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Sep 27 2013
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Hilarious Chekhovian update in ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’

By Judy Richter

Judy [rating:5] (5/5 stars)

By Judy Richter

“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” alludes to some of Anton Chekhov’s best-known plays, but Christopher Durang gives them his own contemporary spin. In the process, this winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play evokes rounds of laughter.

The first three people in the title are siblings whose literary parents named them after Chekhovian characters. Vanya (Anthony Fusco) and Sonia (Sharon Lockwood), who was adopted, live in the family’s handsome house in Bucks County,Pa. Both in their 50s, Vanya is gay but celibate, while Sonia has never married. They live quiet, going-nowhere lives and often bicker. However, they enjoy looking at ther pond and grove of cherry trees (Sonia calls it an orchard).

Their housekeeper, Cassandra (Heather Alicia Simms), issues prophecies and later shows herself to be well versed in voodoo.

The routine is disrupted by the arrival of their younger sister, Masha (Lorri Holt), a movie actress, who doesn’t reveal her age but who’s probably in her 50s, too. With her is her 29-year-old boyfriend, Spike (Mark Junek) who’s more sexy than smart.

Masha has been invited to their neighbors’ costume party and plans to go as Snow White from the Walt Disney movie. Spike is to be her Prince Charming, and she has brought costumes for Vanya and Sonia to be two of the dwarves. Sonia refuses, saying she’ll go as the evil queen before she turned ugly. Therefore, Masha enlists the neighbors’ niece, Nina (Caroline Kaplan), an aspiring actress who has stopped by to meet her.

Act 2 takes place the next morning, when everyone is nursing a hangover. Vanya and Sonia are upset that Masha, who pays the household expenses, wants to sell the house. This is where Cassandra and her voodoo help out.

In the meantime, Vanya and Nina decide to enact a play that he has written that supposedly is the play written by Konstantin in Chekhov’s “The Seagull.” In a scene that goes on too long, it turns out to be an awful play about the end of humanity when only molecules survive.

Spike, puzzled by it all, texts on his smart phone, eliciting a (too long) diatribe from Vanya, who talks about the good old days of rotary phones, licked postage stamps, Howdy Doody and other icons of the ’50s and ’60s, before the age of electronics and multi-tasking. However, Spike’s transgression leads to a major discovery and important insights for Masha.

In a welcome return to the Bay Area, director Richard E.T. White makes excellent use of three veteran Bay Area actors — Fusco, Lockwood and Holt — along with three relative newcomers. Except for his Act 2 outburst, Fusco’s Vanya is low-key. Much of the humor in his performance comes from just the slightest change in expression. Lockwood’s Sonia tends to complain a lot, but she has great fun wearing her sequined evil queen gown and imitating Maggie Smith.

Holt’s Masha is a self-centered, egotistical woman who has been married and divorced five times, and she can’t understand why she’s had no luck with romance.

Simms earns several bursts of applause as her Cassandra launches into a near-frenzy of predictions along with allusions to the mythological origin of her name. Junek’s athletic Spike takes pride in his sexiness, sweeping Masha into passionate embraces and twice stripping down to his briefs. Kaplan is appropriately wide-eyed and sweet as young Nina.

The action takes place in the comfortable sun room of a handsome stone house typical of Southeastern Pennsylvania (set by Kent Dorsey, complemented by Alexander V. Nichols’  lighting). Highlighted by the hilarious Snow White outfits, the costumes are by Debra Beaver Bauer. Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen created the sound and original music.

The play runs about two hours and 45 minutes with one intermission, but, except for a few scenes, it speeds by with plenty of chances for laughter. You don’t have to be familiar with Chekhov’s plays to enjoy it, but if you are, the fun is all the greater.

“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” will continue in Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda Theatre through Oct. 25. For tickets and information, call (510) 647-2949 or visit www.berkeleyrep.org.

 

Sep 24 2013
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Magic Theatre revives ‘Buried Child’

By Judy Richter

By Judy Richter

 San Francisco’s Magic Theatre is opening its 47th season with what it calls a legacy revival of Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Buried Child.”

The Magic presented the play’s world premiere in 1978 while Shepard was playwright in residence from 1975 to 1983. The current production uses Shepard’s 1995 revision.

