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Feb 27 2014
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Wonder Woman’s origins explored in ‘Lasso of Truth’

By Judy Richter

After she was introduced as a comic book character in 1941, Wonder Woman became the symbol of a new kind of feminism that paired traditional female qualities with greater strength, power and independence.

Playwright Carson Kreitzer looks at this character’s origin and influence in her new play, “Lasso of Truth,” being given its world premiere by Marin Theatre Company.

Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston, who was a psychiatrist and inventor, among other things. He is credited with inventing a machine that measured systolic blood pressure as way of determining if a person was telling the truth. It was the forerunner of today’s polygraph, or lie detector.

Kreitzer calls him The Inventor (Nicholas Rose). He’s happily married to The Wife (Jessa Brie Moreno), a strong, practical, professional working woman.

His seductive assistant, The Amazon (Liz Sklar), becomes involved in a threesome with the couple. Part of their relationship includes consensual bondage.

In the meantime, a separate story emerges as a contemporary young woman, The Girl (Lauren English), talks about how much she was influenced by Wonder Woman both in the comics and in the TV character portrayed by Lynda Carter.

She’s so fascinated with the superheroine that she goes to a comic book store run by a collector, The Guy (John Riedlinger). She wants to buy an original copy of the All-Star Comics in which Wonder Woman first appeared.

Gloria Steinem is a quasi-character, seen in cartoon-like videos created by Kwame Braun. Graphics by Jacob Stoltz also propel the play.

The two stories unfold on a stark set designed by Annie Smart with often dark, moody lighting by Jim French and equally moody music and sound by Cliff Caruthers. Costumes by Callie Floor help to define the characters.

The play’s title, “Lasso of Truth,” refers to a mythological, “magic lariat of unbreakable, pure gold” that can “compel absolute truth from any man or god confined within it,” according to MTC. It might also refer to the band that The Inventor applied to measure systolic blood pressure. Still another connection might be the ropes used for the threesome’s bondage.

MTC is producing the play as part of the National New Play Network’s rolling world premiere, which involves separate productions by Synchronicity Theatre in Atlanta and Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City,Mo.

Directed by artistic director Jasson Minadakis in a style appropriately reminiscent of cartoons, the two-act MTC production is well acted all the way around with strong production values. The basic plot is intriguing, made more so by informative program notes. Running about two and a half hours, it has sections that could be tightened, such as those with The Inventor’s machine.

Overall, though, it’s fascinating, especially since The Inventor, The Wife and The Amazon are based on real people who led unusual lives, to say the least.

“Lasso of Truth” will continue at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, through March 16. For tickets and information, call (415) 388-5208 or visit www.marintheatre.org.

 

Feb 24 2014
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Lots of fun in Foothill’s ‘Little Shop of Horrors’

By Judy Richter

It’s campy, it’s macabre and it’s just plain fun. These are just some of the ways to describe “Little Shop of Horrors,” the 1982 rock musical presented by Foothill Music Theatre.

Based on the 1960 cult film by Roger Corman, the show is set in a rundown floral shop on Skid Row in the early ’60s. The place is owned by Mr. Mushnik (Alex Perez), who has two employees.

One is the nerdy but endearing Seymour (Adam Cotugno). The other is the sexy Audrey (Adrienne Walters), whose self-esteem is so low that she’s willing to put up with the abuse by her sadistic boyfriend, dentist Orin Scrivello (Jeff Clarke).

The shop’s fortunes improve when Seymour brings in a strange plant. Named Audrey II (voiced by James Devreaux Lewis), it comes to demand unusual nourishment before growing ever larger. Soon Seymour becomes famous, but he also must confront a moral dilemma.

Serving as a kind of Greek chorus are three street-wise young women, Crystal (Lyn Mehe’ula), Chiffon (Melissa Baxter) and Ronette (Megan Coomans).

The two-act show is full of bouncy tunes by Alan Menken with clever lyrics by Howard Ashman, who also wrote the book.

One of the more amusing songs, especially for those who recognize the references, is Audrey’s “Somewhere That’s Green.”  In it she expresses her dream of marrying Seymour and moving to a nice place like Levittown, where their children can watch “Howdy Doody” on their big-screen, 12-inch TV.

Director Milissa Carey has chosen an excellent cast of community members and students. Led by Cotugno as Seymour, Walters as Audrey and Perez as Mr. Mushnik, every member of the large cast does well in this energetic production.

Musical values are strong, thanks to musical director Dolores Duran-Cefalu, who leads four other musicians from the keyboard.

Well executed choreography is by Amanda Folena. The serviceable set is by Yusuke Soi with lighting by Michael Rooney and costumes by Margaret Toomey.

“Little Shop of Horrors” has been done on the Peninsula before. For example, TheatreWorks staged it in 1986, and Broadway by the Bay and (the now defunct) American Musical Theatre of San Jose both offered it in 2008.

