Skip to main content
Oct 08 2012
Love0

The musical mystery of “33 Variations”

By Judy Richter

By Judy Richter

One of the enduring mysteries of classical music is why the great Ludwig van Beethoven devoted so much time and energy into composing his “Diabelli Variations.” Playwright Moises Kaufman comes up with his own possible answer in “33 Variations” a two-act drama being given its regional premiere by TheatreWorks.

In the play, Kaufman has a prominent musicologist, Dr. Katherine Brandt (Rosina Reynolds), exploring the mystery by delving into original scores and other documents at the Beethoven archive in Bonn, Germany, where the composer was born in 1770. The play alternates between the present in Bonn and New York City and between the years 1819 and 1823 in Vienna, where he spent most of his 56 years. Despite deteriorating health, Katherine insists on going to Bonn for her research. While there, she becomes friends with the archivist, Dr. Gertrude Ladenburger (Marie Shell).

As Katherine’s condition worsens — she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — her adult daughter, Clara (Jennifer Le Blanc), goes to Bonn to help her. Clara is accompanied by her boyfriend, Mike Clark (Chad Deverman), a nurse she had met during one of her mother’s medical appointments in New York.

These scenes are interspersed with 19th century events in Vienna, where a music publisher, Anton Diabelli (Michael Gene Sullivan), asked 50 composers to each create a variation on a short, apparently mediocre piano waltz he had written. Although denying the request at first, Beethoven (Howard Swain), took up the challenge and went on to compose 33 (including the original) over the course of several years.

Like Katherine, Beethoven had health problems, including his deafness. Also like Katherine, he was obsessed with his mission to the point where he sometimes was oblivious to other people’s feelings. In his case, the most immediate victim was his loyal aide, Anton Schindler (Jackson Davis), who became his biographer. In Katherine’s case, the victim was Clara, who felt that her mother was disappointed in the way she was living her life.

TheatreWorks artistic director Robert Kelley guides his talented cast through Kaufman’s shifting times and places and their characters’ emotional journeys with sensitivity. Andrea Bechert’s set, Fumiko Bielefeldt’s costumes, Steven B. Mannshardt’s lighting, Brendan Aanes’s sound and Jim Gross’s projections also help.

Onstage pianist William Liberatore plays all or parts of the variations, each of which requires virtuosity. The program gives special thanks to musical and medical experts from nearby universities, including Stanford and San Jose State, for what one would assume was valuable information and insights as the director and actors developed the characters.

All of the actors are fine. However, Reynolds, who has a strong stage presence, is superb as Katherine loses muscular control, affecting her mobility and eventually her speech. Likewise, Swain is outstanding as the often capricious or eccentric Beethoven is enraptured with his musical challenge, which he calls “transfigurating.” Besides the “Diabelli Variations,” the totally deaf Beethoven composed his great Missa Solemnis and Ninth Symphony during the years covered by the play. Snatches of the Mass are played, and parts of its Kyrie movement are movingly sung by the cast.

Although a few scenes seem superfluous or too long, they can’t detract from the play’s inherent power and fascination intermingled with some humorous moments.

The play will continue through Oct. 28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets and information, call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