This compelling drama about a ultra-dysfunctional family takes place in a rundown farmhouse in Illinois. Dodge (Rod Gnapp), the family’s patriarch, is in his 70s and spends most of his time on a ratty sofa in front of a TV while he coughs and takes frequent swigs from a bottle he hides behind the cushions.

His younger wife, Halie (Denise Balthrop Cassidy), is first heard nagging at him from upstairs. Before long, she leaves to have lunch with her minister-lover, Father Dewis (Lawrence Radecker).

Their elder son, Tilden (James Wagner), has recently returned after getting into unspecified trouble in New Mexico, where he has lived for many years. Tilden is a large, zombie-like man who makes his first appearance bearing an armload of freshly picked corn. He says it came from their backyard, but Dodge says nothing has grown there in years.

Another son, Bradley (Patrick Kelly Jones), who lost a lower leg to a chain saw, lives nearby. He seems to be evil personified. A third son, Ansel, died in a motel room.

Tilden’s son, Vince (Patrick Alparone), unexpectedly stops by to visit his grandparents and to see where he grew up. He’s in his 20s and has been gone about six years, but no one admits to recognizing him at first.

With him is his girlfriend, Shelly (Elaina Garrity), who’s initially upset by the situation and eager to leave, but Vince insists on staying. It’s Shelly who extracts the family’s long-held secret, which gives the play its name.

As the play ends, Shelly and the other outsider, Father Dewis, wisely depart, leaving Vince to rejoin the family in an eerie way.

Artistic director Loretta Greco’s direction is outstanding as the actors fully inhabit their characters. There’s much underlying tension and menace from the men of the family, especially Gnapp as Dodge. Even though he’s sickly and feeble, he can be scary. The same is true of his two sons and even Vince.

The creative team complements the drama with the set by Andrew Boyce, lighting by Eric Southern and costumes by Alex Jaeger. Jake Rodriguez’s sound is notable for the rain that pelts the house throughout the first act.

The play is often cryptic. Even though the family’s major secret is revealed, other questions remain, leaving them open to speculation. That’s part of the fascination of this fine play.

Having been extended for a week, “Buried Child” will continue at the Magic Theatre, Building D, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, through Oct. 13. For tickets and information, call (415) 441-8822 or visit www.magictheatre.org.

 

 

Sep 24 2013
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Life is a ‘Cabaret’ in Redwood City

By Judy Richter

By Judy Richter

It’s 1929  in Berlin, where the tawdry Kit Kat Klub epitomizes the atmosphere of anything goes. In the ensuing months, however, tensions rise as the Nazis move closer to power.

That’s the setting for “Cabaret,” the memorable musical by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, now enjoying a noteworthy production by Broadway By the Bay in Redwood City. Director Brandon Jackson employs an effectively minimalist staging that keeps the action flowing smoothly and propelling the plot.

Much of the action takes place in the Kit Kat Klub, where the leering Emcee (Alex Rodriguez) oversees overtly sexual performances by the six Kit Kat Girls and the four Kit Kat Boys. The club’s star performer is an Englishwoman, Sally Bowles (Amie Shapiro), who insinuates herself into the room and bed of a recently arrived American writer, Clifford Bradshaw (Jack Mosbacher).

They live in a rooming house owned by Fräulein Schneider (Karen DeHart), an older spinster. Fräulein Schneider figures in a major subplot along with Herr Schultz (Stuart Miller), a kindly widower who owns a fruit shop. They contemplate marriage, but his being Jewish proves to be an insurmountable barrier in the face of the Nazis’ anti-Semitism.

“Cabaret” was a Broadway hit that first came toSan Franciscoin 1987. It has been seen locally several times since then. BBB staged it in 2004 at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center.

For many fans, though, the benchmark production is the 1972 film starring Joel Grey as the Emcee and Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles. They set the standard against which subsequent performers are judged.

Rodriguez’s interpretation of the Emcee is far different from Grey’s, but it works well in the context of this production. He sings, dances and acts well.

Likewise, Shapiro’s Sally Bowles is far different from Minnelli’s. Minnelli is the better dancer, but choreographer Kristin Kusanovich wisely simplifies Shapiro’s dance moves. Shapiro paces the emotions and volume well in such songs as “Mein Herr” and “Maybe This Time,” but pushes in the title song. Her acting is generally good, but she can’t quite capture the neediness and vulnerability that motivate Sally.

