Flora Lynn Isaacson

Amy Resnick as Margie and Mark Anderson Phillips as Mike in the Good People at Marin Theatre Company through September 15th.

Marin Theatre Company opens its 2013/2014 season with the Bay Area and National Premiere of the hit play Good People by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. According to Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis, “It’s an insightful look at the difficult choices good people are forced to make when the well being of their family is threatened.”

Good People is full of interesting characters and sharply written scenes which combine to paint an indelible portrait of the economically deprived blue-collar culture of Boston’s South End.

Tracy Young, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival regular directs this play with intelligence and sensitivity, eliciting top-notch performances from a powerhouse cast.

Margie Walsh (Amy Resnick), a lifelong resident of Southie, a blue collar Boston neighborhood, is fired due to tardiness at her cashier job at a dollar store.  A single mother, and knowing that she and her handicapped adult daughter, Joyce, supposedly born premature before Margie’s husband left her, are only a single pay check away from a desperate situation.  Looking for employment, Margie goes to her old high school boyfriend Mike (Mark Anderson Phillips) now a doctor, but formerly from her neighborhood.  Margie shames Mike into inviting her (however reluctantly) to his birthday party in Chestnut Hill. She is looking forward to the party because she views it as a chance to meet potential employers.  Her friends Dottie (Anne Darragh) and Jean (Jamie Jones) encourage her to tell Mike that her daughter Joyce was not born premature, but is his, in hopes of getting support from Mike.  When Mike calls to tell her his party is cancelled, Margie assumes that he is dis-inviting her because he’s embarrassed to have her mix with his doctor friends.  She decides to go to his house anyway with the intent of crashing the party.

At the beginning of Act II, Margie arrives at Mike’s house only to discover the party has been cancelled.  Mike’s elegant young African-American wife, Kate (ZZ Moor) at first, mistakes Margie for a caterer. Once the misunderstanding is resolved, Kate invites Margie to stay and reminisce about Mike’s past.  A discussion begins and Mike tells Margie her current financial problems are her own fault for not trying hard enough and Margie tries to explain to Mike that he had a lucky break which most people from Southie did not.

Later, Margie’s landlady receives an envelope containing Margie’s rent. Thinking Mike sent it, Margie intends to return it to him.  At bingo, it is revealed that the envelope is from Stevie (Ben Euphrat), her former boss at the dollar store.  Upon learning this, Margie accepts the money as an indefinite loan and Stevie agrees to help her find a new job.

This is Amy Resnick’s show as Margie and she grabs it and doesn’t let go.  Mark Anderson Phillips gives his affable Mike a wary demeanor around Margie which suggests his unease with this woman from a world he escaped long ago.  ZZ Moor depicts the accomplished Kate with a crisp air and blinding smile.  Jamie Jones undercuts her cozy appearance as a Southie neighbor with a sardonic edge.  Ann Darragh is delightfully funny as Margie’s landlady.  Ben Euphrat smartly stresses Stevie’s decency.  This fine ensemble brings a sense of warm humanity to David Lindsay-Abaire’s affecting story of haves and mostly have-nots.

Good People runs at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, August 22-September 15, 2013.  Performance days are Tuesday and Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. Matinees are every Sunday at 2 p.m. with extra performances on September 14 at 2 p.m. and Thursday, September 5 at 1 p.m. For tickets, call the box office at 415-388-5208 or go to  www.marintheatre.org.

Coming up next at Marin Theatre Company will be the World Premiere of I and You by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Sarah Rasmussen, October 10-November 3, 2013.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Patrick Russell as Antipholus and Joe Deline as Dromio in A Comedy of Errors.  Photo by Eric Chazankin

A Comedy of Errors meets comedic cowboys in Marin Shakespeare Company’s Wild West theme take on William Shakespeare’s timeless farce written in 1594.  This version of A Comedy of Errors finds the cities of Abilene and Amarillo at war when some luckless cowboy merchants get caught up in a wild adventure of mistaken identity and romantic love.

A Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humor coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play.

A Comedy of Errors tells the story of two sets of identical twins who were accidentally separated at birth.  Antipholus of Amarillo and his servant Dromio of Amarillo arrive in Abilene which turns out to be the home of their twin brothers, Antipholus of Abilene and Dromio of Abilene.

When the Amarillos encounter the friends and families of their twins, a series of wild mishaps, based on mistaken identities, lead to wrongful beatings, a near seduction, the arrest of Antipholus of Abilene and false accusations of infidelity, theft, madness and demonic possession. This madcap farce is adapted and directed by Lesley and Robert Currier and features live music and original songs, written for this adaptation by Leslie Harlib.