Oct 07 2012
Love0

Hot on the Trail of a Tropical Treat

By Judith Wilson

Hot on the Trail of a Tropical Treat

By Judith M. Wilson

It was hot, just two days before the first day of summer in the southern hemisphere, and although it was mid-December and well into the countdown to Christmas, chocolate was the last thing on our minds. The tropical temperatures would have made it a gooey mess in our bags, and água-de-coco – coconut water — was far more refreshing in the heat. Besides, Brazil is more famous for bikinis, the slinky rhythm of samba-swaying hips, strong coffee and exotic animals than it is for chocolate, so it really wasn’t a consideration — until the very end of the trip, when we discovered Kopenhagen, a distinctly Brazilian confeitaria despite its European name.
The wait in São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport was a long one. My travelling companion Armelle and I had killed a fair amount of time indulging in one last snack of Brazilian pastel and fresh juice before our departure and admiring each larger-than-life Papai Noel (Santa Claus) mannequin we encountered. Now, we were down to the stores. We spotted Kopenhagen with its distinctive red storefront and gold lettering and decided that stocking up on some chocolate for the holidays was a good plan.
With unfamiliar choices galore in a crowded shop, it was difficult to choose, but I finally settled on some bars of dark chocolate that were sturdy and would be easy to tuck into the tiny space left in my carry-on. Armelle was a little more daring and declared that we needed a treat. And so she picked a large confection, sight unseen but carefully wrapped in paper, and her selection was probably because she’s French, and the presentation appealed to her Gallic sensibilities. I took note of the name, Nhá Benta Maracujá — maracujá is Portuguese for passion fruit and always gets my attention. It was our last purchase before checking in for our flight to the United States.
By the time we were airborne, it was after 10 p.m., and we were hungry, so somewhere over the interior of Brazil we decided to break out the chocolate. “You do it,” said Armelle, instructing me to split it into two. I carefully unwrapped what turned out to be a conical confection and did the honors, then, after handing over half, I shamelessly started to lick my sticky fingers so as not to lose a single bit.
Now, while it might place below fine chocolate on my index of taste favorites, passion fruit is right up there near the top, so pairing the two flavors struck me as brilliant, a taste sensation to be sure. The chocolate shell was silky milk chocolate, not the dark variety that we usually opt for, and inside, on top of a thin wafer, was a fluffy marshmallow filling delicately flavored with passion fruit. Wow! It had the taste buds tingling. This was one marvelous creation. We both gasped in dismay. We’d bought just one solitary chocolate to share. All we wanted to do was turn around and go back to get more.
Shorty after arriving home, I headed to the computer to find Kopenhagen’s website. After all, we can order just about anything online, right? The word “disponível” appeared next to Nhá Benta Maracujá. Unavailable. My heart sank.
I did eventually find a recipe for something similar on the Internet, but it required passion fruit-flavored gelatin, which seemed to be a mysterious and unattainable item in North America. Experimentation with frozen passion fruit pulp and concentrated juice yielded recipes for a wonderful passion fruit chiffon cake, cookies and delicious ice cream, all of which lend themselves well to pairing with chocolate of any kind, but nothing close to the elusive Nhá Benta Maracujá.
It was more than three years before I returned to Brazil, and the memory lingered. The first thing I did after checking into my hotel in Rio de Janeiro was to seek the location of the nearest Kopenhagen. With a wave of her hand toward the side door, the desk clerk said that the closest shop was down the street, just a couple of blocks from the beach in Copacabana. In fact, Kopenhagen, which Latvian immigrants Anna and David Kopenhagen founded in 1928, has been keeping sweet-toothed Brazilians happy with quality chocolate products for three generations and has 283 shops in 60 cities, so it’s fairly easy to find one.
On my first visit to the store, I learned that Nhá Benta, Kopenhagen’s signature chocolate, comes in several flavors, and although my personal favorite is maracujá, friends on this trip swore by coconut. Tradicional (vanilla), moranga (strawberry), chocolate and canela (cinnamon) are other options. This time, with lots of space in my bag, I returned home with a variety of chocolates for everyone and treated myself to one individual chocolate as well — passion fruit, of course — savoring it with gratitude for Mother Nature’s wisdom in giving us fabulous flavors and the skill of chocolate aficionados in using them creatively.
Finally, for good measure, I visited the local supermarket, Pão de Açucar, to stock up on passion fruit-flavored gelatin. I’ve decided not to try to replicate Nhá Benta though, suspecting that trying to match something that’s already perfect is doomed to disappointment. Instead, a vision of handmade passion fruit marshmallows dipped in rich, dark chocolate has taken shape in my mind, and I might just try making such a confection now that I have the requisite ingredients in my own kitchen. As for the treasured Nhá Benta, I’ll reserve it for another trip to Brazil.

Oct 06 2012
Love0

OF THEE I SING misfires at 42nd Street Moon

By Kedar K. Adour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OF THEE I SING: Book by George S. Kaufman & Morrie Ryskind. Music & Lyrics by George & Ira Gershwin. Directed by Greg MacKellan Musical Direction by Michael Anthony Schuler.  42nd Street Moon, Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. (415) 255-8207 or www.42ndstmoon.org. October 3- 21, 2012

OF THEE I SING misfires at 42nd Street Moon.

All the elements are there for another hit musical production by 42nd Street Moon. They have rounded up 16 attractive singers and dancers to perform the much praised 1932 Pulitzer Prize winning musical that starred William Gaxton, Victor Moore and Lois Moran and had two successful revivals plus a much applauded recent Encore staging in New York City. For the lead roles 42ndStreet has picked Noel Anthony as presidential candidate “John P. Wintergreen” and Brittany Danielle as the beautiful southern belle “Diana Devereaux,” Both have received accolades for many local shows and Danielle was exceptional talented in Center Rep’s Xanadu. Then there is the reuniting of the Gershwins and Morrie Ryskind that wrote the great anti-war satire “Something for the Boys” that was a solid hit at the Eureka in 2010.

The book is a scathing but humorous look at National politics and is extremely appropriate as our presidential election nears. However, the play feels dated and the one line zingers that should skewer the politicians often fell flat. This was due to uneven timing and lack of projection by many of the cast due to overlapping music and dancing. The usually superb tenor Noel Anthony seemed dull and uninterested in bringing his character to life and rarely projected far beyond the footlights.  Added to his walking through the role was the fact that there was no charisma between Anthony and Ashley Jarrett playing Wintergreen’s love interest Mary. The joke about falling in love because she can bake corn biscuits became tedious by the end of the evening that continued on for two hours and 30 minutes. There is an intermission.