Mosbacher does well as Cliff, a role based on author Christopher Isherwood, who penned the stories on which the play by John Van Druten and this musical are based.

Supporting characters are solid, especially DeHart as Fräulein Schneider and Miller as Herr Schultz. However, Brandon’s direction dilutes the tragic sadness of her decision not to marry Herr Schultz because of how the marriage might affect her livelihood.

Melissa Reinertson does double duty as a Kit Kat Girl and Fräulein Kost, a prostitute who also lives in Fräulein Schneider’s house. Warren Wernick plays Ernst, who befriends Cliff on the train to Berlin but who is revealed to be less innocent than he seems at first.

The show works best in the first act, when Brandon’s staging relies mainly on a few chairs to set the scene on the two-level set by Margaret Toomey. She also designed the character-appropriate costumes. The staging doesn’t work as well in the second act as emotions and the tensions heighten.

Kusanovich’s inventive choreography is one of the show’s highlights, as well as the musical direction by Sean Kana, who directs the excellent onstage orchestra from the keyboard.

Lighting by Michael Rooney sometimes misses the main speaker in a scene. Jon Hayward’s sound design provides the right degree of amplification for comfortable listening — something that’s not always the case in contemporary musical productions.

Taken as a whole, this production, though not perfect, has much to recommend it. It continues at the Fox Theatre, 2215 Broadway St., Redwood City, through Sept. 29. For tickets and information, call (650) 579-5565 or visit www.broadwaybythebay.org.

 

 

Sep 23 2013
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‘1776’ remains relevant today

By Judy Richter

By Judy Richter

With today’s Congress sharply divided, “1776” seems quite timely. In fact, one of its main characters has a song, “Piddle, Twiddle,” in which he describes the failure of the Second Continental Congress to agree on much of anything during the hot early summer of 1776  in Philadelphia.

The major point of contention is whether the 13 American colonies should oppose British rule and declare their independence in this 1969 musical play that opens the American Conservatory Theater season. The main spokesman for independence is the prickly John Adams (John Hickock) of Massachusetts. His principal opponents are Edward Rutledge (Jarrod Zimmerman) of South Carolinaand John Dickinson (Jeff Parker) of Pennsylvania.

AfterDickinson insists that any vote on independence be unanimous, Adams proposes that Congress have a declaration to make its intentions clear. Adams, Benjamin Franklin (Andrew Boyer) of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson (Brandon Dahlquist) of Virginiaand two others are appointed to write it. The actual writing is left  to Jefferson.

After some delays, Jefferson comes up with a document for debate. He agrees to many changes, but the big sticking point comes when Rutledge says that unless a passage opposing slavery is removed, he won’t vote for the declaration, thus scuttling it. Adams and Jefferson reluctantly agree, and the Declaration of Independence is eventually approved and signed by delegates from each colony.

Even though anyone who has studied American history knows how the story turns out, composer-lyricist Sherman Edwards and book writer Peter Stone imbue the show with high drama fueled by personality conflicts and story-compelling songs.

The names are straight out of American history, even legend, but director Frank Galati and his cast of 24 men and two women create flesh-and-blood characters with all the complexities that go into real people. Hence, “1776” isn’t just some routine history lesson. It’s an insightful look at how our system of government began to evolve.

While some characters take on larger roles and do well, everyone in the topnotch ensemble cast has at least a moment in the musical or dramatic spotlight. Led by musical director Michael Rice from the keyboard, the individual and ensemble singing is excellent, as is the 10-member orchestra.

Costumes by Mara Blumenfeld, set by Russell Metheny, lighting by Paul Miller and sound by Kevin Kennedy lend an air of authenticity. Peter Amster’s choreography enlivens several songs.

The two-act show runs about two hours and 45 minutes, but most of it speeds by because it’s so well created and executed.

It continues at ACT’s Geary Theater through Oct. 6. For tickets and information, call (415) 749-2229 or visit www.act-sf.org.

 

 

 

Sep 22 2013
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BAND FAGS! is a coming of age play at the New Conservatory Theatre Center

By Kedar K. Adour

BAND FAGS!: Comedy. Written by Frank Anthony Polito.  Directed  by Stephanie Temple.  New Conservatory Theatre Center Walker Theatre, 25 Van Ness Ave @Market, San Francisco, CA. 415-861-8972 or www.boxoffice@nctcsf.org.  