Still, it never gets old because it’s so much fun, especially when done as well as this production by FMT.

It will continue in the Lohman Theatre on the Foothill Collegecampus, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, through March 9. For tickets and information, call (650) 949-7360 or visit www.foothillmusicals.com.

Feb 23 2014
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Little Shop of Horrors an exuberant pastiche at Foothill College

By Kedar K. Adour

Little Shop of Horrors:  Music by Alan Menken. Book and Lyrics by Howard Ashman.  Foothill Music Theatre. Direction by    Milissa Carey.  Lohman Theater, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Alto Hills, CA. 650-949-7360 or www.foothillmusicals.com.      [rating:3] (5/5 stars)

 February 20-March 9, 2014

Little Shop of Horrors an exuberant pastiche at Foothill College

It always a pleasure to take the drive down to Foothill College to see the latest show they are mounting in one of their two theaters. This time they are staging the hilarious tongue-in-cheek anthropomorphic/horror/black comedy musical Little Shop of Horrors in the intimate Lohman Theater. They are using every inch of space including the aisle between row one and the stage as a runway/performing area. You cannot get more intimate than that.

Lyn Mehe’ula, Melissa Baxter, Megan Coomans, and Adam Cotugno

The first to cavort on that space are the Urchin Trio, three attractive young ladies Chiffon, Crystal and Ronette (marvelous Melisa Baxter, Lyn Mehe’ula and Megan Coomans in that order) singing the doo-wop prologue before the company joins in with the Motown type hit “Skid Row” that is better known as “DownTown.” These young ladies are sort of a Greek Chorus that weaves in and out of the story. The show is backed up by a five piece off-stage band.

 That storyline is a humdinger and began as a 1960 black and white Roger Corman cult classic film that included the young Jack Nicholson in a minor but necessary role.  Alan Menken and Howard Ashman converted it into the musical. They fine-tuned it through a series of workshops eventually it ran off-Broadway for 2200 performances. It is now probably a staple of every community musical theatre in the U.S.  Broadway by the Bay recently gave it a terrific performance and it is scheduled for the Altarena Playhouse later this year.

But you do not have to wait for that production since Foothill has mounted an audience pleasing winner despite some technical glitches that surely will be overcome with more rehearsal.

The action takes place in Skid Row, NY where Seymour (a first-rate Adam Cotugno) our erstwhile hero/protagonist works in a financially floundering Flower Shop owned by Mr. Mushnik (Alex Perez) and with ditzy co-worker Audrey (Adrienne Walters with a dandy voice to match her comic demeanor).

Hapless Seymour has found an exotic plant that he names “Audrey II” in honor of his secret love Audrey.  How was he to know that the innocuous strange looking plant feeds on blood! Well, it does but as “Audrey II” grows and grows it requires, nay it demands blood and flesh and Seymour obeys. Even creepier, “Audrey II” can talk and sing in a sonorous basso voice (James Devreaux Lewis).

Seymour (Adam Cotugno) is menaced by Audrey II

The creature is played by a series of puppets that increase in size eventually filling almost all of center stage. (Accolades go to the hidden puppeteers David Kirk and Erik Scilley). As Seymour nurses the small plotted plant into a humongous size big enough to swallow a whole person he becomes famous and rich and the flower shop flourishes!! Yes, people do get swallowed up but you will have to go see the show to find out who and when leading to a hysterical finale.)

Integral to the plot is Orin Scivello (rugged Jeff Clarke) a sadistic dentist [aren’t they all?] who is sort of loved in a masochistic way by our heroine Audrey (I not II!!) and is Seymour’s competition for Audrey I’s affection. I guess you can call it a romantic tale but that would be stretching the definition a bit far even though there are two great love songs, “Somewhere That’s Green”, and “Suddenly, Seymour” that you may be humming when you stop laughing and leave the theater.

The large cast includes Skid Row denizens, winos, joggers, shoppers, delivery guy, cop and plant victims. They perform with a wide range of competence with director Melissa Carey giving them latitude to emote as she moves them effectively around the small acting areas. Running time is a fast, furious, fun-filled two hours with an intermission.

Cast: Adam Cotugno, Adrienne Walters, Alex Perez, Jeff Clarke,   James Devreaux Lewis, Lyn Mehe’ula,  Melissa Baxter, Megan Coomans, William Bowmen, Cassandra Grilley, Nicholas Mandracchia, Davied Morales, Caitlyn Prather, Patrick Ross, Holly Smolik,  Nicholas Mandracchia,  and Puppeteers David Kirk, Erik Scilley.

