Flora Lynn Isaacson

 Baker’s Wife (El Beh) meets handsome Prince (Jeffrey Brian Adams) in Into the Woods at SF Playhouse. Photo by Jessica Palopoli.

The San Francisco Playhouse concludes its provocative 11^th season with Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James Lapine (book).  This musical intertwines the plots of many Brothers Grimm fairy tales and explores the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests. The main characters are taken from “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Jack and the Beanstalk”, “Rapunzel”, and “Cinderella.”

The musical is tied together by an original story involving a childless baker and his wife and their quest to begin a family, their interaction with a Witch who has placed a curse on them, and other storybook characters during their journey.

Making her musical directorial debut, Susi Damilano deftly guides her large and talented cast through the overlapping story lines of the various tales and also adds the silent role of a boy (Ian DeVaynes) who introduces the characters. All the players have shining moments. Exceptional performances come from Keith Pinto as the Baker, Monique Hafen as Cinderella and Safiya Fredericks as the Witch.  Louis Parnell is delightful as the Narrator.

Music Director Dave Dobrusky brilliantly leads a seven-piece orchestra and Kimberly Richards’ choreography is outstanding.  Kudos also go to Nina Ball’s multilevel set and Abra Berman’s lovely costumes.

Into the Woods is structured so that Act I ends on an upbeat “happily ever after” note and then Act II delves into the darkness that follows when people get what they think they want.

Into the Woods runs at SF Playhouse from June 24-September 6, 2014.  Performances are held Tuesday-Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at 450 Post Street (2^nd Floor Kensington Park Hotel), San Francisco. Call 415-677-9596 or go to www.sfplayhouse.org.

Coming up next at SF Playhouse will be the World Premiere of From Red to Black by Rhett Rossi and directed by Susi Damilano, August 7-8 (previews) and August 9-30, 2014 at the A.C.T. Costume Shop, 1119 Market Street (at Seventh Street), San Francisco.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Time marches on for the Fail Sisters – Jenny June (Liz Sklar), Gertrude (Megan Smith) and Nelly (Kathryn Zdan) – with a little musical accompaniment from Mortimer Mortimer (Brian Herndon on trombone) and John N. Fail (Patrick Kelly Jones on snare) in the West Coast premiere of Philip Dawkins’ Failure: A Love Story at Marin Theatre Company.

 [rating:4] (4/5 stars)

1928 is the last year of each of the Fail sisters’ lives.  Nelly (Kathryn Zdan) is the first of the Fail girls to die, followed soon after by her sisters Jenny June (Liz Sklar) and Gerty (Megan Pearl Smith).  As with so many things in life—blunt objects, disappearances and consumption—they never see death coming.  Written by Chicago playwright, Philip Dawkins, Failure: A Love Story is a magical, musical fable that traces the sisters’ triumphs and defeats. Set in a rickety two-story building by the Chicago River that is the Fail family home and clock shop, this funny, moving and profoundly wise play reminds us that in the end, all that remains is love.

Failure: A Love Story is a lighthearted production not withstanding the premature demise of the Fail sisters. Only the two men and their lives survive into old age–John N. Fail (Patrick Kelly Jones) is washed up on shore as a baby and adopted by the Fail’s and Mortimer Mortimer (Brian Herndon), the earnest gentleman caller who loves each of the sisters in turn.

The play opens with the cast inviting the audience to sing-along In the Good Old Summertime and Let Me Call You Sweetheart.  A marvelous cast briskly directed by Jasson Minadakis doubles as narrators and the scenes and stories of their past lives are in keeping with what Dawkins calls “the hidden love story of our play, the love of telling stories.”  Here the stories include Mortimer Mortimer’s bittersweet, fruitless search for love, the loneliness of his “almost” brother-in-law, John N. Fail, Nelly’s silly but fetching girlishness and Jenny June’s bold optimistic goal of swimming across the rough and heavy waters.

The actors also accompany themselves on a variety of instruments, i.e. ukulele, trombone, stand up bass, drums, piano—as they sing hits of the 1920’s, arranged by Sound Designer, Composer and Music Director Chris Houston.