September 13 – October 13, 2013

BAND FAGS! is a coming of age play at the New Conservatory Theatre Center

Coming of age stories are almost always personal reminiscences and can be charming, bitter-sweet or dark. Since playwright Frank Anthony Polito sets the place of Band FAGS! in his home town of Hazel Park, a Detroit superb known as “Hazeltucky” one can assume it is at least semi-autobiographical. The time is October 1984 to October 1988 when he would have been a pre-teen.

His characters in this two-hander grow from age 13 to 17 and from junior high-schoolers to seniors.  It is a time when sexual hormones begin and in that four year span can rage. So it is with best friends Jack Paterno and Brad Dayton, who is black. They developed a close friendship when they became members of Varsity Band and they often need to reassure themselves that they are best friends.

Sadly the male members of the band are derogatorily called “Fags” hence the title of the play. As the 20 plus scene play progresses there is no subject off limits for the boys and director Temple allows them to excessively horse around taking the sting out of some hurtful observations. They constantly deny that they are fags but often the dialog suggests otherwise. Author Polito does not put forth nor explore any new observations about the hardships of growing up gay and his two characters lack distinctive qualities.

Whereas Brad is the dominant more masculine one of the two and has secretly accepted his homosexuality, it is Jack who is in denial and filled with angst. Polito has written the angst into the dialog but neither Paterno nor Dayton has sufficient acting ability to covey that angst. This is very apparent in one of the final scenes where Brad has been elected as one of the “Top 25 Personalities” in the Senior Class and Jack who has coveted that honor for years has not. As staged by Temple the poignancy is absent. Similarly, when Jack has received a valentine from Joey his heartthrob and “other friend”, Brad’s confrontation lacks depth.

(L-R)James Arthur M as Brad shows off his Top 25 award to a disappointed Jack (Blake Dorris)

Further, the multiple scenes lack fluidity and are demarcated by the boys changing a sweater, a trouser or both on stage with an occasional reference to the date such as when Brad is writing a letter he begins with “October 6”, Dear Jack.

Paterno and Dayton are to be commended for their enthusiasm and apparently never missing a line but the arduous task of aging from age 13 to 17 would stymie an Equity actor. Knowing that actors have an aversion to “line direction” director Temple who has successfully helmed other shows would have better served by doing so creating what could have been a charming, heartwarming evening.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com.

Sep 21 2013
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1776: A mesmerizing musical look at the creation of the Declaration of Independence

By Kedar K. Adour

Jarrod Zimmerman (Edward Rutledge) and the cast of the West Coast premiere of Tony Award-winning director Frank Galati’s triumphant new staging of the musical 1776, now playing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater through October 6, 2013. Photo by Kevin Berne

1776: A Musical Play. Music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and book Peter Stone.Directed by Frank Galati. American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), 415 Geary Street, San Francisco.  415.749.2228 or www.act-sf.org  September 11 – October 6, 2013.

1776: A mesmerizing musical look at the creation of the Declaration of Independence

A block-buster production of the musical play 1776 opened American Conservatory Theater’s (ACT) 2013-14 season with a superb 26 member cast bringing an entertaining yet realistic look at American history, specifically the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.  For this production ACT has imported the brilliant director Frank Galati who helmed its run at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Florida. He has brought along seven of that cast and integrated them with local talent to create a memorable evening.

In 1969 during 1776’s out-of-town tryouts major changes were made and its 1969 Broadway run was a smashing success earning three Tony Award nominations winning as Best Musical. It starred Williams Daniels, Howard de Silva, Betty Buckley and Ken Howard and ran for 1217 performances. Similar success was attained in its London run and on the road. Although ACT’s staging is listed as a West Coast premiere; Willows Theatre mounted an excellent production in 2000.

The physical action takes place during the Second Continental Congress from May 8 and July 4, 1776 on hot and humid days in the main chamber of the Pennsylvania State house in Philadelphia. Irrepressible, obnoxious and disliked John Adams (John Hickok) of Massachusetts is spearheading a resolution to disavow English rule and seek independence for the 13 colonies. The separate factions and infighting are harbingers of what is happening in our present Congress. The inability to reach any consensus is rather ridiculously apparent when no decision could be made whether to open a window. With the lines drawn between the North and South colonies, John Dickinson of Pennsylvanian (Jeff Parker) posits a resolution that any decision must be unanimous.  It is passed.