Production Staff: Direction by Milissa Carey; Musical direction by Dolores Duran-Cefalu; Choreography by Amanda Folena; Scenic Designer Yusuke Soi; Lighting Designer Michael Rooney;  Costume Designer Margaret Toomey; Sound Designer Ken Kilen; Orchestrations Robert Merkin; Vocal Arrangements  Robert Billig

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com.

 

Audrey (Adrienne Walters) and Seymour
(Adam Cotugno) find their plant shop is suddenly popular in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS,

Feb 21 2014
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A MAZE fascinates in Just Theatre’s production on Shotgun’s Ashby Stage

By Kedar K. Adour

                               The Queen (Janis DeLucia) and The King (Lasse Christiansen) discuss plans for building the maze. Photos by Pak Han

A MAZE: Drama by Rob Handel. Directed by Molly Aaronson-Gelb. Just Theater, Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley, CA. Two hours, 20 minutes. (510) 214-3780 or www.justtheater.org.

Through March 9, 2014

A MAZE fascinates in Just Theatre’s production on Shotgun’s Ashby Stage.                  [rating:5] (5/5 Stars)

 Bring your thinking cap with you when you go to see A Maze that is being given a second mounting on Shotgun’s Ashby Stage after a critically acclaimed three week run at the out-of the way Live Oak Theatre. Lis Lisle Managing Director at Shotgun astutely recognized that it was a perfect fit to match the eclectic work their company. If you missed it the first time around, as this reviewer did, you now have the chance to enter the labyrinths created by author Rob Handel and ushered to the stage by Molly Aaronson-Gelb.

It certainly was not an easy task to take a non-linear play with 25 plus blackout scenes and three different storylines that inter-mesh over a 10 year period and create an engrossing intelligible evening. All is not perfect with the construction but these are minor faults and can be overlooked. Add to this a storybook King (Lasse Christiansen) who continual builds a labyrinth (a maze of course) to protect his Queen (Janis DeLucia) and daughter from the outside world or is it to keep her imprisoned?

The catalyst for the intertwining stories is Jessica (Frannie Morrison) a 17 year girl who was abducted at age 7 and kept prisoner for nine years. She has walked away from her captor, willing to be interviewed by Kim (Lauren Spencer) a national TV talk-show host who is astounded by Jessica’s desire to be “that famous child who was abducted from the super-market” explicitly suggesting “blame the victim syndrome.”

In quick succession the shift is to the Desert Palms Rehab Center where “Pathetic Fallacy” rock band super-star Paul (Harold Pierce) is being encouraged by his girlfriend and song writer Oksana (Sarah Mosher) to break his habit and to recreate his genius. While there Paul meets and befriends Beeson (played brilliantly by Clive Worsley) a cartoon-artist-author who is forever working on a story that already has over 1500 pages (with lots and lots of crosshatching) and is a cult sensation. The King and Queen of the aforementioned labyrinth are characters in his story.

The three major characters are trapped in their figurative mazes and intricately the mazes interlock with an ending that is a zinger. All this plays out on a fantastic black and white set (Martin Flynn) with lines suggesting multiple maze configurations. Along the way there are intellectual comments about artist having idiosyncratic natures and should we separate the creation from the personal defects of the artist.

Advice: Do not miss this performance two hour and 20 minute (with intermission) that will keep you riveted.

Kedar Adour, MD

Courtesy of  www.theatreworldinternetmagazince.com

 

Feb 21 2014
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Barricelli makes welcome return in ACT’s ‘Napoli!’

By Judy Richter

Italian playwright Eduardo De Filippo puts a human face on the moral quandaries faced by a family in a war-ravaged city in “Napoli!”, presented by American Conservatory Theater.

It’s 1942, the second year that Italyhas been involved in World War II. Allied forces bomb the city almost daily. Food and all other necessities are scarce or unavailable.

After Gennaro Jovine (Marco Barricelli) loses his job as a tram conductor, his wife, Amalia (Seana McKenna), teams up with Errico (Dion Mucciacito), a neighbor, to sell coffee and other goods via the black market in order to support her family.

In one hilarious scene, Gennaro pretends to be dead while Amalia and others mourn over him in order to avoid possible arrest by a wise-to-them Fascist officer, Ciappa (Gregory Wallace). They don’t want Ciappa to discover the contraband that Amalia has hidden in the mattress.

After intermission, Act 2 of this two-hour work takes place 14 months later, after the Allies have landed inItaly. Gennaro, who has gone to war, has been missing for some time and presumed dead. In the meantime, the family has prospered, thanks to Amalia’s entrepreneurship.

Some of her success has come at great cost to others, such as neighbor Riccardo (Anthony Fusco), who owes her so much money for food to feed his family that he is about to lose his house to her.

When Gennaro returns, he has harrowing tales to tell, but no one is interested. They’re more focused on a birthday party for Errico, who has taken a romantic interest in Amalia.

