types of music, especially classical, as well as other arts and even sports, where only the most gifted and talented have a chance of reaching the top.

By extension, the themes could work in other professions and aspects of life. Hence, the play makes for a satisfying evening of theater and music.

“2 Pianos, 4 Hands” continues through Feb. 15 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. For tickets and information, call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

 

Jan 20 2015
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‘Cable Car Nymphomaniac’ is fresh, funny musical comedy

By Woody Weingarten

[Woody’s [rating: 5]

“Cable Car Nympho” features (from left) Courtney Merrell, Rinabeth Apostol and Alex Rodriguez. Photo by Kevin Bronk.

Let anyone refer to “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” in the past and I’d probably think of the Grateful Dead.

That may be dead thinking now.

In the future, I’m likely to think instead of “The Cable Car Nymphomaniac,” a clever, bawdy musical comedy by the new FOGG Theatre troupe in San Francisco.

It’s that good. That fresh. That funny.

Its sex component was inspired by real events: In 1964, ex-dance instructor and Michigan transplant Gloria Sykes hit her head on a pole when her cable car lurched. Her suit against San Francisco five years later claimed the accident had caused a “demonic sex urge” that forced her have relations with more than 100 guys. The jury awarded $50,000.

Drugs in the show aren’t prevalent, merely a couple of joints (including one hand-me-down laced with slapstick).

And while the wide-ranging music is unlikely to fascinate Deadheads and is hardly integral to the storyline, its absence would greatly have diminished my enjoyment.

Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll indeed, just not your garden variety.

The situation lends itself to exaggeration, for sure, and being an easy target for parody. So it may surprise that the overriding theme of “Nympho” has less to do with sexuality per se than how a torpid housewife rouses to make her own choices.

(Although a major sub-text is that females are still being vilified for being sexual in the 21st century.)

I must admit, however, that “Nympho” left me a little flustered.

Praising virtually everybody connected with a production isn’t my usual critical style.

But consider, for instance, Tony Asaro.

He’s one of three FOGG founders, and doubles as its artistic director. Here he also deserves major credit for extraordinarily bright and sometimes salacious lyrics (“I’m the bourbon that melts your ice” and “adjust your slacks ‘cause here comes Gloria”).

He’s also composed 17 inventive melodies that gambol from hard rock to doo-wop to dissonance.

At the same time, Kirsten Guenther’s scythe-sharp book keeps the nearly two-hour, intermission-less show thrusting forward.

Director-choreographer Terry Berliner’s ingenuity becomes visible especially via a whimsical tango lesson and when comical angels flap their wings.

Berliner, who utilizes ensemble members in both male and female roles, clearly plays to his seven-member cast’s strengths.

Particularly David Naughton as Bruce, an uptight lawyer trapped in an outmoded morality; Steven Ennis, who excels in several cartoon-like, rubberfaced light-in-the-loafers roles; and Alex Rodriqguez, who wrings guffaws from super-seductive Eduardo and a mega-cheery plastic-ware peddler.

None of the other actor-singers are slouches either.

Take the company’s executive director, Carey McCray, for instance, who portrays hard-edged Esther, Bruce’s intern who contemptuously observes that “there is a system and it works as long as a woman knows her place.”

And who then roars, “Men fix the world — women fix lunch.”

Or Rinabeth Apostol as Gloria, the young woman saddled with constant male vibrations, someone who allegedly “sends out a carnal SOS.” Or Courtney Merrell as Bruce’s wife, Bryce, a gal desperately seeking herself. Or Hayley Lovgren, who energetically fills out the ensemble.

By the way, I found all the singing voices two octaves above adequate.

Supported effectively by Robert Michael Moreno’s keyboard and his four musical cohorts.

Oops! Almost forgot Jeff Rowlings.

His ingenious set design turns three cable car images and four wooden benches into about 217 stagecraft sensations.

I’d also be remiss if I ignored the costuming of Wes Crain, who jauntily contrasts Gloria’s ditzy glitziness with a fortune cookie-spouting guru’s over-the-topness.

FOGG, an acronym for Focus on Golden Gate, wants to examine the Bay Area’s history, communities, heroes, concerns and ideologies. So yes, “Cable Car Nymphomaniac” is indeed San Francisco-centric, including a lyric asserting that Gloria “gets around — from Laurel Heights to Union Square.”

