Kedar K. Adour

(At Berkeley Rep, bassist Brian Ellingsen accompanies Henry Woronicz’s searing performance in a visceral new version of An Iliad. Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com)

AN ILIAD: Adapted from homer by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare. Translation by Robert Fagles. Directed by Lisa Peterson. A co-production with La Jolla Playhouse. Berkeley Repertory Theatre (BerkeleyRep), Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St, Berkeley CA. 510-647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org.  October 12–November 18, 2012

AN ILIAD brilliant at Berkeley Rep

Is it possible for theater to exhilarate and depress simultaneously? It certainly can and the proof is on Berkeley Rep’s Thrust stage where Henry Woronicz as The Poet and Brian Ellingsen Bassist enthralled the full house eliciting a spontaneous well earned standing ovation. Using Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s resplendent adaptation, Homer is brought into the 21^st century and this production of An Iliad should not be missed.

There are questions about the origin of The Iiad , if the Trojan War was fact or fancy and even if there really was an author named Homer. Never-the-less there is the fact the story exists and has been translated into many languages and has many parallels in today’s world. During the Vietnam War the chant of the protestors was, “Hell no, I won’t go!” During the time of the Trojan War it was Achilles, part god, part man and the greatest Greek fighter ever who picked up the chant raising a scepter high, crushing it the ground vowing not to fight. The gods took the blame for everything including the waging of war.

It all began when Trojan Paris stole the most beautiful girl in the world Helen, the wife of the Greek Menelaeus. That was a no-no and Agamemnon, the king of all Greece launched the “thousand ships” starting the siege of Troy.  The Trojan War lasted for 10 years but An Iiad details the action involving the battle of the Trojan Hector and Achilles and the involvement of a handful of germane characters. With Achilles on the side line the war is being won by Hector’s Trojans and the intervention of the gods is evoked on both sides. Achilles’ return to battle, specifically the duel with Hector and the final outcome is horrific.

Woronicz  has played the role of the poet in many productions across the U.S., handles the transition between each character with superb timing and inflection. He also manipulates the audience with asides that offer a touch of humor needed to relieve the intensity. The flashes of humor from the asides are supplemented with amusing depiction of Paris as a self-centered fop and Helen as bitchy slut. Could such a war be fought over two such insignificant people? Probably not but the legend persists.

Late in the evening the litany recitation of all the wars from farthest past to the present is shocking to the point of being depressing. He compares the young dead Greeks and Trojans with those who have died and are dying in the mid-east and around the world. This is further compounded by the chilling effect on the women and children of the combatants.  Consider the tragedy that there has not been a day of peace in the known history of the world.

Brian Ellingsen Bassist, is magnificent with the range of sounds he is able to extract from the Bass fiddle. It is absolutely astounding, adding depth and emotion to the spoken word.

After the limited run here to show moves on to the La Jolla Theatre. Running time is 90 minutes without intermission.

Three cheers to the production crew: Rachel Hauck, Scenic Design; Marina Draghici, Costume Design; Scott Zielinski, Lighting Design; Mark Bennett, Original Compositions / Sound Design; Bradley King, Associate Lighting Design; Chris Luessmann, Associate Sound Design; Shirley Fishman, Dramaturg; Telsey + Company, Casting; Kimberly Mark Webb, Stage Manager; Anthony J. Edwards, PhD, Classical Language Consultant.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com.

 

 

Ensemble with Jackson (Ashkon Davaran) celebrating decision to run for President.

BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON: A Rock Musical. Book by Alex Timber, music and lyrics by Michael Friedman. Directed by Jon Tracy. Music Director: Jonathan Fadner. The SF Playhouse, 450 Post Street, (2nd Floor of Kensington Park Hotel, b/n Powell & Mason), San Francisco, CA. 415-677-9596 or www.sfplayhouse.org. October 9 – November 24, 2012

BLOODY, BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON weird and loud at the new SF Playhouse.

For the start of their 10^th season the powers that be at SF Playhouse have selected another off-the wall play that fills their new 200 seat theatre space with punk-rock music to assault your ears and at the same time give you something to think about. As a former hearing consultant for the defunct American Can Company research studies confirmed the deleterious effect of noise in the work place. Studies by other colleagues confirm the hearing damage of rock music and a significant number of the younger generation have decreased hearing levels of their elders. (Have you ever noticed the increasing number of ads for hearing aids?)