Local luminary David Fleishhacker was conned (??) into playing the role of the ineffectual Vice President Alexander Throttlebottom made famous by the inimitable Victor Moore. He is not a Victor Moore but he was perfect in the role and received the most applause at the curtain call.

In the supporting roles DC Scarpelli, Michel Rhone Anthony Rollins-Mullins, Stewart Kramer and Stephen Vaught did yeoman work and the ensemble were the best part of the evening. With the exception of “Love is Sweeping the Country”, “Of Thee I Sing Baby” and “Posterity (Is Just Around the Corner)” most of the songs were unmemorable.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

Oct 06 2012
Love0

DIANA VREELAND – “I HAVE TO BE NOTICED!”

By Lee Hartgrave

Diana Vreeland in her office

DIANA VREELAND -“I HAVE TO BE NOTICED!”

Born as Diana Dalziel in Paris. She married Thomas Reed Vreeland. He died in 1966. Here is some Background. Diana Vreeland was the eldest daughter of American socialite mother Emily Key Hoffman and British father Frederick Young Dalziel. Hoffman was a descendant of George Washington’s brother as well as a cousin of Francis Scott Key. Diana was also a distant cousin of Pauline de Rothschild. Vreeland has one sister, Alexandra (1907-1999). She married Sir Alexander Davenport Kinlock. 12th Baronet (1982). Hey, maybe I’m one of those “Baronets” – you never know, maybe I was the 13th Baronet.

The Vreelands moved to Albany, NY and raised their two sons. Then they moved to Regent’s Park, London. Diana operated a lingerie business near Berkeley Square. Some of the clients included Wallis Simpson and Mona Williams. Not to – be missed was Diana – as she was one of fifteen American women presented to King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace on May 18, 1933. Diana and her husband left England for New York – where they lived for the remainder of their lives. In the movie that is now playing “The Eye Has to Travel” is on screens around the World. She went to work for Harper’s Bazaar in 1937. Not as a designer but a Fashion Editor.

Vreeland tracked down Actress Lauren Bacall in the nineteen forties. In the movie/documentary, you will see on the Harpers’s Bazaar cover the picture of Lauren Bacall posing near a Red Cross office. It was Vreeland’s decision. She said: – “ It is an extraordinary photograph in which Bacall is leaning against the outside door of a Red Cross blood donor station. She wears a chic suit, gloves, a cloche and long waves of hair falling from it.” Vreeland took fashion seriously. Here is one of her takes about swimwear – “The Bikini is the most important thing since the atom bomb!” She detested “Strappy high heel shoes.” If she thought that was bad – she would have hated today’s half naked people running around on the street. The dresses today hardly hide the Butt.

Vreeland’s new apartment in New York was painted in gaudy red. Bill Baldwin decorated her apartment. Diana said: – “I want this place to look like a garden, but a garden in hell!” Well- she sure hit the spot on that – at least the hell part. There was another room – a Kitchen. It is said that the maid didn’t show up one day. And Diana had to go into the Kitchen. She opened the door – and screamed – “Oh My God – it’s white!” She quickly left the pots and pans. And, probably sent someone to bring her some food from outside.

Vreeland was also portrayed in the film ‘Infamous’ (2006). And she was portrayed in the film ‘Factory Girl’ (2006) – and now showing is her life in the fantastic document: Diana Vreeland:The Eye Has to Travel(2012).

She was lauded in an article about social climbing in The New Yorker. And she should know! She said: “ I Moved to New York because I have to be seen!” There was a 1964 film (Who Are You, Polly Maggo?). The film director confirmed the outrageous character was based on Vreeland. In the 1941 musical “Lady in the Dark” by (Moss Hart, Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin) – the character of Alison Du was based on Vreeland.

Yes, she was a little high fluting, but an amusing and entertaining personality. She was high on the list of “American Fasionistas.” Not only was she the editor of Harper’s Bazaar, she also worked as fashion editor at ‘Vogue’. And, oh yes – she was also the head of the glamorous costumes department at the Metropolitan Museum.

As you can see in the picture – her offices were almost as cluttered as her apartment was. Yes – she was “Important” – and she lets you know with remarks like this one: – “Look. You have to tell people. No one wants to do it themselves-they want direction and to follow a leader!” – and she was good at giving everyone directions.

“This movie is a master movie that is all about being the Star of the Big City. And it is hugely enjoyable. I would not pass up this screen goddess. I plan to see it again!”

NOW PLAYING AT THE EMBARCARDO THEATER AND OTHER VENUES AROUND THE WORLD.

RATING: FOUR BOXES OF POPCORN!!!! (highest rating) –trademarked-

(((Lee Hartgrave has contributed many articles to the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Datebook and he produced and hosted a long-running Arts Segment on PBS KQED)))

Oct 06 2012
Love0

Multi-faceted exhibit at de Young: exquisite, inspiring

By Woody Weingarten

Picasso’s “Nude with Joined Hands,” from the artist’s Rose Period, features a definitively sculpted head atop a less-defined body.