Other important inanimate characters occupy this household as well –a few birds, a snake named Moses and a dog called Pete.  Since the passage of time is the recurrent theme, clocks and timepieces abound with Nina Ball’s effective set design.  The lighting by York Kennedy, costumes by Jacqueline Firkins all contribute to a memorable evening whose theme, storytelling–the key to surviving human tragedy–resonates long after the play ends.

Failure: A Love Story runs June 5-June 29, 2014 at Marin Theatre Company with 8 performances a week–Tuesday and Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 7 p.m. with matinees Sunday at 2 p.m. There are special performances Saturday June 28 at 2 p.m. and Thursday June 19 at 1 p.m. All performances are held at 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley.  For tickets, call 415-388-5208 or go online at www.marintheatre.org.

Coming up next at Marin Theatre Company will be Fetch Clay, Make Man  by Will Power and directed by Derrick Sanders (Fences) August 14-September 7, 2014.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

 Ricky Montes as Jason and Micah Coate as Amelia in Let Me Go, in Program II at the Fringe of Marin

 [rating:4] (4/5 stars)

The Fringe of Marin now celebrates its 33^rd season with some of the most innovative work of San Francisco Bay Area playwrights, directors and actors.

The Festival was established by Dr. Annette Lust in 1995, Professor Emerita at Dominican University. She ran the Festival until her death in February, 2013.  Last spring, Gina Pandiani, a 1985 Dominican graduate stepped in as Managing Director with Production Manager, Pamela Rand—and so the Festival continues on.

This review centers on Program II consisting of four plays and one solo performance.  Program II opened with Tuesdays in the Park with River Apple by C.J. Erlich and directed by Robin Schild, who has directed many plays for the Fringe over the years.  Mr. Schild has a flair for comedy in this satirical look at motherhood as four young mothers meet while watching their toddlers.

Claudia Rosa gives an amazing performance as Zsusanna, who is new to the city and the mother of 4-year-old River Apple.  New to full-time motherhood, she tries to juggle her various roles.  Ms. Rosa uses very expressive body language throughout. She is ably supported by three other young mothers..  Gigi Benson (Jessica) gives a very animated performance.  Colette Gunn plays Abby, a sympathetic role and Victoria Vann is Isham, who is very shy.  Micah Coate makes a sexy entrance as Lark, a nanny to the children.  This light satirical play was followed by The Next Big Thing by Robert Wanderman and directed by Pamela Rand.

The Next Big Thing is “vulture capitalism.”  When the owner’s hands are in the crapper, vulture sweeps in and swallows and turns it about.  Jeffrey Schmidt as Abe knows how to take the stage and gives a convincing performance along with Victoria Vann as Casey and Duncan Maddox as Bill.

Let Me Go, written by Shai Regan is next on the program. The play is very sensitively directed by Gary Green.  In this amazing play, Amelia, played by Micah Coate learns how to deal with posttraumatic stress with the help of her fiancée Jason played by Ricky Montes, after she sees him attacked.

The second half of the program opens with Jinshin Jiko written by Bridgette Dutta Portman and directed by Amy Crumpacker with Sheila Devitt as Assistant Director. This play takes place on a train. The expressions and body language of the passengers are brilliantly choreographed. Morgan, an uptight businesswoman (Chelsea Zephyr) is hysterical when the train is stalled and she has a presentation to make. She imagines A Japanese Woman, Yurei (Mimu Tsujimura) is attacking her.  The other people on the train are Sheila Devitt, a Dutch woman, Vonn Scott Bair, a Dutch man, RJ Castaneda, a Japanese man and Sam Tillis as Kenneth.

The final play of the program is a full-scale production, Little Moscow written by Aleks Merilo and directed by Greg Young starring Rick Roitinger as the Tailor.  This play employs a complete set of the shop of the tailor and projections on the back wall of places and people about which the Tailor speaks.  This is a real tour de force for Rick Roitinger as an aging, Russian immigrant tailor whose recollections of man’s crimes against humanity and a father’s love for his country conflict with his love for his daughter.

What a wealth of talent in Program II! The only fly in the ointment was the poor acoustics of Angelico Concert Hall at Dominican University. This could be improved with a sound system or the actors could have mikes as much of the dialog was lost.

The Spring Fringe of Marin Festival plays one more weekend at Angelico Concert Hall, Dominican University, 20 Olive Avenue, San Rafael, CA.