In an attempt to break the deadlock Benjamin Franklin (Andrew Boyer) proposes that a written document (declaration) would be needed to clarify what independence means. Thomas Jefferson (Brandon Dahlquist) is maneuvered into writing it. Jefferson who misses his bride of six months Martha (Andrea Prestinario) is unable to complete the task. Franklin sends for her and after a night of delight he is able to finish the task.

When the declaration is submitted to the Congress changes are insisted upon and mostly accepted by Jefferson with the exception of the one stating slavery be abolished.  Rutledge of South Carolina (Jarrod Zimmerman) being the most vocal in a devastating song with singing “Molasses to Rum” forcefully telling the hypocrisy of the North whose ships bring in the slaves in exchange for the rum trade. Zimmerman controls the stage and received thunderous applause for his scathing satirical presentation.

Although the major characters who individually add great class to this well constructed play, it is a true ensemble performance with the minor characters adding depth to the action. John Hickok’s booming voice is commanding but he has to share accolades with the fore mentioned Jarrod Zimmerman, the avuncular Andrew Boyer, and Jeff Parker who nails the song “Cool, Cool Considerate Man” as he leads the conservatives in a dance.

The only two ladies in the show are absolutely perfect in their rolls. In the sequences between John Adams and his wife Abigail (“Yours, Yours, Yours”), Abby Mueller is a shining gem with a personality to match her flawless voice. Andrea Prestinario as Martha Jefferson in her turn in the spotlight with Hickok and Boyer is sheer delight with “He Plays the Violin.”

The most poignant moment of the evening belongs to the beautiful rendition of “Momma, Look Sharp” sung by Zach Kenny as the courier describing a mother looking for her wounded son on the battlefield.

There is a great deal of necessary humor throughout the play beginning the rousing “Sit Down John” and “Piddle, Twiddle” and continuing to a “battle of canes” between the members of congress. There might be unintentional humor injected into scene 2 when Ryan Drummond as Richard Henry Lee performs an energetic foppish song and dance “The Lees of Old Virginia” as he is off to get a proclamation approving independence from the Governor of Virginia.

Frank Galati’s direction is brilliant utilizing every member of the cast bringing them forward to the step-down apron that covers the hidden ten piece orchestra directed by Michael Rice and back into the framework of Russell Metheny’s set. Add to this are the fantastic costumes created by Mara Blumenfeld.

All in all it is an unforgettable stirring history lesson with a running time of 2 hours and 30 minutes including the 15 minute intermission.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

 

Sep 18 2013
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BURIED CHILD rivets the audience to their seats

By Kedar K. Adour

 

Vince (Patrick Alparone, standing) comes to terms with his family legacy with his grandfather Dodge (Rod Gnapp) in Sam Shepard’s Buried Child at Magic Theatre through October 6. Photo: Jennifer Reiley

EXTENED THROUGH OCTOBER 19, 2013 

Buried Child by Sam Shepard. Directed by Loretta Greco. Magic Theatre, Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Boulevard, Building D, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, 93123.  415-441-8822 OR or www.magictheatre.org.   September 11 – October 6, 2013

BURIED CHILD rivets the audience to their seats

Opening night audiences at the Magic Theatre are very loyal and appreciative often times giving spontaneous standing ovations to a great or near great performance. Last night at the return of Buried Child to the Magic stage the applause was thunderous but nary a person standing.  The entire evening was mesmerizing thus riveting the audience to their seats.

To inaugurate their 47th season the Magic has reached back into its archive for a revival of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child that he wrote when he was play-wright-in- residence in 1978. During the 12 years in that position the Magic also produced his True West (1980) and Fools for Love (1983). When Buried Child moved to New York in 1979 it won the Pulitzer Prize and Sam Shepard became a theatrical personage to reckon with. In the year 2000 he received a  performance by the Magic of a new play, The Late Henry Moss with an all-star cast, including Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson and Cheech Marin at the Theatre on the Square in downtown San Francisco.