William S. Paley stands in front of Pablo Picasso’s classic “Boy Leading a Horse” in his New York City apartment.

You well might question the artistic wisdom of a man responsible for such lowbrow TV hits as “I Love Lucy,” “Gunsmoke” and “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

But William S. Paley, longtime titan of the CBS network, vividly demonstrated through major artworks he collected that he was perceptive and intuitive — and perhaps clairvoyant as to which artists would grow in fame.

“The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism,” a new, multi-faceted exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, can prove it.

In the show are masterpieces from Braque, Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Miro, Picasso, Renoir, Rousseau, Toulouse-Lautrec and others, many others. Sixty paintings, drawings and sculptures in all.

Impressionism. Post-Impressionism. School of Paris. Modernism.

Exquisite.

And evocative.

Timothy Anglin Burgard, curator-in-charge of American Art for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, indicated that the exhibit, organized by The Museum of Modern Art in New York, to which Paley had bequeathed his collection, simultaneously informs and inspires viewers.

Bulls-eye.

Consider, for example, Henri Matisse’s 1927 painting “Woman with a Veil,” which shows his desire to utilize “a flatness, a two-dimensionality” combined with a classic pose of melancholia to “get at a greater truth…as well as beauty.”

Or two Pablo Picasso paintings from his Rose Period — the 1905-06 “Boy Leading a Horse” (which was owned originally by Oakland poet laureate Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo) and the 1906 “Nude With Joined Hands.”

“Boy,” which portrays a much younger Picasso than the 27-year-old painter who’d already become a master when he brush-stroked it, is visibly a work of genius.

It also was a linchpin of last year’s successful San Francisco MOMA exhibit, “The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian Avant-Garde.”

For “Nude,” the artist painted a definitively sculpted head atop a less-defined body of a woman who is modestly covering her genitalia with her hands.

It’s alleged that Picasso stole the sculpture on which he based the head from the Louvre, returning it when he was done.

The exhibit, not incidentally, is majestically mounted, with paintings given breathing space on shaded walls that make them stand out.

Facts about Paley’s collection can be intriguing. But so can the attendant fiction.

In that category, said Burgard, is the broadcasting innovator’s middle initial, which didn’t stand for anything (though he’d never dissuade folks from believing that it represented his father’s name, Samuel).

Another inaccuracy: Paley was a co-founder of CBS, not its exclusive architect, Burgard noted during his brilliant and witty pre-opening press tour of the exhibit.

Also, Paley insisted “Woman with a Veil” was purchased directly from Matisse. The truth, said Burgard, is that the spinmeister bought it from artist’s son.

One real fact is that Paley’s first art purchase, in 1935, was the 1875-1876 “Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat” by Paul Cézanne.

Another fact is that Paley, as a Jew, had to overcome the rampant discrimination of his time.

He was denied admission to fraternities in college, and despite his subsequent major philanthropy and an upper-crust reputation garnered by owning a string of racing thoroughbreds, he was denied membership in multiple posh clubs.

As a young man, Paley, who died at age 89 in 1990, wasn’t exactly self-made. His father had earned millions manufacturing and selling cigars, giving William S. Paley quite a jump-start.

Paley the Collector, on the other hand, was strictly his own person: The range of the paintings in this exhibit is wider than you might expect.

On the modern end, for instance, are two existential early-‘60s triptychs of distorted faces by Francis Bacon. According to the audio tour, the artist said his portraits were of friends — because if they hadn’t been, “I could not do such violence to them.”

In contrast, on the other end, are two soft 1866-68 pencil sketches by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, “Portrait of a Woman” and “The Jockey.”

A photographic bonus for visitors is a hallway of large images revealing the interior of Paley’s Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, where masterworks adorned the walls.

If you visit the de Young exhibit, make sure to stop in front of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec’s “Mme Lili Grenier.”

It’s a 1988 painting soul-stripping the wife of a wealthy friend. She’s lounging in a chair while wrapped in a Japanese kimono, her hands toying with a pale blue ribbon. At age 20, she has a smug look of self-satisfaction — reflecting, most likely, how well she married.

Don’t miss it.

In fact, don’t miss the exhibit as a whole.

“The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism” will be at the de Young, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, through Dec. 30. Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., except Fridays, when open until 8:45. Admission: $10 to $20, free for members and children 5 and under. Information: (415) 750-3600 or www.deyoungmuseum.org.

Oct 05 2012
Love0

SHOCKTOBERFEST 13 an ideal Halloween Treat at Thrillpeddlers

By Kedar K. Adour

SHOCKTOBERFEST 13: The Bride of Death- A Evening of Horror and Unhinged Comedy. Thrillpeddlers, Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street (between Bryant & Division Streets), San Francisco 415-377-4202 or www.thrillpeddlers.com.  Through November 17, 2012.