Outstanding performances are given by Patrick Russell playing both roles of Antipholus and John Deline, in a clown suit, as the two Dromios.  The two ladies of the town are delightful as played by Amanda Salazar as Adriana and Elena Wright as her sister Luciana.  Jack Powell as Aegeon opens and closes the show as a country hick and his wife, Jessica Powell closes the show in a surprise ending. Gary Grossman is particularly funny in a small role as Dr. Pinch.  Choreographer Lesley Schisgall Currier opens the show with a delightful square dance to put us in the mood. Billie Cox and her imaginative sound design back her up throughout.  The authentic country western costumes are designed by Tammy Berlin and Ellen Brooks does a great job with lighting.

A Comedy of Errors is a fun introduction to Shakespeare for all ages with some delightful new twists for Shakespeare fans.  A Comedy of Errors runs July 19-September 29, 2013 at Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, Dominican University, 890 Belle Avenue, San Rafael.  For tickets, call the box office at 415-499-4488 or go online at www.marinshakespeare.org.

Coming up next at Marin Shakespeare Company will be All’s Well That Ends Well directed by Robert Currier, August 24-September 28, 2013.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Guenevere (Monique Hafen) in Camelot at SF Playhouse

Artistic Director Bill English and Producing Director Susi Damilano bring a triumphant conclusion to their 10^th season now in their new venue with an award-winning cast for Camelot (1960) by Alan J. Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music), directed by Bill English together with Music Director Dave Dobrusky.

The Camelot cast features four award-winning actors, Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Lancelot who won a Tony Award for his performance on Broadway in Rent; and Johnny Moreno (Arthur), Monique Hafen (Guenevere) and Charles Dean (Merlin/Pelinore) – all three winners of BATCC for Best Actors in a Musical for last summer’s SF Playhouse hit, My Fair Lady.

The SF Playhouse Director Bill English has chosen to push Camelot into the dark ages before the time of shining armor, when Europe was deeply buried in the ignorance and fear of the dark ages when Arthur’s ideas of justice and democracy were truly revolutionary.  Camelot is the timeless and powerful love triangle between the legendary King Arthur, his Queen Guenevere and his best friend, Lancelot in a much grittier version than earlier productions.

The cast and direction of Camelot are uniformly professional.  Nina Ball’s set is a masterpiece with effective use of moving set pieces on a revolving stage and a cyclorama that creates a feeling of a magical kingdom.  Abra Berman’s costumes are both impressive and imaginative.  Battles which were written to be peformed offstage now occur onstage and Miguel Martinez’s fight choreography is cleverly staged. Under his outstanding leadership, Bill English chalks up another success with Camelot equal to last year’s My Fair Lady.

Camelot runs at SF Playhouse July 16-September 14, 2013. Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; and Saturday at 3 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, call 415-677-9596 or go online at www.sfplayhouse.org.

Coming up next at SF Playhouse will be the World Premiere Sandbox Series featuring Grounded by George Brant and directed by Susannah Martin and starring Lauren English, August 15-September 7, 2013 at the A.C.T. Costume Shop, 1119 Market Street (at 7^th St.), San Francisco. Performances will be Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. For tickets, call 415-677-9596 or go online at www.sfplayhouse.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Photo by Eric Chazankin.  Elena Wright as Bellimperia in The Spanish Tragedy

Lesley Schisgall Currier directs the West Coast Premiere of The Spanish Tragedy (1587) by Thomas Kyd which is credited as the original Elizabethan revenge tragedy.  In introducing this type of revenge play to the stage, Kyd did tremendous service.  He paid very close attention to the weaving of his scenes.  This play is thought to have served as inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Titus Andronicus.  Many elements of The Spanish Tragedy such as the play-within-a-play used to trap a murderer and a ghost intent on vengeance, appear in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

This Marin Shakespeare Company’s production is so well written and performed that it can teach us all a lesson in passion, revenge and rage.  The plot of this play provides an attempted alliance between Spain and Portugal, haunting ghosts, murder, love and it all culminates in a dramatic end with a play-within-a-play.

Before the play begins, the Viceroy of Portugal (Jack Powell) has rebelled against Spanish rule.  A battle has taken place in which the Portuguese were defeated and their leader, the Viceroy’s son, Balthazar (Liam Hughes) was captured, but the Spanish officer, Andrea (Lucas Hatton) has been killed by none other than the captured Balthazar.  Balthazar’s ghost and the spirit of Revenge (Julia Schulman) are present throughout the entire play and serve as chorus at the beginning of each act.

Director Lesley Currier counters the absurdities and excesses of the play with a necessary measure of dry humor and for the most part, manages a good balance as she builds to the climactic play-within-a-play.