Shepard revised the Buried Child script for the Steppenwolf Company for their 1995 Broadway production. Using that script  The Magic have gathered a superb cast, used every inch of the three sided stage with a fantastic set (Andrew Boyce) and as helmed by director Lorreta Greco it is an evening not to be missed. Even with all those accolades the entire play defies description and might be called abstruse realism. It certainly is a family play involving three generations living in an unnamed rural mid-west locale.

It is a thoroughly dysfunctional family with a deep dark secret tearing them apart and at the same time binding them together for emotional and culpable reasons. It begins with Dodge (Rod Gnapp) the alcoholic and dying septuagenarian patriarch sitting on an exceedingly worn sofa watching an ancient TV without sound with a light flickering on his face. He is having an extended conversation with his younger wife Halie (Denise Balthrop Cassidy) off-stage at the top of a two story staircase that is symbolic of the emotional as well as physical distance between them.

Tilden (James Wagner), a compellingly mentally crippled son has returned to the homestead under devious unexplained circumstances and is charged by Halie to look after his father. At the same time Dodge is charged with keeping him from going outside. Yet strangely Tilden harvests corn and carrots from the fields that have been barren for 12 years.

An eldest son Bradley (Patrick Kelly Jones) has lost a leg in a chain saw accident and has become maniacal terrorizing Doge and Tilden.   There is reference to a younger deceased son Ansel who was Halie’s favorite and she fantasizes about erecting a bronze statue to his memory enlisting her paramour Father Dewis (Lawrence Radecker)to the effort. All the boys were athletic with competitive jealousy that carries over into their adult life.

Into this mélange enters Tilden’s young son Vince (Patrick Alparone) who has been away for six years and has returned to relive the past. When he is not recognized by the family he quickly learns Thomas Wolff’s truism you can’t go home again. Sanity is introduced by Kevin’s girlfriend Shelly (Elaina Garrity) whose inquisitive personality and understanding nature pries the naked truth from Dodge that leads to a gut wrenching final scene leaving the audience stunned.

With the exception of the rightfully underwritten part of Father Dewis, Shepard has created fully rounded realistic characters while placing them in a mystical family conclave. Rod Gnapp, who never leaves the stage, gives a tremendous performance combining pathos with humor yet blending into the ensemble. James Wagner uses spare full body movements and facial expressions capturing the mental retardation of Tilden. Patrick Kelly James’ realistic anger permeates the stage. Patrick Alparone and Elaina Garrity dominate the second act almost upstaging Rod Gnapp who has a brilliant denouement speech. It seems that Shepard has given short shrift  Halie and Densie Balthrop Cassidy’s performance defies accolades although her off-stage dialog with Rod Gnapp is beautifully timed.

You have the facts but it is neither hardly a full discussion of Shepard’s motivations nor the technical structure of this particular or subsequent plays.  Questions will remain when you leave the theater after seeing this performance. Running time 2 hours and 10 minutes including the intermission.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

 

 

Sep 17 2013
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‘Revolution’ asks whether right and wrong can flip-flop

By Woody Weingarten

Woody’s rating:3.5 (3.5/5 stars)

How many American Marxists can dance on the head of the pin?

Emma (Jessica Bates) learns the truth about her blacklisted grandfather from Ben (Rolf Saxon, seated) as Leo looks on (Victor Talmadge) in “After the Revolution.” Photo: David Allen.

“After the Revolution,” the Aurora’s Theatre’s cerebral immersion in the ethical struggles of three generations of a left-leaning family, doesn’t answer my cheeky question.But it does deal with other Big Issues.

Such as whether the Machiavellian aphorism that the end justifies the means has validity, if right and wrong are written in concrete, and how yesterday’s actions impact today’s decisions.

Along the way, the dramedy makes sure to swipe at the Red-baiting, witch-hunting tactics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Watching the show is like gazing into a retroscope — and then deconstructing what you think you’ve seen. Not that far removed from a multi-pronged Talmudic discussion about the essence of truth.

In effect, it’s a history lesson wrapped in secrets and lies.It helps if you’re familiar with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, with the Verona Project (that led to decryptions that in turn revealed data about U.S. spies), and with initial Jewish hopes and subsequent disenchantment with Josef Stalin.

But if you’re not, the program guide will give you an abridged crash course.