But the locale’s only a backdrop.

I can easily see the musical doing well with sophisticated audiences in New York, St. Louis, London — actually, anywhere people would enjoy originality, wit and assorted music.

If a problem exists with the show, it’s that Asaro and company have set an incredibly high bar for their next production.

And the one after that.

And…

“The Cable Car Nymphomaniac” will run at Z Below, 470 Florida St., San Francisco, through Feb. 8. Night performances, Wednesday through Saturday, 8 p.m. Matinees, Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $25-$30. Information: (866) 811-4111 or www.foggtheatre.org.

Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net or check out his blog at www.vitalitypress.com/

Jan 20 2015
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Virtuoso Itzhak Perlman charms San Francisco crowd with violin, humor

By Woody Weingarten

[Woody’s [rating: 5]

Itzhak Perlman

“Perfect. Perfect. Absolutely perfect.”

That’s how an elderly guy in my row at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco described the Itzhak Perlman violin recital we’d just experienced.

“That was transcendent,” said a nearby woman. “A real privilege to hear one of the true musical geniuses of our time.”

I felt compelled to merely nod assent.

Frankly, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been charmed by the master musician.

I do know, however, that it’s been every time I’ve seen him — dating back to when the 69-year-old’s hair was dark instead of silver.

I’m such a fan I even watched him act as a KQED-TV pledge-drive pitchman the night before, peddling SmorgasBorge, a multi-DVD set that showcased the best of the late classical pianist-clown Victor Borge.

At Davies, most music lovers were as rapt as I, many of them pushing forward as far as possible in their seats, hoping to hear even a smidgeon better.

It was truly breathtaking to be in a totally silent hall while Perlman played, accompanied by his frequent collaborator, pianist Rohan de Silva.

Every tone could be experienced delicately.

That particular evening, not a single throat-clearing or cough occurred during any of the Beethoven, Grieg and Ravel sonatas he stroked. Scores of attendees showed their respect by controlling their bodily needs.

Until the various movements ended.

Then, cacophony.

Spellbinding, too, was Perlman relaxing his hands in his lap during solo piano passages. His Soil Stradivarius jutted straight out from his chin, appearing to be as natural an extension of his body as one of his arms.

The musician’s work is so consistently exquisite I often can’t pick a favorite piece or segment. But that night I did revel in the third movement of the Ravel, with Perlman stretching beautifully from pizzicato purity to bowing as fast as a bullet train racing into Tokyo station.

I also loved the diversity of his encore, nine short pieces with an emphasis on original compositions, adaptations and translations by Fritz Kreisler.

With a couple of Jascha Heifetz quickies tossed in for good measure.

The half-hour encore ranged from Prokofiev’s “The Love for Three Oranges,” to John Williams’ “Schindler’s List” theme that Perlman had played for the film, to lesser known music by lesser known dead composers (including one the violinist claimed everyone should know because ‘he got a lot of likes on Facebook”).

During the recital’s final segment, Perlman, who’d been wordless during the pre-programmed material, displayed great warmth and likeability — and an even greater sense of humor.

He drew laughs with self-deprecating one-liners and you-had-to-be-there references to “unknown” composers and compositions, and by twice shaking off de Silva like a pitcher rejecting a sign his catcher had flashed him.

After his bows, I overheard a conversation at Davies that went like this:

“Have you seen him before?” “Yes.” “Is he always this jaw-dropping?” “Yes.”

Perlman, who contracted polio at age 4, learned to walk on crutches. He still uses them, but most often rides an electric scooter onto a stage.

He did that at Davies.

The violin virtuoso’s been quoted as saying, “There are people who are…finished products at a young age. I wasn’t, thank God.”

Upcoming soloists at Davies, Grove Street (between Van Ness and Franklin), San Francisco, will include “Organ Recital with Paul Jacobs” on Jan. 25, “András Schiff in Recital” on Feb. 15, “András Schiff Plays Beethoven” on Feb. 22, and “Patti LuPone: Far Away Places” on Feb. 23. Information: (415) 864-6400 or www.sfsymphony.org.

 Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net or check out his blog at www.vitalitypress.com/

Jan 20 2015
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Community theater’s ‘Impressionism’ is witty peek at art and life

By Woody Weingarten

[Woody’s [rating: 3.5]

Tom Reilly (as Thomas Buckle) and Mary Ann Rodgers (as Katharine Keenan) flesh out a flashback in “Impressionism.” Photo by Robin Jackson.