Amalia gets her comeuppance when the Jovines’ youngest daughter (unseen) is seriously ill. The only medicine that can help her is nowhere to be found in Naples until an unlikely person comes forth.

Although the play has humorous moments, it has darker qualities in its depiction of life in wartime and the moral compromises that people make to survive.

ACT is using a new translation by Linda Alper and Beatrice Basso. They also translated the play in 2005 when the Oregon Shakespeare Festival inAshlandpresented it as “Napoli Milionaria!” Alper played Amalia in that production.

Although Amalia is perhaps the principal protagonist, ACT’s production is anchored by Barricelli’s magnetic performance. A longtime favorite in Ashland and ACT and the former artistic director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Barricelli makes a most welcome return to the Geary Theater. He commands the stage with his presence and his facility with language.

Most supporting actors in the large cast are noteworthy. Besides Wallace and Fusco, excellent performances come from Nick Gabriel as the Jovines’ young adult son, Amedeo; and Blair Busbee as Maria Rosaria, their somewhat younger daughter. The always dependable Sharon Lockwood plays Adelaide, a kindly neighbor.

Design elements are outstanding, especially Erik Flatmo’s set, (lit by Robert Wierzel), which is transformed from dingy in Act 1 to nicer in Act 2. The same is true of the costumes by Lydia Tanji. Sound by Will McCandless includes realistically loud simulations of a bombing raid.

Director Mark Rucker oversees the action with a sure hand in this well done, thought-provoking production.

It will continue through March 9 at ACT’s Geary Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. For tickets and information, call (415) 749-2228 or visit www.act-sf.org.

 

Feb 20 2014
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NAPOLI! has a split personality at A.C.T.

By Kedar K. Adour

Seana McKenna as Amalia and Marco Barricelli as Gennaro in Napoli! at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater. Photo by Kevin Berne

Napoli! Comedy/Drama by Eduardo de Filippo in a new translation by Beatrice Basso and Linda Alper. Directed by Mark Rucker .  A.C.T.’s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco).  415.749.2228 or www.act-sf.org.   February 12- March 9, 2014.

NAPOLI! has a split personality at A.C.T.      [rating:3] (3/5 stars)

We here in the United States have never suffered the physical and emotional damage of our home land being physically ravaged by war. Italy has not been so fortunate and in World War II Naples was incessantly bombed leading to devastating shortages of every household staple and a black market became rampant. This is the Naples that Eduardo de Filippo has created for the Jovine family and their neighbors that is gracing the boards at A.C.T. It is late 1942 when the War has been raging for two years and the Allies are bombing Naples prior to the invasion.

The family consists of matriarch Amalia (Seana McKenna) her husband Gennaro (Marco Barricelli) and their children, 25 year old son Amedeo (Nick Gabriel), teenage daughter Maria (Blair Busbee) and the unseen 5 year old daughter who becomes a significant part of the storyline late in act 2.  Gennaro, a voluble but genial World War I veteran who has lost his job as a streetcar driver has found some privacy in their restricted quarters by setting up curtains around his corner bed. He is a moralistic honest man and has been given long speeches conveying de Filippo’s philosophy (Filippo played the role initially and in many countries).  Barricelli delivers those lines with quality understated eloquence and is matched by Mckenna’s more dominant and less amiable personae that are written into the script.  She has undertaken the job of keeping the family fed and clothe through black market dealings aided and abetted by handsome Errico (Dion Mucciacito) whose interest is a bit carnal but secretive.

The play is bookended by scenes of coffee taking that is intended as a symbolic ritual of what is good and bad in the lives of the characters. In the early scene the denizens of the neighborhood gather in the Jovine home (set by Erik Flatmo ) to partake of their morning coffee fix made with bootleg coffee. Those denizens are an eclectic group that is populated with stock characters of Italian comedy that are given varying degrees of verisimilitude by the large cast.

Comedy dominates the first act even though Gennaro pontificates as the storyline slowly develops. Local darling Sharon Lockwood lights up the stage with her entrance as neighbor Adeliade with her ditzy niece Assunta (a fine Lisa Kitchen). A jealous competitive black-marketeer tips authorities about the illegal dealings by Amalia. This allows de Fillipo to write a comedia del arte scene that is a highlight of the act . . . especially when the beans (coffe beans of course) are spilled. Former A.C.T. favorite Greg Wallace as Ciappa the local police lieutenant nails the scene.

Act two takes place 14 months later when the Americans and British have “liberated” Naples from Nazi control and Amalia and her clan have prospered to the point of being millionaires with ample supplies for the black market being “available” from the Allies. The drab set is now opulently furnished having been paid for by the ill-gotten money. Without revealing the plot, it is sufficient to say that the comedy of act one is replaced with serious drama. This involves the unseen child who is seriously ill with an unexplained fever that requires a medicine that can only be obtained on the black market. Fortunately Gabriel Marin has been cast as a supplier of goodies for a party being given for Errico’s birthday and his entrance and exits are a joy to watch. The play ends with Gennaro and Amalia sharing a cup of coffee.