SHOCKTOBERFEST 13 an ideal Halloween Treat at Thrillpeddlers.

For those of you are not familiar with Thrillpeddlers here is a brief summary. They are a San Francisco-based theatre company specializing in ‘Grand Guignol’ horror plays, fetish performance, and lights-out spook-shows. “As used today, the term ‘Grand Guignol’ (pronounced Grahn Geen-yol’) refers to any dramatic entertainment that deals with macabre subject matter and features “over-the-top” graphic violence. It is derived from Le Theatre du Grand Guignol, the name of the Parisian theatre that horrified audiences for over sixty years. A typical evening at the Grand Guignol Theatre might consist of five or six short plays, ranging from suspenseful crime dramas to bawdy sex farces. But the staple of the Grand Guignol repertoire was the horror play.”

For their 13th Annual Extravaganza of Terror & Titillation they certainly keep up with the tradition described above. It is hoot and a holler evening with broad acting by talented cast that pulls out all the stops with an extra bucket of blood thrown in when necessary.

The curtain raiser is a classic Grand Guignol short one-act thriller, Coals of Fire, by Frederick Whitney, directed by Flynn DeMarco. It sort of emphasizes that even the blind can “see” what’s going on. What’s going on is that the Companion of the blind Wife is screwing the master and that’s a no-no even if she, as she professes that they are in love, is carrying his baby. Wife: “I cannot see but I can hear!” What is a blind wife to do? Well, there is the fireplace with the burning coals. Oh no, not that! Yes that, but how is not going to be revealed here. Ms Leigh Crow handles the dirty deed admirably and Zelda Koznofski takes her punishment like the tramp that she is. . . the Companion not Zelda

After that shocking event it is time for musical number performed by Mr. and Mrs. Mummy (Costumes by Alice Cunt) who have come out of their sarcophagi to serenade us  with clever ditty lines (words and lyrics by Douglas Byng) that are more than risqué. Pity there was not enough light to jot down the lyrics.

During this brief interlude the stage crew has been readying the very attractive and functional set, (James Blackwood) in preparation for world premier of The Bride of Death by the multitalented, handsome, handsome Michael Phillis (www.michaelphillis.com/)  who even has written in a part for himself.  Phillis shares story and character definition ideas with Flynn DeMarco who also has ego enough (he should because he is a true professional and is even better in the final play) to write himself into the plot. Bonni Suval does a great job as the beautiful, sexy and buxom never aging stage star Evelyn Maxwell. My favorite is Rory Davis in the non speaking part (because he’s a mute) of the servant to the weird masters Mrs. Offal and Dr. Stygian. Don’t you just love those descriptive character names? Before the show ends, the stage is strewn with a plethora of bodies that would put John Webster’s horrific The Duches of Malfi to shame. There is a “last man standing” but you will have to go and see who that is. End of Part 1.

For the part two curtain raiser the inimitable Scrumbly Koldewyn of The Cockettes fame, has written the tongue in cheek “Those Beautiful Ghouls” including a Vampire , Android, Wherewolf and Martian. The music is in homage to styles of the past (Cole Porter, Kander and Ebb etc.) will never make the hit parade but will have you chuckling to the clever and suggestive lines. My favorite is the Wherewolf patter “And I will not eat your carrion. To most a treat is a piece of meat, But I’m a vegetarian.” Ms Leigh Crow dressed in a tux ( she dumped the dumpy frock she wore for Coals of Fire) has an excellent voice and leads a chorus of nine with basic choreography by D’Arcy Drollinger and accompanied by Steve Bolinger on guitar.

The other world premiere written by Rob Keefe and directed by Russell Blackwood and Flynn Demarco is The Twisted Pair with Blackwood and Demarco as a pair of twisted medical researchers searching for fame in the cellar apartment of the horny widowed Mrs. Delvinto’s house. Demarco and Blackwood feed off each other doubling the hysterical humor of the action. If you re-read the opening paragraph, this is the show that needs the extra bucket of blood, because the secret discovery that will bring them fame (and as Blackwood repeats over and over as another body hits the dust “Funding follows Fame!) is in the blood. The physical props, costumes and projections are too garish to describe adequately. Koldewyn’s musical background selections provide the proper aural milieu.

The evening ends with there usual blackout with luminous flying “things” zooming around the intimate auditorium as a great start to a macbre Halloween season.

Running time about 2 hours with an intermission.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

 

Oct 05 2012
Love0

TOPDOG/UNDERDOG at MTC is not for the meek

By Kedar K. Adour

                                                                (L to R) Bowman Wright as Lincoln and Biko Eisen-Martin as Booth in Marin Theatre Company’s TOPDOG/UNDERDOG.