What might you get if you’d locked Noël Coward and Neil Simon in a room with Margaret Mead after they’d toured Tanzania?

A witty comedy tinged with a hint of sadness.

“Impressionism,” actually written by Michael Jacobs, is embedded at The Barn in the Marin Art & Garden Center in Ross, where I watched standoffish New York City art gallery owner Katharine Keenan (played by Mary Ann Rodgers) and burned out photojournalist Thomas Buckle (Tom Reilly) take eight scenes and 80 minutes to become whole.

But their journey often amused me.

Even though Katherine couldn’t bring herself to sell the gallery’s paintings, and Thomas couldn’t let himself snap pictures.

Even though each permanently hid out in the gallery because of life’s wounds — hers from a series of failed relationships, his from seeing too much of the world’s underbelly.

Director Billie Cox, fastidiously peeling back the pair of human onions, nimbly helped me learn who they were by utilizing flashbacks that shifted not only time but place.

And by brilliantly using “invisible” paintings.

The two lead actors give top-drawer performances, surely not equal to those of Jeremy Irons and Joan Allen in the play’s 2009 Broadway debut but way beyond acceptable for community theater.

Much of the play’s dialogue is sharp.

Katherine snarkily revealed a warped world-view by exclaiming that men, whom she refers to as “you people,” exist only “to knock me over.”

More seriously, she ruled about art that “getting it accurate isn’t as important as getting somebody to feel something.”

Thomas, correspondingly, described the self-imposed constraints on his photographic art this way: “I won’t take pictures of anything that [won’t elicit] true joy.”

And the two adversary-friends playfully debated whether life is Impressionism or Realism.

Nobody wins.

But nobody loses either.

Before the opening night performance Cox had primed me and other critics by explaining that the show may only contain “one-act but it’s about the second act of our lives.”

The main conceit of “Impressionism” is that Katharine has employed Thomas for two years and — shades of Scheherazade — he regularly entertains her with stories about the coffee he brings her each morning.

Though the play is officially labeled a romantic comedy, Jacobs, a writer and producer whose work has been featured on Broadway, TV and in film, has put so many obstacles in the duo’s path — much like potholes in many real African roadways — it can sometimes mean a bumpy ride.

It’s certainly a different breed of big African cat than Cox’s last outing at the home of the Ross Valley Players.

That was “Twentieth Century,” which I called a “shamelessly silly…time-machine homage to Broadway creatures of the night-lights.”

In “Impressionism,” the protagonists are informed by artwork masterfully projected onto the gallery’s rear wall. And scenes are connected by both blackouts and slideshows of paintings most likely familiar to even non-art lovers.

Empty frames on the set walls bothered me a bit, however. I was never sure if they were meant to be symbolic, and I found the device distracting.

“Impressionism” probably shouldn’t be summed up by the following exchange:

Katherine — “I don’t understand anything.” Thomas — “Neither do I.”

Nor could a revitalized Katherine be allowed to condense everything into, “What if I wanted to…be ravished in a chair once in a while?”

But she might summarize the show by observing, of both art and life, “You can’t get it when it’s right in front of you — you have to step back…you have to step back to see it other than splotches.”

“Impressionism” is definitely more than the sum of its splotches.

“Impressionism” runs at The Barn Theatre, Marin Art & Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross, through Feb. 15. Night performances, Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m. Matinees, Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $14 to $29. Information: (415) 456-9555 or www.rossvalleyplayers.com.

Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net or check out his blog at www.vitalitypress.com

 

Jan 15 2015
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Late: A Cowboy Song takes us on a bumpy ride at Custom Made

By Kedar K. Adour, Uncategorized

(Left) Mary (Marie Leigh) meets Red (Lauren Preston) and “The Horse’ in Late: A Cowboy Song at Custom Made

Late: A Cowboy Song: Comedy by Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Ariel Craft.  Custom Made Theatre at Gough Street Playhouse, 1629 Gough Street in San Francisco. (510) 207-5774, www.custommade.org. January 8 – February 1, 2015

Late: A Cowboy Song takes us on a bumpy ride at Custom Made [rating:2]

For theatre aficionados seeing plays written early in respected playwrights’ careers may be appreciated to compare it with their later works. Late: A Cowboy Song was written by Sarah Ruhl relatively early in her career and as staged by Custom Made Theatre is given a bumpy ride. While there are hints of potential greatness it does not foreshadow the quality of her two plays In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play and The Clean House that were Pulitzer Prize finalists. Custom Made’s first plays of 2014-2015 season (Vonnegut’s Slaughter House Five and Albee’s Three Tall Women) were solid productions earning well deserved accolades. For multiple reasons accolades are few for Late: A Cowboy Song that seems longer than its uninterrupted 84 minute running time.