Program I plays Saturday-Sunday, May 31-June 1 at 2 p.m. Program II runs Friday-Saturday, May 30-31 at 7:30 p.m.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Jennifer Gregory as Brooke Wyeth & Peter Warden as Trip Wyeth. Photo by Robin Jackson.

 [rating:4] (4/5 stars)

Ross Valley Players currently presents the 2012 Pulitzer Prize Nominee for Best Drama, Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz and directed by Phoebe Moyer.

The play’s name refers to a guide sign on eastbound Interstate 10 in California which indicates that the freeway is headed towards Indio, California and “other desert cities” (that is the rest of the Coachella Valley).

The play’s events occur around the Christmas, 2004 holiday when the family of Polly (Ellen Brooks) and Lyman Wyatt (Dick Martin) gather in Palm Springs. Their daughter Brooke Wyeth (Jennifer Gregory) returns home after six years.  Brooke’s brother, Trip Wyeth (Peter Warden) is also present.   Polly’s sister Silda Grauman (Kristine Ann Lowry), a recovering alcoholic is also visiting on a break from rehab.  Polly and Lyman are Republicans while Silda is liberal. The sisters wrote a series of MGM comedies in the 1960’s. The wonderful set design by Ronald Krempetz is of an upscale, easy living, desert style living room.

The play is set into motion when daughter Brooke announces to her family she is about to publish a memoir dredging up a pivotal and tragic event in the family’s history—a wound they don’t want to have reopened.  That event is the suicide of her late brother Henry who had been involved in a radical underground subculture.  When this happens, the holiday reunion is thrown into turmoil as family members struggle to come to terms with their past as the Wyeth clan soon realizes some secrets cannot stay buried forever.

The play is well constructed and extremely well written. The cast could not be  better under Phoebe Moyer’s firm hand.  The actors never strike a false note.  In their speech rhythms and body language with one another, their relaxed intimacy or wary distress, their camaraderie or distance, their easy banter or silent hostile regard—they are unmistakably a family.

Other Desert Cities runs at Ross Valley Players May 15-June 15, 2014.  Regular Thursday performances are at 7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. All performances take place at the Barn Theatre, home of the Ross Valley Players, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross, CA. For tickets, call 415-456-9553, ext. 1 or visit www.rossvalleyplayers.com.

Coming up next at Ross Valley Players will be Old Money by Wendy Wasserstein and directed by Kim Bromley July 18-August 17, 2014.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Leonard (Charles Shaw Robinson) comes to agreement with Martin (James Wagner).  Photo by Jessica Palopoli.

Seminar by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Amy Glazer is a comedy about four aspiring novelists who are paying $500 a week to take a writing seminar with a famous international author. According to Artistic Director, Bill English, “the word ‘seminar’ suggests a classroom–supposedly an environment that is structured to be a safe place to learn–but in Theresa Rebeck’s world, Seminar is far from safe.”

Set in present day New York City, Seminar follows Kate (Lauren English) who overcompensates trying to prove her writing abilities and Martin (James Wagner) who is struggling financially and afraid to show anyone his work.   Douglas (Patrick Russell) is the nephew of a famous playwright from Harvard. He is a good writer but a bit of a “name dropper.”  Izzy (Natalie Mitchell) writes well from the start. She figures at the center of the romantic conflict within the group. Their professor, Leonard (Charlie Shaw Robinson)’s career as a writer has been legendary. Seminar takes place in Kate’s Upper West Side apartment handsomely designed by Bill English.  The play captures aspects of their lives including their writing, romance, conflict and the future.

This play is more driven by characters than by plot, but Seminar is full of satire and quite entertaining.  Leonard, the Professor is an amazing role for Charles Shaw Robinson who brings out his character’s humanity in every moment.

Amy Glazer keeps the action moving at a crisp pace, which accentuates Rebeck’s comedy.  The costume design by Abra Berman is at the same time imaginative and appropriate for the characters.

Seminar is a fascinating presentation of the truth about human dynamics and writers’ fragile egos.  The play runs April 29-June 14, 2014 at the San Francisco Playhouse on the 2nd Floor in the Kensington Park Hotel at 450 Post Street (between Mason and Powell Streets), San Francisco.