TOPDOG / UNDERDOG: Drama by Suzan-Lori Parks and directed by Timothy Douglas. Marin Theatre Company (MTC), 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941. 415-388-5208 or www.marintheatre.org.  September 27 – October 21, 2012

TOPDOG/UNDERDOG at MTC is not for the meek.

When a play wins the Pulitzer Prize that fact rightfully appears prominently in the press releases and so it is with TODOG/UNDERDOG being given a dynamic production in Mill Valley. Not being familiar with all of the Prize winners encouraged this reviewer to do some internet research and some intellectually stimulating information was assimilated. Cogent to this production was the fact that Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? that was selected for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Drama by that award’s committee was overruled by the award’s advisory board because of play’s then-controversial use of profanity and sexual themes. Luckily for author Suzan-Lori Parks her play appeared in 2002 and mores have undergone a cataclysmic shift in the intervening half century since the Albee play and her play rightfully earned the Pulitzer honor.

Profanity and sexual themes are rampant and are an integral part of the social milieu of the time, place and characters in the play. Parks simply lists Place as ‘Here’ and Time as ‘Now’and that is only 10 years ago. The theme(s) invoked are as cogent today as they were then.

There are only two characters, Black brothers one named Lincoln and the other Booth and there is an intense rivalry between the two, each attempting to be the Top Dog. We eventually learn that they had been abandoned in their formative years by their parents. Each was left a tenuous legacy, with the father favoring older brother Lincoln (think Abel) and the mother favoring Booth (think Cain).  With the characters named Lincoln and Booth you should suspect the dramatic ending especially since a loaded gun appears in act one.

But before we get to that point we learn how the characteristic of each has been molded by past and present events. Booth lives in a one room decrepit apartment with only one bed, a reclining chair and no running water (very realistic set by Mikiko Uesugi). Lincoln has been thrown out of his home by his wife and now shares the apartment and sleeps in the chair. Unemployed Booth who is addicted to girlie magazines (euphemistically in street parlance are referred to as ‘one handed books’) that he stores under his bed.

In the opening sequence Booth addresses the audience setting up a table with plastic milk crates and a cardboard overlay to demonstrate his skill at the three-card monte street con at which Lincoln was an expert earning great sums of money. He gave up the game when his conscience rebelled against ripping-off the suckers. . . his name is Lincoln. Since his ‘retirement’ from the game he has a job in an arcade dressed as Abe Lincoln with white face where the audience pays to reenact the assassination of Lincoln. He brings home the money and Booth doles it out for their living expenses. Lincoln’s geartest concern is that he will be fired and replaced by a digital speaking robot.

Even though Booth is accomplished at heisting clothes, food and whatever, he wants to learn the three-card monte line and get to be known as “Three Card.” Lincoln is reluctant to be his teacher and here is the major conflict. This leads to a series of scenes where each demonstrates his abilities in showing that the hand is faster than the eye endlessly repeating the mantra of the dealer. (On opening night some of the cards hit the deck. . .  but they will get better) As we all know the game is rigged and the ‘sucker’ never wins when money is on the line. This allows Parks to write a devastating penultimate scene that causes Booth to snap. Before he snaps the secondary plot of Booth’s love life, which is actually a lack of love life whence the girlie magazine, has done irreparable damage to his ego.

Biko Eisen-Martin as Booth is great with is flamboyant bravado that degenerates into hatred and self pity but the final scene is too pat to be believable.

BOWMAN WRIGHT as Lincoln

Bowman Wright envelopes the character of Lincoln with grace and conviction. After being fired, thus forcing him to tentatively venture back into the world of three-card monte, his inner turmoil is palpable.

Running time a long two hours and 20 minutes.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

Oct 04 2012
Love0

MTC stages searing “Topdog/Underdog”

By Judy Richter

By Judy Richter

When the Marin Theatre Company production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog” reached its wrenching conclusion on opening night, it was greeted by a stunned silence before the applause and shouts of “Bravo” erupted. That sequence signaled that something really special had just happened onstage.

There is much that’s special about the play, for which Parks won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the first and so far only Pulitzer of its kind awarded to an African American woman. There’s also something special about the production of this two-hander so ably directed by Timothy Douglas.

For one thing, the two actors must take themselves and the audience through a roller coaster of emotions as an underlying struggle between the two characters sometimes changes the balance of power between them.

The two-act play is set in the here and now and focuses on black two brothers who are sharing a cramped one-room apartment with no running water and a community bathroom down the hall. Scenic designer Mikiko Uesugi sets the tone right away with the dingy apartment’s water-stained walls, a rumpled, unmade single bed with clothing strewn all around it, a beat-up reclining chair, a couple of straight-back chairs and not much else.

The brothers are named Booth (Biko Eisen-Martin) and Lincoln (Bowman Wright) — their father’s idea of a joke. Booth, the younger brother, had been living there alone until Lincoln’s wife kicked him out of their home. Booth gets the bed, Lincoln gets the recliner.