Playwright Amy Herzog and director Joy Carlin, an actor and theatrical teacher who has an unforgettable scene opposite Cate Blanchett in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine,” do their utmost to sketch a living portrait of a family ruptured by an old secret.It’s a serious look in the rearview mirror.

But they also extract the max from two roles that lend themselves to laugh-lines.

That of Vera, the rickety but still feisty widow of Joe, the Joseph family’s blacklisted hero, and Jess, the drugged-out sister of Emma, an overachiever who just graduated from law school and is determined to spread the clan’s social-justice messages.

Vera becomes a carry-over character in Herzog’s subsequent play, “4000 Miles,” a comic drama that shows the playwright’s evolution as an artist and that has infinitely more charm and tenderness than “Revolution.”When I reviewed the American Conservatory Theatre’s “Miles” production in January, I wrote that Herzog leaned on the six months she’d lived in Manhattan with her 96-year-old grandmother, the natural resource for the Vera persona.

Here she’s immensely likable.

But Em, the focus of the play portrayed by Jessica Bates, is not. She’s robotic, humorless and abrasive.An intellectual, cold fish.

The story takes place in 1999, when Em wants to use the foundation that bears the name of her grandfather to free accused Black Panther cop-slayer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

We learn early on, however, that Joe wasn’t quite so innocent: He’d given the Russians classified material. We also discover that Emma’s dad withheld that information from her. So Emma suddenly must deal with both father and grandfather having clay feet.

“After the Revolution” has numerous positive attributes.

Ellen Ratner is the top one. She steals the show many-faceted Vera, the cranky die-hard lefty with a big heart.

Rolf Saxon is also outstanding, as Ben, a history instructor who gets off on rubbing people the wrong way (even at parent–teacher confabs).And Sarah Mitchell depicts Jess, the sister who’s repeatedly been confined to rehab but ultimately snaps her twin bonds of agony and isolation, as concurrently weak and strong.

The dual-level set by J.B. Wilson, compact and simple (with plain wooden tables and chairs, a distinctly indistinct couch and a backdrop telephone poles and wires), allows quick scene changes.

The cast, not incidentally, frequently and artfully accomplishes those changes in the dark.

Costuming by Callie Floor, with robes and pajamas establishing a contrasting tone to commonplace daily apparel, also is highly effective.As are the frequent upswept hairstyles adopted by the protagonist, each a hint of where Emma’s head is at any given point — hopeful, depressed, angry, elated.

Herzog occasionally tries to sum up her thinking.

Notes Emma, for instance, “‘Good politics’ in my generation is different from ‘good politics’ in your generation.” And Peter Kybart, playing Morty, an elder who wants to leave his estate to the foundation, refers nostalgically to a past in which, in the East Village, you could throw a stone anywhere and hit a spy.Ben sets the mood: “Clinton is a big-business president, the poor are getting poorer, racial divides are deepening…and it’s hard to image things getting much worse.”

Because McCarthyism targeted a member of my own family, I went to “After the Revolution” with high hopes of being able to relate. I left disappointed  — because I’d wanted to be touched.

And my brain was but my heart wasn’t.

“After the Revolution” runs at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, through Sept. 29. Night performances, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Tuesdays and Sundays, 7 p.m.; matinees, Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $16-$50. Information: (510) 843-4822 or www.auroratheatre.org.

Sep 16 2013
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Chapter Two–A Semi-Autobiographical Play by Neil Simon at RVP

By Flora Lynn Isaacson

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 Kate Fox Marcom as Jennie Malone, Jennifer Reimer as Faye Medwick in Chapter Two at Ross Valley Players.  Photo by Robin Jackson

 Chapter Two is widely perceived to be an autobiographical revelation of Neil Simon coming to terms with the death of his first wife, followed by his love affair and subsequent marriage to Marsha Mason.  This poignant play is based around four brilliantly penned characters—George Schneider (David Shirk), a mourning writer; Jennie Malone (Kate Fox Marcom), a level headed actress; Leo Schneider (Johnny DeBernard), George’s talkative but loving brother; and Faye Medwick (Jennifer Reimer), Jennie’s utterly clueless but enchanting friend.