All in all the evening seems longer than the 2 hour running time that includes a 15 minute intermission.

Creative Team: Erik Flatmo (scenic designer), Lydia Tanji (costume designer), Robert Wierzel (lighting designer), Will McCandless (sound designer)

Featuring: Marco Barricelli, Seana McKenna, Nick Gabriel, Blair Busbee, Dion Mucciacito, York Walker, Mike Ryan, Anthony Fusco, Sharon Lockwood, Lisa Kitchens, Gabe Marin, Gregory Wallace, Aaron Moreland, Lateefah Holder, Danielle Frimer, Kemiyondo Coutinh, Asher Grodman, Dillon Heape.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazin.com

Seana McKenna as Amalia and Marco Barricelli as Gennaro in Napoli! at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater. Photo by Kevin Berne

Feb 20 2014
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Funny, riveting gender-bender is ‘best play’ in years

By Woody Weingarten

Amidst the massive clutter of their home and lives, transgender Max (Jax Jackson) and Paige (Nancy Opel), his mother, mirror one another in “Hir.” Photo: Jennifer Reiley. Woody’s [rating:5]

 Woody’s [rating:5]

“Hir,” a gender-bending, tragicomic world premiere at the Magic Theatre, is the best Bay Area play I’ve seen this season.

In several seasons, in fact.

And I’ve attended more than a few magnificent shows during that timeframe.

To call “Hir” hilariously riveting would be to understate enormously the impact it had on the opening night San Francisco audience.

Including me.

I don’t have enough superlatives in my word-arsenal with which to praise the writing, direction, acting, set design and costumes.

Describing what’s what may make the play sound bizarre rather than funny. But playwright Taylor Mac keeps the laughter level extremely high.

Niegel Smith is the perfect director for what Mac calls “absurd realism.” Though every gag line draws a laugh, each stammer, brief pause or elongated silence also hits a dramatic bulls-eye.

And Smith’s pacing is spot on.

Paige is the antithesis of the submissive mom that populates so much pop culture. Instead, she’s a tear-down-the-established-routine demon who humiliates her husband with acts of comeuppance that include squirting water into his face as a trainer might to a disobedient kitten.

Nancy Opel portrays her with all the requisite venom. A Tony-nominated actress, she is a comic delight, spewing Mac’s acerbic words like ammo from a Gatling gun.

She informs us the family’s role now — 30 years after building its “starter house” — is to put on shadow-puppet shows and “play dress up.”

The playwright takes dysfunctionality to new heights. Or, perhaps, it might be more accurate to say new lows.

The play, set in a central valley suburb similar to Stockton, where Mac grew up, makes the audience feel good because their fractured families can’t possibly be that screwed up.

Jax Jackson adroitly plays Max, formerly Maxine — a 17-year-old “gender-queer” malcontent who’s been homeschooled and makes Holden Caulfield’s angst look as antiquated and simplistic as something out of a the old-time radio soap opera “One Man’s Family.”

He no longer chooses to be a she or a he but a gender-neutral ze (pronounced zay); in addition, he substitutes hir (pronounced heer) for the pronouns him or her.

A youth whose fantasy is to join an anarchist commune, Max finds his mind somewhere behind the curve of the hormone-triggered gender changes ze has put hir body through with self-medicating experimentation.

He calls himself “transmasculine” and “a fag.” He likes boys. He loves masturbating.

And he thinks he’s “allowed to be selfish because I’m in transition.”

Max goes ballistic about the biblical story of Noah being “transphobic” because only male and female animals were allowed aboard the ark — and because Leonardo da Vinci’s transexuality and that of his self-portrait, the Mona Lisa, aren’t acknowledged.

Actually, it’s not crucial for a theatergoer to “get” all the gender-based phrasing — or even the alphabet soup LGBT has evolved into, LGBTTSQQIAA.

The gist becomes clear through context.

Clear, too, is Mark Anderson Phillips’s performance despite his character barely speaking.

He skillfully portrays Arnold, the stroke-ridden ex-plumber, ex-abuser father who represents a disintegrating culture and who’s typically plopped in front of the Lifetime Channel when Paige and Max go out.

And Ben Euphrat is effectively transparent as Isaac, a Marine vet of the Afghanistan war dishonorably discharged after becoming a meth addict. He may have PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), and vomits profusely, the aftermath of his job of collecting body parts.

Isaac comes back to unrecognizable home and family, and desperately wants to restore them — and himself — to the way everything was when he left.