Performances are held Tuesday-Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 3 p.m. and select Sundays (May 18, June 1 and June 8) at 2 p.m. For tickets call the box office at 415-677-9596 or go to www.sfplayhouse.org.

Coming up next (June 24-September 6, 2014) at SF Playhouse will be Into the Woods by James Lapine (book) and Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics). Susi Damilano directs.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Margo Hall as Rose and Carl Lumbly as Troy in Fences at MTC. Photo by Ed Smith.

 [rating:4] (4/5 stars)

Bay Area veteran actors Carl Lumbly, Margo Hall and Steven Anthony Jones give moving performances in Fences by August Wilson and brilliantly directed by Derrick Sanders.

Fences is a 1983 play by American playwright August Wilson set in 1957 in the yard of the Maxson’s home in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Fences is the sixth in Wilson’s ten-part “Pittsburgh Cycle.”  Like all of the Pittsburgh plays, Fences explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations among other themes.  This play won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1987 Tony Award for Best Play.

The focus of Wilson’s attention in Fences  is Troy Maxson (Carl Lumbly), a 53-year-old head of household who struggles with providing for his family.  Troy was a great baseball player in his younger years but then spent time in prison for an accidental murder he committed during a robbery.  Because the color barrier had not yet been broken in Major League baseball, Troy was unable to make much money or save for the future.  He now lives a menial, though respectable life of trash collecting, remarkably crossing the race barrier and becoming a driver instead of just a barrel lifter.  He lives with his wife Rose (Margo Hall), his son Cory (Eddie Ray Jackson) and Troy’s younger brother Gabriel (Adrian Roberts)—an ex-soldier.  Lyons (Tyee Tilghman) is Troy’s son from a previous marriage and lives outside the home.  Jim Bono (Steven Anthony Jones) is Troy’s best friend who has recently moved out and rented a room elsewhere but is still in the neighborhood.  Makaelah Bashir injects a possible ray of future hope in her role asTroy’s illegitimate daughter, Raynell.

Derrick Sanders stages Fences with excellent attention to realistic detail and evokes solid performances from his very talented cast.  The fence referred to in the title is revealed in the final set of the play.  It is not immediately known why Troy wants to build it, but a monologue in the second act shows how he wants to keep the Grim Reaper away.  Rose also wanted to build the fence and forced her husband to start it as a means of securing what was her own—keeping what belonged inside in and what should stay outside, out.

Fences plays at Marin Theatre Company April 10-May 11, 2014 with performances Tuesday and Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. Matinee performances will be held at 2 p.m. on Sundays and also Thursday April 24 and Saturday, May 3 and 10.  Performances are held at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley.  For tickets, call the box office at 415-388-5208 or go online at www.marintheatre.org.

Coming up next at MTC will be the West Coast Premiere of Failure:  A Love Story by Philip Dawkins and directed by Jasson Minadakis, June 5-June 29, 2014.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Ron Guttman plays Rudolf Bauer at SF Playhouse through April 19, 2014. Photo by Jessica Palopoli.

 [rating:4] (4/5 stars)

Lauren Gunderson is a hot new playwright with six productions (some world premieres) in the Bay Area during 2013-2014, including Silent Sky at Theatre Works,  By and By at Shotgun Players, the Taming at Crowded Fire, and I and You at Marin Theatre Company.

Gunderson’s newest play, brilliantly directed by Bill English tells the compelling and controversial tale of a world renowned artist Rudolf Bauer who was so driven to create, he sketched on scraps in a Nazi prison and yet, eventually stopped painting forever, when a feud erupted among himself, his patron and benefactor, Solomon Guggenheim, and Bauer’s lifetime love, Baroness Hilla Rebay, one of Guggenheim’s most trusted curators.

After receiving a letter from Bauer’s wife Louise (a humble Susi Damilano), the Baroness Hilla Rebay (an elegant Stacy Ross) visits Bauer (Ronald Guttman) after a long separation to help save his soul and to start painting again.

Director Bill English frames the action in an impressive white-on-white studio adorned with projections of Bauer’s work.

In the lead role of Bauer, Ronald Guttman presents the tortured soul of this ma who has been crushed by betrayals.  Abra Berman beautifully designs the appropriate costumes. To sum up, Bauer, his wife Louise and former love (the Baroness), dance around each other in a tug of war similar to Jean Paul Sartre’s No Exit.