George has not “moved on” from the untimely death of his wife despite Leo’s best efforts to fix him up with other women.  Then he meets Jennie who’s just walked out of a terrible marriage to a football player, and in a very short span of time, they’re in love and get married.  But George’s memories catch up with him, and he soon finds himself trapped between the past and present, and their relationship starts to crumble.  How does George reconcile his past and move forward with Jennie—a sentimental woman with a strong head on her shoulders?  Do they give up or can they work things out?

Although it seems like a heavy subject to deal with, Simon’s wonderful narrative and witty dialog makes Chapter Two an immensely likeable play.  In George and Jennie, Simon shows both complexity and simplicity.  In Leo and Faye, Simon presents two confused, yet adorable characters.

The play is sensitively directed by James Nelson (who combines Simon’s frequent phone call dialog in order to show the parallel nature of Chapter Two) He creates an invisible line through the middle of the stage, so each character only exists in half of their former world.   When the two come together, they form one “whole.”  Nelson also added, in several occurrences of what he calls “moments alone”—short transitioning scenes where we simply get a glimpse of the two main characters alone in their own space. The time and place is winter/spring 1977, in the New York apartments of George and Jennie.  This remarkable set design is by Eugene deChristopher.

David Shirk and Kate Fox Marcom work well together digging deep for the panorama of emotions that Simon intended.  Jennifer Reimer milks the audience for laughs in a fun, supporting role.  Johnny DeBernard is perfectly cast as George’s brother Leo.

Be sure not to miss Chapter Two, the opening play of Ross Valley Players’ 2013/2014 season. Chapter Two runs September 13-October 13, 2013. Performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Barn Theatre, home of the Ross Valley Players—30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross, CA.  To order tickets, call 415-456-9555, ext. 1 or visit www.rossvalleyplayers.com.

Coming up next at Ross Valley Players will be their RAW Festival of four plays with “Unintended Consequences” from October 18-27, 2013. This will be followed by Harvey by Mary Chase and directed by Robert Wilson, November 15-December 15, 2013.

Flora Lynn Isaacson


Sep 15 2013
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NEW EMPLOYMENT IDEA FOR WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE

By Uncategorized

Sugar Grannies?

Older women are like French bread.
The crust is tough, but soft in the middle.
Lynn Ruth

Teaching is such a poorly paid profession that many young educators have joined a dating website called Sugar Babies.  This is a service that pairs young women with older men for “companionship.”  They charge an average of $3000 a visit. Personally, having gone out with several very old men myself, I think they are giving themselves away.  Do they realize what they are getting into?  Once they discover that chronic erectile dysfunction, loss of memory and incontinence are but the tip of the iceberg, they will realize that the current fee is cheap at the price.

It seems to me that there is a neglected market here.  Why can’t older women do the same in reverse?  I am all for creating a website for Sugar Grannies to offer their services to younger men.  The benefits are so obvious.  There isn’t a young man in the world who can figure out how to romance a partner properly on his own.  The only person who can teach him these days is his father….and you know how unlikely it is that a daddy has any technique.  The older a man is, the more his strategy was get ‘em drunk, give ‘em a roofie or pay for a quickie. By the time he is settled and locked into a relationship, he thinks the best way to get laid is to remember to take out the trash.

The truth is that every young Lothario needs an impartial coach, and what safer, better teacher than a woman of a certain age?  Think of the advantages: no worries about becoming an unexpected father; no inconvenient time of the month; no problem if she gets possessive…she’ll kick off in a year or two anyway.

Every woman knows that young men in their twenties make marvelous raw material for women like me.  Think of it!  A dowager can teach him patience; she can show him what foreplay really means; she can encourage him when he is done before she has begun.  Sadly by the time men hit thirty, they are no longer good candidates. They get locked into nasty habits like never bathing, smoking too much pot and wanking in the shower)

I believe a service like this could well become a necessary prerequisite for a relationship of any kind. Every woman should insist that her partner-to-be enroll in a 6-month training period with an older woman to learn the ropes of a romantic communication and mutual satisfaction.  A course like this is far more important than a prenuptial agreement.  The truth is, if you get a young man trained soon enough, you won’t need a pre-nupt agreement.  He will be properly housebroken and ready to love.  In short, with proper discipline and good reinforcement, an older woman can transform any little devil into a keeper.

And let’s not forget the advantages to the national economy.  Women over 70 will no longer need government assistance.  After all, $3000 a night can buy a lot of oatmeal and the AARP takes care of the rest.