I missed “The Lily’s Revenge,” Mac’s earlier allegorical play/carnival at the Magic, thinking neither my brain nor my buttocks could handle five acts and five hours no matter how brilliant.

Now I have regrets.

Mac, not incidentally, is a triple threat: Although he’s written 16 full-length plays, he also performs as an actor and singer-songwriter (his most recent outing was as co-star with Mandy Patinkin in an off-Broadway workshop of “The Last Two People on Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville” last December).

While introducing his latest dark, darker, darkest humor showcase to the opening night audience, Loretta Greco, the Magic’s producing artistic director, said, “Buckle your seat belts. You’re in for an incredible ride.”

She wasn’t lying.

“Hir” plays at the Magic Theater, Building D, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, through March 2. Performances: Sundays and Tuesdays, 7 p.m., Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; matinees, Sundays and Wednesdays, 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $15 to $60. Information: (415) 441-8822 or www.magictheatre.org.

Feb 20 2014
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Dazzling, potent play realistically probes school tragedy

By Woody Weingarten

  Woody’s [rating:5]

In “Gidion’s Knot,” Corryn (Jamie J. Jones, right) confronts Heather (Stacy Ross) about a note passed to her son in class. Photo by David Allen.

Uh, oh!

From the first cagey moments of “Gidion’s Knot,” I knew the play would be grueling to process.

I didn’t, however, expect my mouth to drop open, my heart to hurt.

They did anyway.

My pledge: Because the two-woman play is a disturbing cat-and-mouse game and theatrical Rorschach test, viewers will find it virtually impossible to leave the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley unaffected.

Personal baggage will, of course, determine exactly how and what is experienced.

The tension-filled drama starts with an abrasive, in-your-face single mother — a walking open wound — demanding a constrained teacher tell her why she suspended the parent’s troubled son from his fifth-grade class.

The discussion that follows is often awkward.

But it’s also a fascinating examination of personal responsibility and blame, freedom of expression, the failure of our school systems, bullying and embryonic sexuality.

“Gidion’s Knot” is provocative, powerful and guaranteed to force theatergoers to hold their breath for what seems its entire 80 minutes.

The impact of the gut-wrenching, twist-and-turn tragedy comes when the angry, sarcastic mother, herself a professor used to academic probing, keeps pricking and questioning until she learns the truth.

At least her truth.

A working clock on a classroom wall helps maintain the sense of real time.

And the actors’ breathtaking depiction of passion, thoughtfulness and mood swings help keep the action authentic.

Playwright Johnna Adams demands playgoers think for themselves, so she supplies no pinpoint answers to the questions she poses: Are parents or schoolteachers ultimately responsible for pupils’ well-being? Is Gidion a bullying monster or sensitive, poetic victim? Is classmate Jake the bully or an object of affection?

Neither fifth grader appears on stage.

Nor does Seneca, an 11-year-old friend and note-passer described as having a stuffed bra, nose ring, false eyelashes and dyed platinum hair.

Tossed into the mix are references to censorship, freedom of expression, American society’s litigiousness, and our growing national fear of what’s ahead.

Sadly, “Gidion’s Knot” echoes all too many real-life headlines of recent years about individual tragedies caused by taunting, either in person or through social networking.

And, although it doesn’t reference those situations, it can’t block memories of schoolyard massacres.

Tension is director Jon Tracy’s forté, copious enough to make me — and most other seat-holders — uncomfortable.

Intensity prevails.

Unrelentingly, in fact, all the way to the play’s final moments — except for a few snarky quips that let everyone find a smidgeon of relief through nervous laughter.

Part of the unease, by the way, stems from the two characters (and audience) waiting for someone to arrive.

As “Gidion’s Knot” unravels its multi-leveled conflicts and complexities — from an exploration of Greek and Roman military history and epic poetry to a tale of revenge against teachers and disembowelment — it may require a strong stomach.

I could hear erratic gasps in the audience.

Nina Ball’s set is a deceptively cheery contrast through which she’d dragged me into a 20-desk classroom and its reference maps and academic materials in Anytown, USA.

The setting’s so effective I could almost see the portraits of gods tacked onto an invisible wall explored by the distraught mom, who reveals she could best relate to a demon-destroying Hindu god, Shiva.

Destruction just happens to be another underlying theme of “Gidion’s Knot.

So’s the Marquis de Sade.

Then, of course, there’s the metaphoric Gordian Knot, which — legend tells us — Alexander the Great decided to slice rather than untie. The phrase, of course, has become a means of representing having to face an intractable problem.

What’s absent in this dazzling play is artifice — despite the presence of polemics and diatribes.

What’s present is actors whose performances are flawlessly multi-layered, facilitating my feeling their respective pain.

I flinched as the mother asked disingenuously, “This doesn’t have to be adversarial, does it?”