First, the play is obtuse and feminist Ruhl is basically interested in exploring gender identification in both physical and naming aspects. She also surrounds that major theme with poetic passages of love in song, the intricate problems of marriage, the effect of art’s ability to transform as well a brief exploration of Henri Bergson’s Theory of Relative Time. Secondly, on opening night both my guest and I could not understand the words to (apparently) poetic songs with original music by the talented Liz Ryder. Third, despite the attractive backdrop of a Western sunset, the jumbled multi-area set (Erik LaDue) obstructed the continuity of the 25 or more short scenes. Fourth, the direction of the cast seemed disjointed and lastly one member of the three member cast appeared uncomfortable with the sometimes intricate dialog.

The three characters are Mary (Maria Leigh) who is always late, her husband Crick (Brian Martin) who is fascinated by art and Red (Lauren Preston) a lady cowboy, not to be confused with a cowgirl. (Think gender identification). The gender problem becomes amplified when Mary and Crick’s baby is born with indeterminate sexual appendages and they (actual Mary decides) to raise “her” as a girl, give her a non-gender specific name of Blue and allow the child to decide his/her gender later in life.

Mary and Crick live in Pittsburg where Mary meets Red who lives on the outskirts. Red, dresses in male cowboy attire (costume by Brooke Jennings), plays the guitar and teaches Mary how to ride a horse. Friendship between Red and Mary blossoms into love driving a wedge between Crick and Mary. Conflict leads to violence; relative time is explored in a single scene and as Mary and Crick part Red and Mary relatively ride off into the sunset.

 CAST: Mary – Maria Leigh; Crick – Brian Martin; Red – Lauren Preston.

CREATIVE STAFF: Cat Howser (Stage Managemer/Prop Design); Erik LaDue (Scenic Design); Brooke Jennings (Costume Design); Liz Ryder (Original Score, Sound Design); Colin Johnson (Lighting Design); Stewart Lyle (Technical Director); Jon Bailey, Fight Choreography.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

Jan 14 2015
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Clybourne Park, 6th Street Playhouse, Santa Rosa CA

By Greg & Suzanne Angeo

Reviewed by Suzanne and Greg Angeo

Members, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC)

 

Photos by Eric Chazankin

Jill Zimmerman, Melissa Claire, Mike Pavone, Jeff Cote, Serena Flores, Dorian Lockett

 

Stunning Cast and Director Hit ‘Clybourne’ Out of the Park

With the winning combination of a Pulitzer Prize-winning script, a visionary director and a superb cast, “Clybourne Park” at 6th Street Playhouse was certainly destined to be pretty good. But there is an almost mystic alchemy at work here in what may be the best show in the North Bay.

Playwright Bruce Norris won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “Clybourne Park” in 2011, and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2012. Norris was inspired by characters and events in the 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun”, and his play can be seen as a companion piece, but it stands powerfully on its own. With a uniquely deft touch, Norris explores the dark side of human nature and the different forms that discrimination and prejudice can take. Hot-button social issues like civil rights, racism, family loyalty and gentrification are tackled head-on. Filled with biting humor and sarcasm, awkwardly hilarious at times, the dialogue crackles and flows like an electric current.

The story takes place in a house in a Chicago neighborhood called Clybourne Park, over two acts that are bookends to a half-century span, with a lifetime of world-changing events happening in between. Each actor in the brilliant cast of seven has a dual role, one for each of the two acts. The roles and events in each act are in sharp contrast, but there are threads that unite the two halves: Both acts open at 3:30 in the afternoon…someone is being discouraged from selling the house to “the wrong people”…the clock strikes four…phone calls are taken…a character is pregnant …an army trunk makes an appearance…members of the neighborhood association meet…tensions grow into a volcanic explosion…common elements that interweave and tie the acts together in the most graceful, engaging way. The catalyst is a Korean War vet’s suicide that haunts the play from beginning to end.