Booth is quite talented at shoplifting, a skill that provides the men with, among other things, a nice set of clothing. Booth also aspires to become an expert in three-card monte, a street gambling game that invariably soaks the poor sucker who succumbs to the lure of playing it, thus losing his money and enriching the con man manipulating the cards.

Lincoln was a master at the game until one of his colleagues was shot to death. He quit the con and got a legitimate job in a shabby arcade. He portrays President Abraham Lincoln on the night he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theatre in Washington. Arcade patrons pay to use a cap gun and pull the trigger while Lincoln, wearing white-face makeup, pretends to have been fatally shot. It’s hardly a great job, but it give Lincoln weekly pay that he and Booth use to pay the rent and other expenses.

For the most part, the brothers get along well. They often talk about their childhood and wonder why their philandering parents deserted them while they were still in school. Though emotionally scarred, the brothers managed to survive and to avoid social workers.
The tension rises, however, as Lincoln loses his job and Booth’s girlfriend dumps him. With no money coming in, Lincoln considers returning to the card scam during the long, well delivered monologue that ends Act 1.

The profanity-laden play is a searing examination of fraternal love and rivalry that inevitably leads to tragedy for both men. Wright and Eisen-Martin are both brilliant in their ability to reveal both the subtleties of their characters and their relationship. Wright’s Lincoln is the more low-key of the two, reflecting his greater maturity and life experience. Eisen-Martin’s Booth is far more volatile and impulsive.

The production benefits from Callie Floor’s costumes (such as the ragged black coat worn by Lincoln for his job), as well as Kurt Landisman’s lighting and Chris Houston’s music and sound. They make solid contributions to a provocative play that hasn’t a Bay Area professional production since the national touring production came to San Francisco in 2003. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival staged a memorable production of it in 2004. This Marin production surely will remain in its audience’s memory for a long time to come.

“Topdog/Underdog” will continue at Marin Theatre Company through Oct. 21. For tickets and information, call (415) 388-5208 or visit www.marintheatre.org.

Oct 03 2012
Love0

HAMLET performed in a swimming pool?

By Kedar K. Adour

Cast for Hamlet at California Shakespeare. Set by Clint Ramos. Photo by Kevin Burn.

HAMLET by William Shakespeare directed by Liesl Tommy. California Shakespeare Theatre, Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, (formerly 100 Gateway Blvd), Orinda, CA 94563. (just off Highway 24 at the California Shakespeare Theater Way/Wilder Rd. exit, one mile east of the Caldecott Tunnel. 510.548.9666 or Visit www.calshakes.org. EXTENDED THROUGH -OCTOBER 21, 2012

HAMLET performed in a swimming pool??

Concept productions of Shakespeare’s play are de rigueur and California Shakespeare Company (CalShakes) has embraced the obligatory fashion in all of their productions that this reviewer has attended. In 2006 in their staging of The Merchant of Venice, Shylock’s home was a metal dumpster, really.  Would you believe that for this production of Hamlet, famed director Liesl Tommy, whose direction of  Ruined at Berkeley Rep garnered rave reviews, places the action in a swimming pool and its environs, really?

Yes, it is a swimming pool thankfully devoid of water, surrounded by a plethora of objects that don’t make sense until you read the program notes. Tommy envisions the play of a “family [that] is by turns poetic, absurd, romantic, violent and sad.” Decay is everywhere and with a brief stretch of the imagination seem odoriferous thus making the objects strewn about the stage as (with apologies to Proust) remembrance of things past.  An explanation was given during intermission.

The explanation, and it needs one, was that this is an elegant Miami mansion that has been devastated by a hurricane and the “the structure has outlived its inhabitants and is now a haunted place.”  OK, we’ve got it, now what about the play?

The story line is very clear although a purist will object to some of the cutting and rearranging of scenes. The major cut is the removing Prince Fortinbras  of  Norway who is to become the eventual King since Claudius has been killed and Hamlet is dying in the arms of Horatio. The beautiful soliloquy is cut and Horatio’s line, “Good night sweet Prince” is truncated as the 1960s song “Unchained Melody” wafts from the loudspeakers into the balmy autumn night. Really.

The saviors of the perfect evening for an outdoor performance are the actors playing most of the major characters.  As Polonius observes Hamlet’s feigned madness with an aside to the audience “Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t”,

LeRoy McClain as Hamlet

LeRoy McClain’s physicality and dominance creates an unforgettable Hamlet but his venture in to madness needs honing.  Dan Hiatt gives a strong performance as Polonius and when he doubles as a Grave Digger. Beautiful Julie Eccles transforms herself into Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, matching McClain line for line in their epic verbal battle regarding her possible infamy for marrying Claudius and being implicated in her husband’s murder. Adrian Roberts as Claudius gives an adequate but unimpressive performance and as the Ghost, with his speech’s electronically echoed,  looks like a character in a Charles Addams’ cartoon.