But the sold-out audience was right there as the mother, Corryn Fell (Jamie J. Jones), and teacher, Heather Clark (Stacy Ross), struggled to untangle the web of what really happened.

Where a playgoer travels emotionally and intellectually will determine whether “Gidion’s Knot” is loved or tagged offensive and too harrowing.

I fall in the first niche, glad I was there despite the work required.

The opening night crowd also had no doubt: In unison, it gave it a thunderous standing ovation.

“Gidion’s Knot” runs at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, through March 9. Night performances, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Tuesdays and Sundays, 7 p.m.; matinees, Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $16-$50. Information: www.auroratheatre.orgor (510) 843-4822.

Feb 17 2014
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Tim’s Vermeer — Film Review

By Joe Cillo

Tim’s Vermeer

Directed by Teller

 

 

This is a film that is going to appeal mainly to people who have a special interest in art history or painting.  It may have some appeal to the museum-going general public, but the audience on the night I attended was sparse.  There is not a lot of action — no, that’s not right.  There is not any action, except the slow process of creating a painting stroke by stroke — sort of like watching ice melt, for those of you on the East Coast.  But that can be very interesting, and it is, but you have to be interested in painting.  If you have ever tried to paint anything with any kind of realistic likeness, you’ll understand what I mean.

This film is slow moving and cerebral.  It is a documentation, a realization, of a theory advanced by artist David Hockney and physicist Charles Falco in 2001 that Renaissance masters like Van Eyck and Vermeer and others across Europe used optical techniques incorporating lenses and mirrors to create their stunningly accurate realistic images.  They did not just eyeball their subjects to realize the kind of microscopic accuracy that characterizes the Dutch Masters style on a painted canvas.  Tim Jenison, an inventor from Texas with no particular ability in art or painting, became familiar with Hockney’s theory and hatched the crazy idea to replicate Jan Vermeer’s studio, materials, and techniques from scratch and recreate one of Vermeer’s masterpieces, The Music Lesson, himself, using the techniques suggested by Hockney and Falco.  The film documents this process with attention to all the minutiae one might find in one of Vermeer’s paintings.

I saw this when I was rather tired after a long, busy weekend, and I started feeling a sense of tedium even though the subject and the process were very interesting.  We get to see shots of mixing paint from pigments, grinding a lens, carving a table leg on a lathe, building a studio, and gradually watching the painting take shape a few strokes at a time over a period of, I think, 213 days.  The result is a flawless replica of a Vermeer masterpiece.  Jenison takes it to David Hockney, who grades it favorably, and there is a discussion of the process and the significance of Jenison’s experiment.

Jenison did not prove that Vermeer used lenses and mirrors in order to paint.  Jenison’s experiment is akin to Thor Heyerdahl’s sailing of Kon-tiki from the shores of Peru to Polynesia.  Heyerdahl’s experiment refuted skeptics who said such a voyage was not possible.  It did not prove that anyone ever did sail such a route in such a vessel, but it opened an avenue of interpretation of other evidence that might have been closed off by dismissal or the presumption of fantastical improbability.  Jenison showed that using only materials and techniques available during Vermeer’s time, he could indeed replicate Vermeer’s achievement as an untrained painter.  This does not show that Vermeer painted this way, because there is no documentation of how Vermeer worked, but coupled with the fact that there is no documentation of Vermeer ever having been trained as an artist, the absence of a drawing beneath the painting that would have served as a guide and which was customary in the work of other artists of that time, and, most tellingly, I think, that some small “mistakes” can be discerned in Vermeer’s image that reflect distortions created by the use of a lens, all give the argument weight and strengthened plausibility.

It is a very interesting film that should be noted by painters, historians, and art students.  It presents a compelling case, but not a final conclusion, and I think it indicates a fruitful direction for further historical research.

 

 

Feb 16 2014
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“Annie Get Your Gun” by Irving Berlin, Spreckels Performing Arts Center, Rohnert Park CA

By Greg & Suzanne Angeo

Reviewed by Suzanne and Greg Angeo

Members, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle

Photos by Eric Chazankin

Annie Got Her Guy

Considered by many to be one of the best musicals of all time, Annie Get Your Gun premiered on Broadway in 1946 to rave reviews, starring Ethel Merman as the brassy backwoods “little sure-shot” Annie Oakley.  One reviewer of the time said, “No use trying to pick a hit tune…all the tunes are hits.” It was produced by the legendary team of Rogers and Hammerstein with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, arguably the greatest and most prolific of American composers. The show being presented at Spreckels is based on the successful 1999 revival starring Bernadette Peters, which netted Tony Awards for best lead actress (musical) and best revival. A notable difference between the 1946 and 1999 shows is the removal of three  songs: “Colonel Buffalo Bill”, “I’m a Bad, Bad Man” and “I’m an Indian Too”.  By 1999, it was felt that the songs were insensitive to Native Americans and women; times had changed.