Bauer is performed March 18-April 19, 2014, Tuesday-Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and a select Sunday matinee, April 13 at 2 p.m. SF Playhouse is located at 450 Post Street (2^nd floor of Kensington Park Hotel, b/n Powell and Mason), San Francisco.  For tickets, contact the box office at 415-677-9596 or go online at www.sfplayhouse.org.

Coming up next at SF Playhouse will be Seminar by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Amy Glazer, April 29-June 14, 2014.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Kate Fox Marcom as Raina in Ross Valley Players production of Arms and the Man. Photo by Robin Jackson.

  [rating:3] (3/5 stars)

Ross Valley Players just opened the critically acclaimed romantic comedy, Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw.  This play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian war. It’s heroine, Raina Petkoff (Kate Fox Marcom) is a young Bulgarian woman engaged to Sergius Saranoff (Peter Warden), one of the heroes of the war who she idealizes.

One night, a Swiss mercenary soldier in the Serbian Army, Captain Bluntschli (Philip Goleman) bursts through her bedroom window and first threatens Raina, then begs her to hide him so he is not killed.  Raina complies, though she thinks the man a coward, especially when he tells her that he does not carry pistol cartridges, but chocolates.  When the battle dies down, Raina and her mother Catherine (Stephanie Saunders Ahlberg) sneak Bluntschli out of the house disguised in an old housecoat.

The war ends and Sergius returns to Raina, but also flirts with her insolent servant girl, Louka (Robyn Grahn).  Raina begins to find Sergius both foolhardy and tiresome but she hides it.  Bluntschli unexpectedly returns to bring back the old housecoat and to see Raina. Raina and her mother are shocked especially when her father, the distinguished Major Paul Petkoff (Ron Dailey) and Sergius reveal they met Bluntschli before and invite him to stay for lunch and to help them with their troop maneuvers.  Bluntschli’s return stirs several emotions in Raina and she starts to have feelings for her “chocolate cream soldier.”

Director Cris Casell has reverence for Shaw’s impressive combination of intellect, his perception of human nature, and high comedy.  On this last note, “high comedy,” she is a little over the top in her direction. Most of the cast is too much like cartoon characters with the exception of Philip Goleman as Bluntschli when she pictures him a realist. Kate Fox Marcom is appealing as Raina and Warden steals the show as Major Sergius Saranoff. Ron Dailey is impressive as Raina’s father.

High praise goes to Ken Rowland’s set design which is very colorful, Michael Berg’s costumes, Ellen Brooks’ lighting design and Billie Cox’s sound design. George Bernard Shaw gave Leopold Jacobson the rights to adapt his play into what became the 1908 operetta, The Chocolate Soldier with music by Oscar Straus.  Bluntschli is the kind of soldier who sneaks into enemy lines and into a lady’s boudoir armed with chocolates in place of cartridges.

Arms and the Man pokes satiric fun at the dangers, bravado and idealistic motives of romantic love.

Performances are held Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. All performances take place at the Barn Theatre, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross, CA.  To order tickets, call 415-456-9555 or go online at www.rossvalleyplayers.com.

Coming up next at Ross Valley Players will be Other Desert Cities a 2012 Pulitzer Prize Drama finalist, also nominated for five Tony awards written by John Robin Baitz and directed by Phoebe Moyer, May 16-June 15, 2014.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Ross Valley Players

Nicholas Rose (The Inventor) plays William Moulton Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman, in the world premiere of Carson Kreitzer’s Lasso of Truth, now playing at Marin Theatre Company through March 16.

  [rating:5] (5/5 stars)

Lasso of Truth by Carson Kreitzer is a multi-media theatrical event which explores the history of Wonder Woman from her creator as a comic book super heroine to her lasting influence in American pop culture.

This production makes ample use of video by Kwame Braun with panels showing illustrator Jacob Stoltz’ comic book versions of each of the characters.  Narration boxes in the style of super hero comics list scenes taking place in completely different decades.  There are also video clips of Gloria Steinem who put Wonder Woman on the cover of an early issue of Ms. magazine.