With that bit of moralizing, and confirming that this reviewer has a bias about punk rock, this review is extremely ambivalent. The storyline that depicts the life of Andrew Jackson, our Seventh President is absolutely fascinating proving again that what is old is new. . . politics have not changed very much since 1828. The energy of the cast is infectious and it is a perfect vehicle for director Jon Tracy’s physical style of moving his actors around the stage and occasionally overturning some furniture.  He also has the benefit of Nina Ball’s three-level metal scaffolding set to keep all in perpetual motion and psychedelic lighting by the brilliant Kurt Landisman.

The music is described as ‘emo rock’ and Wikipedia informs me that it is a style of rock music characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics.  It certainly is that since the lyrics are sort of confessionals by Andrew Jackson and the cast. They are very clever and often macabre. Credit must be given to Alex Timber’s astute lyrics that define character and carry the story forward.

His ability is recognized by the New York critics who heaped praise on all three productions beginning with its 2009 origin at the Public Theatre and eventually moving to Broadway garnering along the way a Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards.

This is the regional premiere and it is almost a perfect vehicle to inaugurate the new theatre. The audience was filled with who’s who in the theatre world and other luminaries including a laudatory dedication speech by former Mayor Willy Brown. When the show begins there is a rousing blast by the onstage band. You may be pleasantly surprised that William Elsman who has been a mainstay at Marin Shakespeare Company doubles as John C. Calhoun and is an accomplished at the drummer.

In the early scene Jackson’s Tennessee family are killed by Indians and then goes on to be a military hero and founder of Populism and later the Populists became the Democratic Party. The ‘platform’ they espoused was rule by the common man challenging the rule by the elitist Northerners. When he first ran for president in 1824, even though he won the popular and electoral vote, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams. In 1828 it was a different story and he won by a landslide.

He carried his Indian hatred well into his Presidency even to bucking the Supreme Court decision about the illegality of relocating the Eastern Indian Tribes to areas west of the Mississippi. He also believed in manifest destiny insisting that the whites had the right to claim all the land defined as America. The storyline is clearly outline in song and dialog including a Storyteller (Ann Hopkins) who enters and exits the stage on a mini-motor scooter until her ‘truths’ are silenced by Jackson and eventually thrown into a dungeon under center stage. This ploy adds to the humor needed for the evening.

Humor actually abounds and Ashkon Davaran, who is a rock star in his own right, is a charismatic Andrew Jackson with a great voice and charming stage presence knows how to milk the audience just as Jackson does his populace. El Beh, who plays the cello, has a show-stopper solo describing the killing of “10 Little Indians.” She also does a fantastic  jig while playing the cello.

The eleven member ensemble does heroic duty without a weak character in the bunch. They are: Michael Barrett Austin, El Beh, Angel Burgess, William Elsman, Jonathan Fadner, Safiya Fredericks, Gavilan Gordon-Chavez. Luca Hatton, Ann Hopkins, Olive Mitra, James Smith-Wallis and Daniel Vigil. (Running time is 90 minutes without intermission. Photos by Jessica Palapoli)

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

 

 

Beethoven (Howard Swain, front) is inspired to compose variations on an unassuming melody in 33 VARIATIONS at TheatreWorks at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Musical director William Liberato at the piano. Photo credit: Mark Kitaoka

33 Variations: Drama by Moisés Kaufman, directed by Robert Kelley. TheatreWorks, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street (at Mercy), Mountain View, CA. 650-463-1960 or www.theatreworks.org. October 3 – 28, 2012

33 VARIATIONS brings Moisés Kaufman back to the Bay Area

This reviewer has a special interest in Beethoven’s deafness since multiple articles have appeared in our Otolaryngology medical journals speculating on the cause. The two widely held theories are that is was due to neurological syphilis leading to a sensori-neural loss and the other to progressive otosclerosis causing a conductive loss. This reviewer holds with the later since it is documented (not in the play) that he would place a wooden rod between his teeth and touch it to the piano thus being able to ‘hear’ bypassing the middle ear using conduction through the bone.

But enough of that, in Moisés Kaufman latest opus the disease of the month is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) and like Beethoven’s deafness is inexorable. Beethoven (over played by Howard Swain with his usual gusto) is not the major character but the catalyst fueling the mind of an obsessive musicologist Dr. Katherine Brandt (fine intense performance by Rosina Reynolds) who travels to Bonn seeking the archives of Beethoven’s life. Her Holy Grail quest is to unravel the mystery of why he spent years of his life writing 33 variations of a modest waltz written by a music publisher and sometimes composer Anton Diabelli  (Michael Gene Sullivan who is a joy to watch).

