Lloyd Kenneth

Matilda (Nanhlanhla Kheswa) in the arms of her loving and doting husband Philemon (Ivanno Jeremiah)

THE SUIT: Drama. Adapted by Peter Brook, Marie-Hélène Estienne and Franck Krawczyk from the story and play by Can Themba, Mothobi Mutloatse and Barney Simon. American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. (415) 749-2228. www.act-sf.org. Through May 18, 2014

THE SUIT with an international cast is riveting at A.C.T. [rating:5] (5 of 5 Stars)

It was 30 years ago that San Francisco audiences were treated to a magnificent spectacular production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream by the Royal Shakespeare Company directed by the brilliant Peter Brooks. It is a pity we had to wait so long to see the culmination of his latest opus The Suit that has been created in alliance with a talented aggregate of adapters, musicians and actors. For this 75 minute production the term spectacular is replaced by simplistic but is equally as brilliant and magnificent as Dream.

The simple setting is populated with colorful unadorned wooden chairs, metal-pipe clothes racks and a table that are moved about to create the illusion of interior/exterior buildings, bus stops, train interiors etc and a bedroom. It is the bedroom that takes center stage and is integral to the storyline. Most of the action is in pantomime without props thus allowing the action to flow smoothly.

With soft classical music playing by the on-stage trio, The Narrator Maphikela (Jordan Barbour)  sets the scene in Sophiatown, South Africa during the Apartheid-era. We then meet the young beautiful Matilda (Nanhlanhla Kheswa) sleeping in the arms of her loving and doting husband Philemon (Ivanno Jeremiah). He quietly leaves the bed to serve her breakfast in that fateful bed before he goes to his job as a secretary.

On the way to work he meets Maphikela who reluctantly tells Philemon that a young man has been visiting his Matilda every morning for the past three months. Unbelieving Philemon takes the bus back to his home and chases the young man dressed only in his briefs out the window leaving his suit behind. Surprisingly Philemon’s rage is subverted to a diabolical form of revenge, ordering her to always treat the suit as an honored guest that must be fed and carried with her wherever she/they go. He then goes to a shebeen (a local illegal drinking place) to drink away his sorrow/anger.

The show is filled with music and song that are extremely expressive of inner and external turmoil. All the singing, with one exception (Jordan Barbour sings the foreboding lynching song “Strange Fruit.”), is by Matilda and Nanhlanhla Kheswa is a trained singer with a beautiful expressive voice. When she performs the songs she steps to the stage apron and sings to the enraptured audience. The first song is “Forbidden Games”.

Her punishment continues and in desperation she joins the local Anglican Mission and bonds with the married women. This time she sings the haunting “Ntylio Nytlio.”  She even invites a few friends to come to their home the following Sunday and spends the week preparing to receive them. When they arrive, along with four members of the audience brought up on the stage to share the party,  she is encouraged to sing the haunting south African ballad “Malaika.” At the end of the song Philemon brings out the dreaded “guest of honor” the Suit.

Devastated Matilda’s begging to stop the punishment goes unheeded and Philemon goes off with Maphikela to the shebeen but when he returns his lovely bride is dead.  Ivanno Jeremiah is absolutely superb, keeping complete control while seething inside and when he does raise his voice, only once, all the internal fury spills out. Jordan Barbour is the one who brings the background story of the Apartheid-era forward never letting us forget that the personal tragic happenings are playing out on a tragic political stage.

Franck Krawczyk’s beautiful score perfectly reflects the moods of the characters and the setting. His trio of Arthur Astier, Mark Christine, and Mark Kavuma not only play a plethora of instruments but also step forward to play both male and female characters adding humor to the evening.

Cast: Jordan Barbour, Ivanno Jeremiah, Nohlanhla Kheswa

Production: Scenic/costume design by Oria Puppo; Lighting design by

Philippe Vialatte; Assistant Director Rikki Henry;

Direction, Adaptation, and Music by Peter Brook, Marie-HehIene Estienne, and Franck Krawczyk

Musicians: Guitar Arthur Astier; Piano Mark Christine; Trumpet  Mark Kavuma.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

Lloyd’s [rating:4.5]

The focus of “Fences,” Troy Maxon, becomes — like Willie Loman of “Death of a Salesman” — trapped by his own limitations, excuses and misperceptions.

And, like Arthur Miller’s classic everyman creation, this August Wilson character takes too much for granted.

Especially his wife, Rose, and sons Cory and Lyons.

Some of Troy’s beliefs are highly questionable. Such as his not being able to graduate from Negro League baseball to the Majors — even after the color barrier had been broken.

He blames prejudice. Rose more realistically faults his having been too old.

Troy demands Cory not play high school football because he sees it as a futile activity for a black-skinned man — even though his son could win a college scholarship (and a future that might surpass his own).

The frequently confrontational ex-con father, we learn, has been in a lifelong battle again racism, death and the devil.

But that doesn’t excuse his being a hard drinker, a philanderer and a procrastinator — a disheartened 53-year-old who in effect holds his culture liable.