Jill Zimmerman

Act I is set in pre-civil rights 1959. It begins with Bev (Jill Zimmerman) and her husband Russ (Mike Pavone), in the midst of packing up and moving from their longtime home, and mourning the recent loss of their son, Kenneth. Russ is nearly paralyzed by grief, with rage simmering just below the surface. Bev is masking her feelings and at the same time trying to be of some comfort to Russ. Their black maid Francine (Serena Flores) is on hand to assist, and her husband Albert (Dorian Lockett) arrives to pick her up. Kindly minister Jim (Chris Ginesi), who’s also a family friend, pays a visit to offer solace. All seems well until Karl (Jeff Cote), a member of their neighborhood association, drops by with his very pregnant wife Betsy (Melissa Claire), who is also deaf. Karl is on a mission: To get Bev and Russ to back out of the sale of their home to the “colored” family that bought it (the Youngers in “A Raisin in the Sun”). The neighbors, all white, fear that a black family will cause their property values to plummet. Russ and Bev call upon the hapless Francine and Albert to weigh in. There are razor-sharp exchanges and some outrageous jokes, and an enraged Russ finally throws Karl and Betsy out. The act closes with a spotlight on Bev, a tear shining on her face, a moment of breathtaking artistry by Zimmerman.

Chris Ginesi, Dorian Lockett, Serena Flores

Act II finds a very tense neighborhood association meeting in progress. It’s now 2009, in the same Clybourne Park house. Social and cultural revolutions have come and gone over the past 50 years, the neighbors have changed from white to black, but the house still stands, though a bit worse for wear with gaping holes in the walls and trash strewn over the floor. The new owners – a very pregnant Lindsey (Claire) and husband Steve (Cote), who are white – want to tear the dilapidated house down and build a much larger one in its place. Present is their lawyer, Karl and Betsy’s daughter Kathy (Zimmerman). A descendant of the Youngers, Lena (Flores), is there with her husband Kevin (Lockett) to represent the association. Tom (Ginesi) is running the discussion, and it’s not going well. The neighbors claim that they object to the new house because of its size, but Lindsey and Steve suggest it’s really just thinly-veiled racial prejudice. More razor-sharp exchanges and even more outrageous jokes, and more volcanic explosions of temper. A brash and funny contractor named Dan (Pavone) walks in and begins to describe what he found while digging outside. It turns out he has uncovered the sad heart of the story that began 50 years earlier. The light changes, time travels back to 1959 again, and Kenneth has the last word. It’s an exquisite ending to a compelling show and tour-de-force ensemble performance.

Each and every actor in “Clybourne Park” is performing at the highest level one could hope to see on any stage, giving remarkable gifts to the audience: Zimmerman (winner of the SFBATCC Award for Best Actress for “August: Osage County”) through her controlled emotional build and sensitivity; Pavone’s fearless revelation of rage and sorrow; Cote’s relentless comic agility; Ginesi with his warm honesty and naturalism; Flores’s striking versatility and discipline; Lockett and his magnetic yet subtle delivery; Claire (a 3-time SFBATCC nominee) and her lively, irresistible characterizations.

Crafting of the set was placed in the capable hands of noted area set designer Ronald Krempetz, who deserves special mention. As Resident Set Designer and Instructor at College of Marin Kentfield, he has designed sets for hundreds of productions at the college and around the Bay Area, including the San Francisco Ballet and Marin Theatre Company. Kudos is also due to Tracy Sigrist for her superb costume design, as well as Theo Bridant’s excellent work on lighting.

Jeff Cote, Dorian Lockett

When asked what first drew him to the play, director Carl Jordan said it was its sheer complexity, and that he approached the script much like a musical score to be conducted. Jordan has also won awards from SFBATCC, for directing and choreography. Through his guidance and perfect casting, each actor wears their dual roles like a pair of comfortable shoes, walking around in them very naturally. This lends an air of authenticity and realism throughout. A rich and profoundly moving experience, “Clybourne Park” is a roller-coaster of a show that will leave you breathless.