The play is somewhat linear, but the inventive Kaufman who wrote Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and The Laramei Project uses the device of having a parallel past time frame (1790s-1800s) unfolding in sync with the present action. It works very, very well and in some scenes the lines are identical, further tying together the disparate eras. The real glue that holds the play together is the piano playing of musical director William Liberato sitting on elevated area ‘attached’ to the grand piano playing the riffs being described in the text.

Along with the major plot of Dr. Brandt attempting to prove her thesis before her time runs out, is the discord between mother and her daughter Clara Brandt (charming Jennifer Le Blanc) that, of course, becomes resolved when the chips are down. That resolution involves a nurse Mike(Chad Deverman of SF Playhouse fame) and a Germanic keeper of the archives Gertrude (solid acting by Marie Shell).

Integral to the 17^th century era is Beethoven’s longtime friend and secretary Anton Schindler (Jackson Davis) who in real life falsified some of the archives. Davis, Sullivan and Swain play off each other creating an intriguing ménage a trios’ in the theatrical sense that addsneeded humor to the evening.

Usually TheatreWorks production values are superb but the staging for this production is confusing with sheets of paper that comprise the semicircular off-white background and used for projections were falling off the wall. There may have been some significance but it escaped many of the audience discussing the set during intermission. Running time 2 hours and 25 minutes.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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 13^th 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

 

                                                                (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 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

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’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

THE OTHER PLACE: Drama by Sharr White and directed by Loretta Greco. Magic Theatre, Fort Mason Center, Building D, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94123. 415.441.8822 or www.magictheatre.org. September 12 – October 7, 2012.

THE OTHER PLACE an engrossing medical mystery at the Magic

Magic Theatre and Artistic Director Loretta Greco continue there love affair with multi award winner Sharr White mounting a very engrossing The Other Place that is somewhat a medical mystery as the lead character Juliana (Henny Russell) descends into a morass of confused memory. Just as AIDS was the medical mystery in last night’s ACT production of The Normal Heart, mental illness, often referred to as Alzheimer’s, takes center stage in this West Coast premier that is heading for Broadway in 2013.

Performing it here under the auspices of the Magic is an excellent decision since this local group has rightfully earned the reputation as a great place to smooth out any rough spots in the text and production. Comparing the written text with the staging reflects that changes are being made and there probably will be some minor fixes to remove ambiguity.

That being said, just as the causes of mental illness are ambiguous it is appropriate that the audience accept the ambiguities of the staging as part of Greco’s overall directorial conceits. Have you ever thought of problems attempting to of portray present action, past events and mental cognition simultaneously and making sense of it?

First, cast a superb actor in that role and they have done that by importing talented Henny Russell from Broadway. (In the scheduled NYC production Laurie Metcalf will repeat the role that she played in the award winning Off-Broadway staging). Then surround her with a top-notch a supporting cast that includes our own local favorite Carrie Paff (The Woman) and Donald Sage Mackay (Ian). Patrick Russell does yeoman duty as The Man with multiple small parts.

Of equal importance is the technical crew of Brando Wolcott (sound), Eric Southern (lighting), video (Hana Kim) necessary to make the shifts from present, past and mental ruminations understandable. With minor exceptions they are flawless.

Juliana is a brilliant scientist and “the original patent holder” of a new drug to cure brain lesions “with sales projected to exceed one billion dollars a month.” The play is non-linear reflecting and reinforcing the vacillating thoughts in her mind.

While giving a lecture to a group of doctors about the structure and effects of this new drug with slides projected on a stark white rear wall, her amplified lecture switches to her mental thoughts delivered un-amplified as an explanatory monolog to the audience. While addressing the doctors, Juliana envisions a young girl in a yellow bikini in the audience. This triggers a mental collapse and she is returned to her home and husband Ian and mention of “the other place” becomes a paramount importance.

The interaction between Ian and Juliana is cataclysmic, as her mind switches between real past events and auditory fantasies about a daughter that disappeared years ago. When the probable truth is blurted out by Ian in abject frustration it is a devastating suggestion.

Interposed between the Ian/Juliana scenes are her visits to a neuropyschiatrist (Carrie Paff dressed in clinical garb [costumes by Myung Hee Cho]) that are both humorous and frustrating. In a later scene the white projection screen opens and we are in the “other place”, a Cape Cod cottage formerly owned by Ian/Juliana but now owned by The Woman played by Paff.

