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 (2nd 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