When: Now through January 25, 2015

8:00 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

8:00 p.m. Thursday, January 22

2:00 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Tickets: $15 to $32

Location: GK Hardt Theater at 6th Street Playhouse

52 West 6th Street, Santa Rosa CA
Phone: 707-523-4185

Website: www.6thstreetplayhouse.com

 

Jan 11 2015
Love0

Nomadic San Rafael theater probes Native American identity

By Woody Weingarten

In “Landless,” an angry Josiah (Nick Garcia) chases Natalie (Emilie Talbot) from shop owned by Elise (Patricia Silver). Photo by David Allen.

Elise (Patricia Silver) and Walt Harrison (Michael J. Asberry) share a rare moment of hope in “Landless.” Photo by David Allen.

[Woody’s [rating: 2.5]

Two long rows of seats bordering the latest AlterTheater stage were so tightly packed it could have been a disaster had anyone needed a bathroom break mid-show.

A single theatergoer’s bad breath, in fact, might have been nearly as bad.

But, thankfully, nothing disrupted the world premiere of “Landless” in a storefront next to Johnny Doughnuts on west 4th Street in San Rafael.

That was a good thing because I, like everyone else opening night, needed all my faculties to absorb the breadth of issues  — and myriad flashbacks — proffered by playwright Larisse FastHorse in a mere two hours.

Enough, actually, to swamp my mind:

Native American heritage, homelessness, racism, bullying, discount stores choking ma-and-pa shops, the proliferation of casinos, and — in case that’s insufficient — friendship, love and benevolence.

It was as if she wanted to probe in two acts every feeling she’d had in her 43 years.

Her thematic pileup parallels the set, a mélange of cartons and racks of outdated and broken dreams from the life of Elise, a worn out and tapped out 68-year-old whose fingers are wedged in a metaphoric post-recession dike at her Matthews Mercantile store.

Not everything in “Landless” is hyper-serious, though.

Or depressing.

FastHorse sporadically uses humor as a leaven.

The play takes place in a small town where a new Walmart is squeezing fourth-generation Main Street merchants. But to find the heart of “Landless,” FastHorse, a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation originally from South Dakota, interviewed local Indian elders, shopkeepers and business district residents.

Plus the homeless.

Silver makes the drama’s heart pound rapidly by passionately running a proverbial gamut of emotions as Elise.

And Nick Garcia is alternatively childlike, joyous, unhappy and angry as Josiah. a Hispanic-surnamed boy/man Elise had rescued 17 years before, a gay dreamer who’s part of a “landless tribe” seeking federal recognition.

He repeatedly tests the topic of identity.

“Do you know what it’s like to know who you are?” he ponders.

Emile Talbot and Michael J. Asberry fill out the cast by proficiently assuming several supporting roles each.

Mood-heightening lighting by Jack Beuttler also is noteworthy, especially since the storefront windows are left undraped so passersby can sneak a peek.

Bay Area theatrical legend Ann Brebner is an ex-casting director who led the drive to restore the Rafael Theatre and co-founded the Marin Shakespeare Company. Jeanette Harrison co-founded the nomadic AlterTheater in 2004, when the troupe turned a rocking chair store into a performance space.

Jointly, they directed “Landless.”

The two worked extremely well together, Harrison told me, but some rehearsal differences led them to test opposite ways of doing some scenes and then choose.

Opening night jitters, I suspect, can be blamed for multitude lines spurting forth before their cues were uttered.

That problem will undoubtedly get ironed out quickly.

But other flaws are not so easily corrected.

The faint recorded musical backdrop, for example, seems more intrusive than illuminating.

And I found some clichés irritating. Such as “You are not alone.” Or, “I need you to walk out this door and never look back.”

From play to play, the AlterTheater moves from storefront to storefront in downtown San Rafael, priding itself on prompting artists to “dream big, take risks, and push themselves to the limits of their imagination…and then take another step.”

I believe by exploring Indian culture and heritage, certainly not a mainstay of the Bay Area theatrical scene, it again has met that objective.

Now, if it would focus on a couple of the planet’s ills and not try to solve all of them at once…

“Landless” will play at the AlterTheater’s temporary space at 1619 4th St. (at G), San Rafael, through Feb. 1, then at the A.C.T. Costume Shop Theater, 1117 Market St. (at 7th), San Francisco, Feb. 12-22. Evening performances in San Rafael, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m.; matinees, Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $25. Information: (415) 454-2787 or www.altertheater.org.

Check out Woody Weingarten’s www.vitalitypress.com blog, or contact him at voodee@sbcglobal.net.