Juliana has traveled to the cottage and her encounter with The Woman leads to a beautiful scene as Paff grasps the turmoil within Juliana and assumes the role of the missing daughter before Ian arrives to take her away. Before the final scene where we learn the identity of girl in the yellow bikini (marvelous video projections), Sharr White inserts a short scene where Juliana is probably going off to a sanitarium.  It is not as dramatic as Blanche’s “I have always been dependent on the kindness of strangers” but it works. Running time 80 minutes and worth every minute of your time.

Kedar Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

 

  The cast of The Normal Heart—playing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater, September 13–October 7, 2012. Photo by Kevin Berne

 THE NORMAL HEART : Drama by Larry Kramer. Directed by George C. Wolfe. American Conservatory Theater (ACT), 415 Geary St., San Francisco. (415) 749-2228 or www.act-sf.org. September 13–October 7, 2012

A gut wrenching THE NORMAL HEART at ACT

As a practicing medical doctor in the 1980s this reviewer shared the frustration of the character Dr. Emma Brookner (Jordan Baker) who bookends the brilliant production of The Normal Heart gracing ACT’s Broadway transplant of Larry Kramer’s play. Whereas Kramer’s semi-autographical play is specific to New York City there was, unbeknownst to us in the medical profession, the “plague” that was devastating his gay friends was a world-wide problem that was to infect millions of people . . . gay and straight.

The Normal Heart that was first produced in 1985 at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater centers around Ned Weeks, who is Kramer’s alter ego (Patrick Breen) and his circle of friends who were dying of this mysterious illness that became named as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) caused by the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Being given that diagnosis was a death sentence and deaths were frequently occurring in the Gay NYC population and became known as the “Gay Disease.”

Because of condemnation for gay people by political, religious and even the general population on the grounds that gays practiced abnormal sex, obtaining funds for research was almost impossible. In the play Ned is a Jewish writer who himself has lost friends and lovers undertakes a quest for the political community to declare an epidemic and spur research for the cause and treatment. Forward thinking Dr. Brookner suggests that the disease (virus) is sexually transmitted and the password amongst gays should be “abstinence.”  That is not be.

Ned appeals to his loving wealthy straight-laced lawyer older brother Ben (Bruce Altman) for financial help without getting a commitment. Ned, who is abrasive in his speech, sets out to form a group to obtain funds for research. When they are unsuccessful they establish a group to help those with the disease to cope with their progressive deterioration. To Ned this is not enough when NYC Health Department worker Mickey Marcus (Michael Berresse)tells him that the deaths have jumped to 41 in one week Ned goes ballistic and that is to be his downfall when he is ejected from the group(s) that he has championed.

All this may sound didactic but be assured it is not. The characters become real in their time upon the stage, and as they die on and off the stage. You will become involved in each as distinct individuals. Bruce Niles (Nick Mennell) a former Green Beret and now as collar and tie investment banker refuses to come out of the closet for the simply reason he will be fired. Late in the second act when he tearfully recounts how the body of his former lover who died of complications of AIDS was mistreated there were tears in the eyes of the audience.

The gorgeous Matt McGrath, as New York Times staff writer and eventual lover of Ned, underplays his role to perfection. His transformation from a charming, humorous boy to a patient with a deteriorating body is so heart wrenching to make you hold your breath.

The production values created by the Broadway and Washington’s Arena Stage staffs are superb and have been transferred intact to ACT. The stage is framed with bare white walls etched with lines and quotations from Newspaper articles and can be considered a mausoleum for dead. The first written word is ‘Patient Zero” and ending with a moving projection of all those who followed in death. Director Wolfe keeps the cast balanced and tempers Breen’s depiction of Ned allowing him intermittent breathing room but rarely for more than a couple of minutes. He may overstep the directorial conceit of bringing the wheel chair bound Dr. Brookner to the stage apron and lecture us about the unfairness of it all, but Jordan Baker ejects so much sincerity into her lines that you must listen as you recognize the problems of today as those of the past.

Kedar Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldintermagazine.com

 

The cast of The Normal Heart—playing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater, September 13–October 7, 2012. Photo by Kevin Berne.

( L to R) David Kester as Saunders, Robert Nelson as Max and Craig Christiansen as Tito “Il Stupendo cavort on Ken Rowland’s 5 door set in  Ross Valley Players production of Lend Me a Tenor.