Nicholas Pelczar as Laertes displays his talents with believable handling of mood changes demanded by the script. The pivotal role of Ophelia by Zainab Jah defies description since director Tommy has her being physically manhandled by McClain and later in her madness being trapped in an aquarium on upper stage right.  It’s seems a bit too much.

With all the perceived defects this production should not be missed because you will never see a Hamlet as performed by LeRoy McClain. Running time a long three hours and 10 minutes.

A Medical Note: If the poison placed in the Kings ear is to be affective there must be a perforation in his ear drum in order to be absorbed by the mucosa. Really.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

Sep 30 2012
Love0

We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! Cinnabar Theater, Petaluma CA

By Greg & Suzanne Angeo

From left: Liz Jahren, Samson Hood, Nathan Cummings, Gary Grossman, Sarah McKereghan

Reviewed by Suzanne and Greg Angeo

Photos by Eric Chazankin

Food for Thought – and Laughs

It starts with a trip to the grocery store.  It ends with populist upheaval.  In between are bits of zany slapstick and broad satire straight from the golden days of television – think I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners meet Mack Sennett, Italian-style. It’s social protest swathed in broad comedy, rage against the machine presented as Commedia dell’Arte.

We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! by Italian playwright and anarchist Dario Fo was written in 1974 for the Italian stage. In 1997, Mr Fo was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, for “scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden”.  Incredibly,  Fo had at one time been banned from the U.S. under the McCarran Act, a McCarthy-era law designed to keep out “subversives”. We Won’t Pay! was first translated into English in 1975 by Lino Pertile, with a newer adaptation by R.G Davis for his 1980 off-Broadway premiere of the show at the Chelsea Theater  Center. Davis is noted for founding the San Francisco Mime Troupe in 1959, and for his “divergent theatrical concepts”.   Then came the 1999 translation, by Fo’s friend and collaborator Ron Jenkins, for his premiere that same year at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It’s the Jenkins version being presented at Cinnabar. It contains only the very subtlest contemporary references. But even without these updates, there is plenty for modern audiences to identify with.

Liz Jahren, Sarah McKereghan, Nathan Cummings

The story opens with the poverty-stricken but feisty Antonia and her friend Margherita realizing they are in big trouble when they come home from a shopper’s revolt against high food prices at their local grocery store. Their frantic efforts to hide some contraband food from their husbands (and the police!) are beyond hilarious. False pregnancies, wayward olives and not-quite-dead cops propel the madness to dizzying heights. The audience would be on the edge of their seats if they weren’t rolling in the aisles. This play is hysterically funny – hysterical, in every sense of the word.  These ladies and their husbands are pretty excitable folks.

Antonia is played with delightfully manic energy by Liz Jahren (Always Patsy Cline, Dirty Blonde, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). She’s the rocket fuel that keeps this show soaring, with her high-decibel voice and animated mugging.  Nathan Cummings (She Loves Me, Crimes of the Heart) is her Giovanni, solid as a rock. Cummings presents a warm and nicely textured performance as the blue-collar hero with high ideals and a charming stubborn streak – he sulks in the closet when he doesn’t get his way.

Antonia’s adorable sidekick Margherita is played by Sarah McKereghan (Crimes of the Heart). Her reactions to her friend and the growing chaos around her are absolutely priceless. She makes good use of her huge eyes and pantomime skills. Margherita’s husband Luigi, a gentle, plodding clown played by Samson Hood (Born Yesterday, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), has some of the funniest scenes in the show, drawing howls of laughter.

Gary Grossman, Liz Jahren

Multiple roles by master transformer Gary Grossman (Taming of the Shrew, 6th Street Improv, Born Yesterday) include a “utopian subversive” cop, a state trooper, a grandpa, and a gay undertaker.  He draws upon his vast improvisational talents and impeccable timing, bringing a special nuance to each character.

Gabe Sacher and Harley Hubbard provide support in a couple of small roles as police back-ups. Sacher is especially memorable as a truck driver (miming his truck, no less), whizzing across the stage, blithely puffing on a cigarette, gone in a flash.

Director Laura Jorgensen wisely relies on the talents of her cast, keeping the staging simple and letting the actors shape the storytelling, ideal for this type of satirical farce. The set design includes some vintage appliances and decidedly modest furnishings.

The oddball ending moves us from raucous comedy to passionate polemic almost in the blink of an eye. Is it too rough of a landing? Can this transition be a little smoother? Possibly. But Mr Fo’s intent is to stir things up, turn convention on its pointy little head, and then make you laugh about it. In this regard, We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! at Cinnabar is a roaring success.

When: Now through October 7, 2012

8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

2 p.m. Sundays

Tickets: $15 to $25

Location: Cinnabar Theater

3333 Petaluma Blvd North, Petaluma CA Phone: 707-763-8920

Website: www.cinnabartheater.org