Besides packing fewer tunes, the Annie revival was rewritten into a “show within a show” concept, with the story more firmly centered on the romance between the real-life Annie and her husband Frank Butler. The wider context is the famed Buffalo Bill’s Wild West spectacles of the 1880s. These traveling circus extravaganzas dazzled audiences with their re-enactments of cavalry charges, Indian raids on wagon trains and cowboys out on the range. They featured hundreds of performers on horseback along with stampeding herds of cattle and buffalo. Performed nationwide and before the crowned heads of Europe for decades, Buffalo Bill and his Wild West shows helped shape the nation’s idea of life in the West for generations to come. Sharpshooting daredevils Annie and Frank were two of Buffalo Bill’s best-known and most beloved performers.

In Annie Get Your Gun at Spreckels, Buffalo Bill (the always-wonderful Dwayne Stincelli) has left his buffalos at home. Also missing are the sights and sounds of galloping horses and whooping cowboys, and much of the excitement. The scaled down, intimate feel seems at odds with the Big-Top scope of a show like this. While it’s true the intent is to focus on the love story between Annie (Denise Elia-Yen)  and Frank (Zachary Hasbany), what makes them  so special – the Wild West show – lurks mostly on the sidelines.

Dwayne Stincelli as Buffalo Bill

Elia-Yen shines like the blazing sun as the rough-and-tumble but tenderhearted Annie, with a truly unique and thrilling vocal quality. She is radiant in a part that calls for her to be crude and funny, mellow and sensitive, and everything in between.  Of all the wonderful songs in the show, there is one number in particular where star, cast, crew, director and orchestra all combine in sheer perfection: “Moonshine Lullaby” with the Cowboy Trio. This number could be bottled and sold as an elixir, it’s that good. Other standout performances are the iconic “No Business Like Show Business” and the happy-go-lucky ”I Got the Sun in the Morning”. Hasbany is a towering presence onstage, and not just because of his impressive height. He is magnetic in the role of Butler with a warm, mellow baritone and just the right amount of swagger to sweep Annie off her feet. (Makeup suggestion: A mustache would lend maturity to his very young face.) Hasbany skillfully shows how love transforms Butler’s life. He opens the show with a slow but soaring a cappella version of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and his sweet dueling duet with Elia-Yen, ”Anything You Can Do”, is a sheer delight.

There’s the requisite secondary romance, a standard in classic musicals, between bright-eyed youngsters Winnie (Brittany Law) and Tommy (Anthony Guzman). Winnie’s vindictive and scheming sister Dolly is played by that powerhouse of versatility, Liz Jahren. Solid performances by Dan Monez as Chief Sitting Bull and Tim Setzer as Charlie Davenport round out the cast.

Choreographer and performer Michella Snyder has staged some very good dance numbers, but at times they lack a certain energy and bounce, and also seem too formal in a few places. A free-wheeling style may be more in keeping with the setting. An inspired burst of tap-dancing, done really well, was a treat to see and drew appreciative applause. Perfect period costumes, especially the ball gowns, were beautifully done by Pamela Enz. Musical Director Janis Wilson did a solid job conducting, and the 17-piece orchestra was in excellent form with a lushly jaunty sound.

Zachary Hasbany, Liz Jahren

Staging and direction is by Sheri Lee Miller in her Spreckels debut. Best known to North Bay audiences for her brilliant, sensitive realization of intimate shows, she has ventured into the realm of stage musicals recently with the hugely successful La Cage Aux Folles at Cinnabar. Annie is a pleasure to watch with a talented cast and unforgettable music, but it needs just a few more nods to its setting within the Wild West shows. After all, the setting is what makes Annie and Frank’s love story so uniquely entertaining.  This could be accomplished with stronger use of sound effects and images alluding to the hundreds of livestock and performers, including Native Americans, and the vast roaring crowds reacting to them.  And while we are supposed to be seeing a show within a show, there are only a couple of places where this is effectively conveyed. Elizabeth Bazzano’s flexible sets served the story well, but more of Spreckels’ marvelous Paradyne projector system could have been used to enhance certain scenes without losing any period authenticity – for example, one scene on a train. And even though the show overall could also use more lively pacing, it’s like a glass of day-old champagne: some of the sparkle may be missing, but it’s still tasty.

Denise Elia-Yen as Annie Oakley

 

Annie Get Your Gun presented by Spreckels Theatre Company

When: Now through February 23, 2014

7:30 p.m. Thursdays

8:00 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

2:00 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Tickets: $22 to $26 (reserved seating)

Location: Codding Theater, Spreckels Performing Arts Center

5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park CA
Phone: 707-588-3400

Website: www.spreckelsonline.com