LEND ME A TENOR: Farce by Ken Ludwig. Directed by Kris Neely. Ross Valley Players, Barn Theater in the Marin Art & Garden Center at 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd.,  Ross CA. 415-456-9555, ext. 1 or go to www.rossvalleyplayers.com.   September 14 – October 14, 2012

LEND ME A TENOR is ‘buffo’ at Ross Valley Players

Ross Valley Players (RVP) must be the envy of every non-equity theatre company in the Bay Area. Talented, attractive actors must flock to their auditions for them to consistently mount (with minor exceptions) shows that are audience pleasers of professional quality. They have done it again with Ken Ludwig’s old chestnut Lend Me a Tenor to open their 83rd (count them 83rd) season “as the oldest continuously producing theatre west of the Mississippi.” After its 1986 premiere in London it has been around the block (25 countries) with a 2010 Broadway revival that received multiple Tony nominations.

To this reviewer true farce must have at least four doors. RVP, actually Ludwig, ups the ante with five doors and one passageway. The brilliant stage designer Ken Rowland has created that magnificent set and the actors use every inch of stage and every door multiple times invoking double-takes by the actors and guffaws from the audience. Those guffaws from act one turn to raucous laughter in the sure fire action of act two making this show a not to be missed hit. All is not perfect but more about that later.

Then there is an ingenious farcical plot with broadly drawn characters, ridiculous story line, mistaken identity, double entendres, a love story gone awry and fast and furious physical activity. It is 1934 and all the action takes place in hotel suite with living room, bedroom, bath and closet with the aforementioned doors. This is to be the suite where the famous Italian opera singer Tito Merelli (Craig Christiansen) called “Il Stupendo” by his adoring fans is to be staying while in Cleveland. He is coming there to sing the lead in Otello as part of a gala fund raiser for the Cleveland Grand Opera Company. Grand Opera in Cleveland?

Awaiting him in the hotel room is Max (Robert Nelson) the nerdy gofer for the Opera Company and Maggie (Gwen Kingston) the object of his affections who just happens to be the daughter of Saunders (David Kester) the chief honcho of the Opera Company. She is there because she has a mad crush on Tito who briefly kissed her hand when they met in Milano years ago. Unbeknownst to her or anyone else is the unnamed female Bellhop (Amanda Grey) opera fan, a Tito Merelli groupie who is waiting, and wanting to accost, or at least take her picture with him.

Don’t quit yet there are more characters to come, two of whom have the hots for “Il Stupendo” and they will add to complications that ensue. There is the soprano opera singer Diana (Dylan Cooper) who feels that by seducing our intrepid tenor, who has a voracious sexual appetite, it will lead to her ascent to the Met. Poor Julia (Christina Jaqua) a member of the Opera Board will just have to stand in line for her turn for a romp in the hay with Tito.

Alas, Tito has a wife Maria (Laura Domigo) who is very upset that Tito has not approached her sexually for three whole weeks. Poor Tito, who arrives late and is not feeling well, needs a rest before the performance. Maria gives him a double dose of sedative and Max not knowing this spikes Tito’s wine with another double dose.

Before Tito goes to the land of nod, he bonds with Max who is a clandestine opera buff/singer. Tito gives Max lessons on breaking his tension and that will hold Max in good stead when he replaces Tito in the lead role. Alas, Maria has caught Maggie in the closet with her clothes partially off and in a pique writes a farewell note to our intrepid lothario Tito. With Tito unresponsive, that note is thought to be his suicide note and Saunders and Max devise a unconscionable plan to hide the facts in order that the show must go on. . .  and the money does not have to be refunded.

By the time the second act arrives the doors have been put to great use but are get even more use  with Max and Tito both in Otello costumes being seduced by three different women and confusion reigns. Maria returns and the question of who slept with whom becomes a problem because of mistaken identity. Never fear, it all gets resolved AND there is a 90 second “curtain call” to end all curtain calls that recreates all the shenanigans that have taken place in the previous hour and 45 minutes.

Christiansen is perfect as “Il Stupendo” and looks the part. Robert Nelson plays the nerd to the hilt and has a marvelous transformation after he stars in Otello. Gwen Kingston is gorgeous, seductive with great comic timing but would be more loveable in future productions if she becomes less shrill. Laura Domingo’s tantrums as the put upon Italian wife Marie could not be portrayed better. Gwen Kingston’s acting as the diva that will succeed by being good in bed has more than a touch of reality. Christina Jaqua will have to settle for being described as classy with her regal bearing, in a stunning in form fitting evening dress. Michael Berg’s costumes for the ladies are elegant and the Otello costumes rightfully hilarious.  You will love Amanda Grey as the cutest bellhop you will ever see showing of her quaint blue and gold uniform as she stalks our hero Tito. David Kester, a mainstay at RVP, has a tendency to ‘emote’ and does so again in this farce but that may be a directorial conceit and the entire cast probably would be better served to turn down the decibels in their lines seeking variation rather than volume.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com