His family, of course, bears the brunt of his anger.

In the powerful Marin Theatre Company revival of “Fences,” the biggest trap for Troy, robustly portrayed by Carl Lumbly, becomes the life he’s settled for: a responsibility-burdened family man, invisible garbage collector earning only $76.20 a week, a raider of his war-injured brother’s checks.

In the process, he manages to disrespect his 18-year wife’s loyalty, and disregard the urgent needs of his younger son.

What he ultimately, and tragically, finds is entombment behind a fence he’s forever building.

The play, set in 1957 Pittsburgh, is a cornucopia of metaphors, starting with a fence that keeps folks in as well as out, ending with baseball lingo that precedes a predictable strikeout.

A quarter of a century ago, I walked out of a pre-Broadway performance of “Fences” in San Francisco before it was done, dismayed by what I found to be stereotypical depictions, an excess of what had yet to be labeled “the n-word,” and an unfortunate emphasis on the failings of males in the black culture.

I couldn’t have been more mistaken.

What I overlooked then was the major historic value of the 90-minute play, the accuracy of Wilson’s reflection of how black life really was. Through this brilliant Mill Valley offering, which coincidentally opened on Jackie Robinson Day, I quickly recognized what I’d missed.

The cast made it easy for me. Each member was superb.

Hours later, my mind can’t let go of the images they created — Margo Hall’s frustrated and flailing Rose, Steven Anthony Jones’ drinking-buddy stint as Jim Bono, and Eddie Ray Jackson’s pained poignancy as Cory.

Adrian Roberts skillfully avoids being cartoonish in the role of Troy’s brother, Gabe, a brain-damaged vet, and Tyee Tilghman effectively fills the role of Cory’s wannabe musician older half-brother.

Superb, too, is a front-yard set by scenic designer J.B. Wilson that features a home facade illustrating economic battles  — plus a makeshift tree-limb batting device that allows Troy, momentarily, to purge his anger.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t cite sound designer Will McCandless’ work, pinpointing between-scene recordings that parallel the storyline and action (from traditional jazz to an edgy crescendo of dissonance, finishing with mournful, almost anti-climactic blues).

The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, presented in association with the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, is the second to be produced by the Marin Theatre Company in Wilson’s 10-play Century Cycle (sometimes called the Pittsburgh Cycle, with each component representing a decade of the African-American experience in the United States).

Jasson Minadakis, MTC artistic director, hopes to showcase the remaining eight as well.

Director Derrick Sanders, who’d worked with Wilson before his death in 2005, carefully built this emotionally charged, physical version so the second act moves incredibly swiftly, albeit a bit fitfully.

After a slow-moving but tension-packed first act, one attendee said, “I’m pretty sure this train-wreck isn’t going to end well.”

He was right, of course, if you consider only the play itself.

But for theatergoers, the experience does end well, exceptionally well.

“Fences” plays at the Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, through Sunday, May 11. Performances Tuesdays and Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.; matinees Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $20 to $53. Information: (415) 388-5208 or marintheatre.org. 

If you’re an established theatre company reaching out to a new community, why not start out with a proven audience pleaser?  So goes it with the Raven Players, based in Healdsburg, who have expanded their sphere of entertainment with the opening of a second venue – The Raven Theater Windsor – and their inaugural production of “Nunsense” running now through April 19.

“Nunsense” is probably the only theatrical production to date that started out as a line of greeting cards. Expanding on the success of those cards (featuring nuns making slightly naughty quips), creator Dan Goggin soon developed a cabaret show and by 1985 had a full-fledged off-Broadway musical to show for his work.  Running for ten years, the show is the second-longest running off-Broadway show in history.

“Nunsense” is the tale of the surviving Little Sisters of Hoboken, who find they need to raise money to bury the last four members of their cloister who fell victim to a terrible cooking accident. It seems that the convent cook – Sister Mary Julia (Child of God) – prepared a bad batch of vichyssoise and knocked off most of her fellow nuns. The survivors, who were off playing bingo, have come together to produce a benefit with the hope of moving the deceased out of the kitchen freezer and into sacred ground.  And so the evening goes, as the Sisters sing, dance, crack jokes, and run a Bingo game at intermission to raise the money and (hopefully) the audience’s spirits. 

It’s pretty much a one-joke show – nuns doing slightly bawdy material – but director Joe Gellura gets a lot of mileage out of that one joke.  It helps to have a talented cast and this production is fortunate to have Shirley Nilsen Hall (Reverend Mother), Bonnie Jean Shelton (Sister Mary Hubert), Janine La Forge (Sister Mary Robert Anne), Cindy Brillhart-True (Sister Mary Amnesia), and Lydia Revelos (Sister Mary Leo)  as the vestal performers.  Hall has the look (and index finger) of a Mother Superior down pat.  Brillhart-True’s cherubic face and mile-wide beatific smile were perfect for her character.  All the ladies are in fine voice, bringing their distinctive personalities to such numbers as “Playing Second Fiddle”, “Tackle that Temptation with a Time Step”, “Dying Nun Ballet”, “I Could’ve Gone to Nashville” and about a dozen others, accompanied by Sister Mary Melody (Ginger Beavers) on piano and Father Tom Beatatude (Kent Wilson) on drums. By the end of the evening, circumstances find the Sisters with the means to send the chilled members of their Order on their way to the Pearly Gates and you on your way home.