Jan 08 2015
Love0

‘Anarchist’ is an intense, intellectual David Mamet exercise

By Woody Weingarten

[Woody’s [rating: 3.5]

Tamar Cohn (left, as Cathy) confronts Velina Brown as Ann in “The Anarchist.” Photo by David Wilson.

I normally love playwright David Mamet’s rhythms.

And his caustic humor.

Nor am I put off by his usual torrent of f-bombs.

But “The Anarchist” is cerebral horseplay of a noticeably different color. It’s Mamet soberly executing mental calisthenics, taking both sides of an argument at the same time.

Using longer — and complete — sentences. Without vulgarities or drollness.

And with less of individuals talking over each other.

In a new Theatre Rhinoceros production, Mamet still does what he does best — poke beneath the veneer of characters to exhume the vagaries of human nature.

I see it as an 85-minute double diatribe.

Director John Fisher combines with Mamet to offer an intensely dramatic, philosophical feast that pinpoints a two-woman tug-of-war over rehabilitation, faith and sex.

But they present a dense repast not easily digested.

The storyline?

A lesbian anarchist on the day of a parole interview confronts a female “representative of the state” — perhaps her warden, maybe a prison psychologist, conceivably a parole officer — who will decide whether she should be freed.

The drama stars Tamar Cohn as bilingual, properly educated Cathy, an admitted terrorist killer of two guards in an echo of a real incident involving the Weather Underground in the 1970s.

She performs in tandem with Velina Brown as Ann, Cathy’s interrogator who may have been persecuting her —perpetually.

Both actors are splendid.

Flawless, in fact.

Each steeps her character with flesh and blood, with all the nuanced emotional back-and-forthness humans bring to challenging situations.

Each excels, too, at extracting the most from Mamet’s prose.

Such as Cathy’s pithy, “Neither God nor human worth can be proved.” Or, “The state does not have [the] power to put me on the cross.”

Fisher, meanwhile, magnifies the duo’s conflict by placing Brown, whose height is imposing and whose demeanor is appropriately unbending, next to Cohn, whose smaller, chameleon-like body can shift in an instant from servile to haughty.

Cohn, who lives in Marin County “with a terrific husband and a decrepit cat,” adroitly depicts an inmate who’s served 35 years and become a believer in Christ despite her Jewish upbringing.

Brown, co-artistic director of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, deftly reproduces a bureaucrat plagued with a major decision just before her tenure ends but hell-bent on having the prisoner reveal where her former accomplice/lover is.

Fisher and Mamet are, in a sense, joined at the hip.

Mamet had encouraged Fisher as a young director. And Fisher directed his “Boston Marriage” at The Rhino, America’s longest running queer theater.

When I attended “The Anarchist,” news bulletins became a factor.

I found it chilling that a trio of terrorists murdered a dozen people in the Paris office of a satirical publication the same day.

An anachronistic chunk of recorded pre-show music — Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A’Changin’” — also bothered me. I understood its symbolic value but the tune was jarring because it pre-dates by years the founding of the Weather Underground, whose terrorism had begun at San Francisco’s Ferry Terminal.

I’ve enjoyed Mamet creations for decades — “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which earned the Pulitzer Prize in drama, “Speed the Plow,” “American Buffalo,” “Oleanna,” “Race.”

As I do with Picasso’s diverse periods, I revel in Mamet’s — from his earliest male-oriented works (that emphasize character and the way people really talk) to his middle years (in which plot grows more important) to his latter-day female-oriented plays and their accent on social and political issues.

But “The Anarchist” is by far his thickest, most intellectual, wordiest exercise — and arguably the least entertaining.

The playwright apparently insisted that I — and the young, mostly gay crowd at The Rhino — work harder than I’d wanted.

It was as if I were expected to hold my breath for the duration of the play lest I miss a crucial phrase or concept.

Ultimately, however, the drama merited my full attention — even though critics bashed the original 2012 Broadway offering with Patti LuPone and Deborah Winger.

Causing it to run only 17 performances.

“The Anarchist” plays at the Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson St. (at Front and Battery streets), San Francisco, through Jan. 17. Evening performances, Sundays, 7 p.m.; Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m. Matinees, Saturdays and Sundays, 3 p.m. Tickets: $15 to $30 (subject to change). Information: (800) 838-3006 or www.TheRhino.org

Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net or check out his blog at www.vitalitypress.com/