In Lasso of Truth, a contemporary young woman (Lauren English) is close to finding an ultra rare comic book published in 1946 containing the first appearance of Wonder Woman. But as she does, she must untangle the history behind her childhood idol’s controversial creator, William Marston (Nicholas Rose) and his unorthodox family.  Marston also created the first polygraph machine (the lie detector); he lived with two women—his wife (Jessa Brie Moreno) and a grad student (Liz Sklar).  They all lived together openly during the 1930’s-1940’s. These women were his models for Wonder Woman.

The other half of the story takes place in the 1990’s as a young woman (Lauren English) gets involved with a collector of rare comics (John Riedlinger).  He loves Wonder Woman as much as she does and claims to have the valuable first edition she wants.

Very sharply directed by Jasson Minadakis, this play packs smart and challenging dialog concerning many important issues such as patriarchy, feminism, truth and power.  The outstanding cast gives brilliant performances and the play itself is unique and controversial.

Lasso of Truth is in a limited engagement February 20-March 16, 2014 at Marin Theatre Company.  Performances are held Tuesday and Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. A matinee is scheduled for Saturday, March 15 at 2 p.m. All performances are held at Marin Theatre Company 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley.  For tickets, call the box office at 415-588-5208.

Coming up next at Marin Theatre Company is Fences by August Wilson, April 10-May 11, 2014 and directed by Derrick Sanders.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Brian Dykstra as Johnny “Rooster” Byron in Jerusalem at SF Playhouse. Photo by Jessica Palopoli

 [rating:4] (4/5 stars)

San Francisco Playhouse Artistic Director Bill English and Production Director Susi Damilano have launched the New Year with the West Coast’s first production of Jerusalem, Jez Butterworth’s epic Tony and Olivier award winning play.

Bill English directs and Brian Dykstra stars in the role of Johnny “Rooster” Byron.  On St. George’s Day, the morning of the local county fair, Byron, local waster and modern day Pied Piper is a wanted man.  The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, while his son, Marky (Calum John) wants his dad to take him to the fair.  Troy Whitworth (Joe Estlack) wants to give him a serious kicking and a motley crew of mates wants his ample supply of drugs and alcohol. This play makes frequent allusions to William Blake’s famous poem from which the title is derived.

Jerusalem has a large cast of around 15 characters. Some of the main ones are as follows: particular attention should be paid to Brian Dykstra as the die hard, drug dealing, rural squatter and master-of-illicit-ceremonies, Johnny “Rooster” Byron. Ian Scott McGregor plays Ginger, the pathetic underdog of the group.  He is older than the others who hang around with Johnny, never having grown out of this lifestyle. He aspires to be a D.J. but is in fact, an unemployed plasterer.

Richard Louis James plays the Professor both vague and whimsical—he spouts philosophical nothings and unwittingly takes LSD. Joshua Shell plays Davey, a young teenager who visits “Rooster” regularly for free drugs and alcohol. Joe Estlack is Troy Whitworth, a local thug and villain of the play who beats up Johnny.  Paris Hunter Paul is Lee, a young teen who enters the play having been hidden in the sofa, asleep after the first 15 minutes of the play. Julia Belanoff stars as Phaedra (Troy’s stepdaughter), who opens the play singing the hymn Jerusalem, dressed in fairy wings. Pea (Devon Simpson) and Tanya (Riley Krull) are two local girls who emerge from underneath Johnny’s caravan, having fallen asleep drunk.  Maggie Mason is Dawn, Johnny’s ex-girlfriend and mother to his child. She disapproves of his lifestyle.  Christopher Reber is a delight as Wesley, the local pub landlord who is involved in the festivities for St. George’s Day and has been roped into doing the Morris Dancing. Courtney Walsh plays Fawcett and Aaron Murphy plays Parsons, the County officials who place eviction notices on Johnny’s mobile home.

Bill English’s set is impressive, showing Johnny’s old mobile home.  This play, although beautifully directed by Bill English and performed by a very large cast is overly long at over three hours.

Jerusalem plays at SF Playhouse January 26-March 8, 2014.  Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets, call 415-677-9596 or go online to www.sfplayhouse.org. The SF Playhouse is located at 450 Post Street (2^nd Floor of Kensington Park Hotel b/n Powell and Mason), San Francisco.

Coming up next at SF Playhouse is Bauer by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Bill English, March 18-April 19, 2014.

Flora Lynn Isaacson