Julian Lopez-Morillas plays Hieronimo, a judge who arranges royal entertainment. He is traumatized and driven nearly mad with grief after the murder of his son, Horatio (Erik Johnson) and seeks revenge on those who orchestrated it.  Lopez-Morillas’ performance shifts from initial soft-voiced disbelief to the astonishing clarity of a man committed to his actions, however bloody the outcome.

Elena Wright is impressively dignified as Bellimperia, daughter of the Duke of Castille (Scott Coopwood) and lover of Horatio.  Julian Lopez-Morillas gives a stupendous performance s Hieronimo, as does Dashiell Hillman as the villainous Lorenzo, son of the Duke of Castille, who is responsible for Horatio’s death.

It is a rare treat to see a play so important and influential as The Spanish Tragedy. Surprisingly, this play is rarely performed.  Therefore, it is very special when it is done and done so beautifully.

The Spanish Tragedy runs July 12-August 11, 2013 at the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, 890 Belle Avenue, Dominican University, San Rafael, CA.  For tickets, call the box office at 415-499-4488 or go online at www.marinshakespeare.org.

Coming up next at Marin Shakespeare will be A Comedy of Errors from July 27-September 19, 2013, adapted and directed by Lesley Schisgall Currier and Robert Currier.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Mark Anderson Phillips (Estragon), James Carpenter (Pozzo) and Mark Bedard (Vladimir) in Waiting for Godot.

Samuel Beckett’s French title, En Attendant Godot, sums up the essence of his 1953 play Waiting for Godot as it is really about what happens while two tramps wait.  Beckett’s masterpiece is directed by MTC’s Artistic Director, Jasson Minadakis.  Beckett calls his play “a tragi-comedy” in two acts.

The plot of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is simple to relate. Two tramps Estragon, (Mark Anderson Phillips) and Vladimir (Mark Bedard) are waiting by the side of the road for the arrival of Godot.  They quarrel, make up, contemplate suicide, try to sleep, eat a carrot and gnaw on some chicken bones.  Later, two other characters appear, a master, Pozzo (James Carpenter) and his slave, Lucky (Ben Johnson).  They pause for a while to converse with Vladimir and Estragon.  Lucky entertains them by dancing.  After Pozzo and Lucky leave, a young boy (Lucas Meyers) arrives to say that Godot will  not come today but he will come tomorrow.  However, Godot does not come and the two tramps resume their vigil by the tree, which between the 1^st and 2^nd act has spring some leaves.

Beckett’s two tramps are costumed by Maggi Whitaker in tight black suits, bowler hats and tight shoes which are reminiscent of Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy.  The minimalist set by Liliana Duque Pineiro consists of a plain black background with only a bare branched tree, a rock and occasionally a moon.

Minadakis’ superb direction shows us that life is worth living when you are with someone.  His Vladimir and Estragon are tied together because they need each other. They complement one another.  Vladimir never sits down while Estragon is constantly sitting.

Minadakis has assembled a talented cast—Oregon Shakespeare Festival Company Member is Vladimir.  Mark Anderson Phillips, previously in MTC’s Tiny Alice, is Estragon.  Both actors play off each other very well.  A standout performance is given by well-known Bay Area actor James Carpenter as Pozzo.  Former Ringling Brothers and Cirque du Soleil clown, Ben Johnson makes the most of his role as Pozzo’s servant Lucky.  His long speech is strongly reminiscent of James Joyce.

Beckett’s play is universal because it pictures the journey all of us take in our daily lives.  Habit is very important as it is the pattern of our daily lives.  We are all waiting for something to make our lives better.  The act of waiting is never over and it mysteriously starts up again each day.

Waiting for Godot runs at Marin Theatre Company January 24-February 17, 2013.  Performances are held Tuesday, Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. Matinees are held each Sunday at 2 p.m. and a Saturday matinee, Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. and Thursday, February 7 at 1 p.m.  All performances are held at 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley. For tickets, call the box office, 415-388-5208 or go to www.marintheatre.org.

Coming up next at MTC will be the Bay Area Premiere of The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez and directed by Jasson Minadakis, March 28-April 21, 2013.

Brian O’Connor and Sylvia Kratins in Betrayal. Photo by Adam Simpson

Off Broadway West Theatre Company is delighted to present the revival of this great classic here on the west coast as its first full production after a year’s hiatus of successful staged readings.

Betrayal begins in 1977 with a meeting between adulterous lovers, Emma (Sylvia Kratins) and Jerry (Brian O’Connor), two years after their affair has ended.  The play ends as we move back in time through nine scenes of the play to 1968 in the house of Emma and her husband Robert (Keith Burkland) who is also Jerry’s best friend.