The venue itself was a perfect setting for this production, as the building saw duty most recently as a church.  The Raven has taken what was a cinder block box church and converted it into a cinder block box theater. With a capacity of about one hundred seats, rows of 14/15 comfortably padded chairs face a slightly raised stage.  Sight lines were a problem for folks sitting in the rear of the house, so either raising the stage more or putting the audience seats on risers is probably in the future.  Concerns about the acoustics were quickly abated, as their sound system and sound designer did the job of allowing the audience to clearly hear the dialogue and singing with a minimum of distortion.  Located just on the edge of the Windsor Town Green area, the Raven Theater Windsor is perfectly situated to provide an audience with new options for those looking for a night out on the town with dinner and a show.

With a running time of just under two hours (including the intermission/bingo game with “good Catholic prizes”), you should find yourself often chuckling and surely smiling a whole lot at the Little Sisters of Hoboken. With plenty of audience interaction, “Nunsense” is a perfect community theatre piece to introduce the Raven Players to a new community. 

Nunsense

A Raven Players Production

April 4 through April 19

Evenings Fri, Sat @ 8pm – Matinees Sat/Sun @ 2pm

Thurs Apr 10 @ 8pm – Value Night

Raven Theater Windsor
195 Windsor River Rd
Windsor, CA 95492

(707) 433-6335

www.raventheater.org

Photo by Ray Mabry

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

Lancelot (Wilson Jermaine Heredia*), King Arthur (Johnny Moreno*) and Guenevere (Monique Hafen*) at Knighting Ceremony Photos by Jessica Palopoli.

CAMELOT: Musical. Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner.Music by Frederick Loewe. Based on “Once and Future King” by T.H. White. Directed by Bill English. Music director Dave Dobrusky. July 16 – September 14, 2013.

CAMELOT rides into San Francisco on Harley motorcycles!

We aficionados (with synonyms of connoisseurs, devotees, enthusiasts, fanatics) of the SF Playhouse are mostly inured to seeing volatile productions of the under-belly of society parade the boards of their theatre. They have done it again with an ‘in your face’ staging of the musical Camelot. If any of their productions can be summarized with Harold Ross’s 1925 quote from “The New Yorker”, “It has announced that it is not edited [produced] for the old lady in Dubuque” , this staging of the once (and hopefully future) uplifting King Arthur/Round Table/Camelot story is it.

Last year Bill English’s re-imagination of My Fair Lady at their former intimate Sutter Street Theatre was a success and played to substantial crowds throughout the summer. It seems that the “summer musical” has become a standard for SF Playhouse to catch the vacation crowds that swarm San Francisco. This year they are in the substantially larger venue (up from 99 to 265 seats) that has a huge stage with a plethora of technical equipment. For Camelot Nina Ball has created a massive set using two or three turntables, an integrated rear stage screen for impressive projects and to hide the (count them) eight piece orchestra under SF favorite Dave Dobrusky. The well-known and acclaimed title of Camelot will surely attract crowds.

Those crowds will be overwhelmed with the colossal staging but they will not be humming the charming tunes associated with the musical but rather be shaking their heads as many were on opening night. Although there was appreciative applause at the curtain, the usual spontaneous standing ovation was absent.

It was absent for good reason despite a spectacular performance by Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Lancelot. Heredia is a Tony and Oliver Award winner for his role as Angel in the Broadway and London productions of Rent.  Director English, using some of  his own words, has created knights in the mold of grungy (costumes by Abra Berman) bikers (Ken Brill, Rudy Guerrero, Robert Moreno, George P. Scott), Guenevere (Monique Hafen) as an angry Goth princess, King Arthur (Johnny Moreno) as a day-dreaming dolt and Mordred as a potential to play Richard III. Charles Dean a Bay Area favorite who brought the house down with his role as Doolittle in My Fair Lady is cast as both the magician Merlyn and Arthur’s confidant Pelinore.  Sadly, the only distinction in those characterizations is a change of costume.

There is much to like about this twisted version of what should be a romantic escapist evening that includes excellent singing voices (with exception of Johnny Moreno’s limited range), eye-catching projections, energetic acting and exuberant fight scenes staged by Heredia. The marvelous score and lyrics are still enchanting and include “Camelot”, “Follow Me”, “The lusty Month of May”, “How to Handle a Woman”, “Before I gaze at You Again”, “If Ever I Should Leave You”,  and “I loved You Once In Silence.”

Running time 2 hours and 40 minutes including the intermission.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of  www.theatreworldinternetmagaine.com