The betrayal Pinter explores is far more complex than the standard love triangle and Director Richard Harder exposes its multiple facets with the precision of a diamond cutter.  Betrayal is a wonderful introduction to Pinter’s innovative method of developing a play by dramatizing the behavior of his characters in such a way that the audience must patch together the full story and decide for themselves which character, if any, should have their allegiance.  This requires good listening skills for Pinter’s characters speak a dialogue filled with pauses that are often more meaningful than the spoken words.

Although all three actors do a marvelous job portraying their characters convincingly and consistently, Sylvia Kratins tackles the play’s more challenging role with striking emotional clarity. Her Emma is a woman torn between husband and lover who must justify lying to Robert, but more significantly, must justify lying to herself.  We see in Emma a dynamic character that evolves from an innocent girl into a haunted, bitter woman.  Burkland’s Robert is particularly impressive in conveying the darkness that makes him the sort of man who’s not above hitting his wife.  Brian O’Connor’s Jerry is charming but very much smug about considering anything beyond an affair impossible.

Bert van Aalsburg’s set is sparse-a pub, a sitting room, a hotel room–each is suggested only by chairs and a table.

By the final episode, which is the beginning of the story, but the end of the play, the three actors have infused their now youthful characters with glowingly exuberant energy.

Critics and audiences made Betrayal one of London’s most popular plays when it premiered in 1978. It won several major awards including the Olivier Award for Best New Play and the New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award.

Betrayal runs at Off Broadway West Theater Company, June 21-July 20, 2013.  The times are Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. The place is the Phoenix Theatre, Suite 601, 414 Mason St. (between Geary and Post), San Francisco. For tickets, call 800-838-3006 or go online at www.offbroadwest.org.

Coming up next at Off Broadway West will be The Weir by Conor McPherson, November 7-December 7, 2013.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Wife, Bev (Susi Damilano) is threatened by husband Laurence (Remi Sandri). Photo by Jessica Palopoli.

Abigail’s Party is a play written and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a suburban situation comedy of manners and a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle-class that emerged in Britain in the 1970’s.

The place is “the London side of Essex” according to Leigh. Beverly Moss (Susi Damilano) invites her new neighbors Angela (Allison Jean White) and Tony (Patrick Kelly Jones) who moved onto her street two weeks ago over for drinks.  She has also invited her neighbor Sue (Julia Brothers), divorced for 3 years, whose 15 year-old daughter, Abigail is holding a party at her home.  Beverly’s husband Laurence (Remi Sandri) comes home late from work, just before the guests arrive.  The gathering starts off in a stiff, insensitive British middle-class way as the strangers tentatively gather until Beverly and Laurence start sniping at each other.  As Beverly serves more drinks and the alcohol takes effect, Beverly flirts more and more overtly with Tony as Laurence sits impassively by.  Within this simple framework, all of the obsessions, prejudices, fears and petty competitiveness of the protagonists are ruthlessly exposed.

Sue represents the middle-class being the ex-wife of an architect and living in one of the older homes on the street.  She also brings a bottle of wine and has not yet eaten, indicating she expects dinner as opposed to just drinks.  The others present have already had their tea.   Beverly and Laurence represent the aspirations of the lower middle-class and Tony and Angela, the new arrivals are also lower, middle-class, but Tony is less successful than Laurence.  Despite their similar background, Laurence seeks to differentiate himself from Tony by highlighting the differences in their general level of culture and makes condescending comments towards him.

Director Amy Glazer and her strong cast caught the mood and style just about perfectly.  In the role of Beverly, Susi Damilano was able to indulge herself in this gem of a role as she moved seamlessly from a snobby, flirtatious hostess to bullied wife with equal assurance. Remi Sandri delivers the downtrodden, yet superior Laurence very effectively.  His frustrations were convincing as his temper brewed and was finally unleashed he did not hold back. The part of Angela was brought to life by Allison Jean White. She brought out the humor and innocence in her role with ease.  Patrick Kelly Jones’ performance as Angela’s husband Tony was appealing with his economy of words.  Julia Brothers turns in a wonderful comedic performance as Sue, Abigail’s worried mother.

According to Artistic Director Bill English, who also designed the marvelous set, “Mike Leigh is most interested in what this consuming desire for one-upmanship and keeping up with the Joneses does to our humanity…how coming out on top and feeling superior to others diminishes us—when we think we’ve won, we’ve really lost.”

Abigail’s Party plays at SF Playhouse, May 21-July 6, 2013.  Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 3 p.m.  The SF Playhouse is located at 450 Post Street (2^nd floor, Kensington Park Hotel b/n Powell and Mason), San Francisco.  For tickets, call 415-677-9596 or go online at www.sfplayhouse.org.

Coming up next at SF Playhouse will be Camelot by Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music), directed by Bill English, July 16-September 14, 2013.