{"id":111775,"date":"2026-06-01T18:06:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=111775"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:19:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T03:19:41","slug":"continuity-shotgun-satire-about-climate-change-is-superb-sublime-super-funny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/continuity-shotgun-satire-about-climate-change-is-superb-sublime-super-funny\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Continuity,’ Shotgun satire about climate change, is \u2018superb, sublime, super-funny’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Benoit Monin (right) and Rezan Asfaw flirt and discuss their film in ‘Continuity.’ Photo by Ben Krantz.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By WOODY WEINGARTEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Spoiler Alert!]\n

Although Continuity <\/em>doesn\u2019t reference a dead frog in a boiling pot, the comic tragedy lays out how rising temperatures will inevitably lead to the end of humankind.<\/p>\n

The script by Bess Wohl, whose current play Liberation <\/em>is a current smash on Broadway, keeps theatergoers laughing for about 82 or 83 minutes of the 90-minute, intermission-less absurdist show at the Shotgun Playhouse in Berkeley.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a gut-punch awaiting at the end of Wohl’s comic tragedy, so if you don\u2019t like twists, or are subject to depression, watch out!<\/p>\n

Contrasts are the byword in Continuity<\/em>, which satirizes Hollywood paragons as well as all those who remain bystanders in the much bigger show \u2014 climate change. It also spoofs hypocrisy and Show Biz politics (\u201cThe studio feels we have to have an antagonist and not just the weather\u201d and \u201cThe film is carbon neutral \u2014 they\u2019re planting a bunch of trees.\u201d).<\/p>\n

All that springs from the filming and re-filming and re-filming of an eco-terrorist story superimposed on a make-believe melting polar glacial ice cap in the middle of an all-too-real-and-hot New Mexico desert (lured by tax breaks).<\/p>\n

Director Emilie Whelan realizes that timing is virtually everything when it comes to comedy, so she ensures that the gags and chaos are spot on. The ensemble cast, a small troupe as well-trained as a small resistance army, proves that laughter can stem from quiet, subtle acting as well as clownish movements.<\/p>\n

Ije Success, as Lily, an actress in the film about eco-terrorists, is one side of the comedy coin, tickling the audience\u2019s collective funny bone with a deadpan delivery.<\/p>\n

But Matt Standley draws the biggest giggles as a nameless, wordless production assistant who jiggles, wiggles, and bounces through whatever activity\u2019s going on while everybody else ignores him except in his best bit, where he\u2019s wildly searching for the right soft drink in a deep cooler.<\/p>\n

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Nicholas Rene Rodriguez wields gun as Regina Morones tries to stop him from shooting Ije Success in movie being shot in ‘Continuity.” Photo by Ben Krantz.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Rezan Asfaw portrays the movie\u2019s director, Maria, as an ultra-idealist, convinced she can produce a classic art film that can change the world, while her counterpart, David Caxton (Beno\u00eet Monin) is a ultra-practical man willing to remain in the here-and-now and still kick a future climate crisis down the road.<\/p>\n

Regina Morones steps into the character of diva Nicole by creating an over-the-top cartoon performance. She exquisitely blends movie magic and non-reality. At the same time, one Nicholas Rene Rodriguez character inhabits a \u201creal life\u201d abs-obsessed body while his second takes on a murderous manner in reel life.<\/p>\n

At the total other end of life\u2019s stage \u2014 the one in which overwhelming environmental neglect has been around too long already \u2014 stands Malcolm Rodgers as Larry, a science consultant. He\u2019s always the bearer of bad news (though, because of his mousiness, sometimes unable to deliver it). He\u2019s not above being despondent because of the future climate destruction (\u201cI\u2019m thinking of moving off the grid to raise chickens.\u201d).<\/p>\n

Designer Ray Archie, meanwhile, has created sound effects that envelop the stage like smog-filled clouds top off many city skies \u2014 with a wonderfully growing boom-let at the center of an incoming storm.<\/p>\n

Said one audience member in a recent Saturday matinee feedback session, \u201cI love plays with a dose of humor to bring truth.\u201d That\u2019s a better perspective, certainly, than the character in the play who declares, \u201cThis whole situation is fakey-fake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Overall, Continuity, <\/em>which ultimately is about the life of the planet vs. the life of any given species, and which decidedly deals with truth vs. illusion, is a triple-\u201cs\u201d winner: superb, sublime, super-funny.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hope excellent reviews and excellent word-of-mouth can continue to help fill all its seats and<\/em> motivate theatergoers to leap at least one step beyond the predictable preaching to the choir, and to change the planet\u2019s history before the reiterated metaphoric need to film a particular shot \u201cbefore we lose the light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuity will play through June 21 at Shotgun Playhouse, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. Tickets: $23 to $80. Info: boxoffice@shotgunplayers.org<\/a> or 510-841-6500, ext. 303.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sherwood \u201cWoody\u201d Weingarten, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or on his websites, https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a>and\u00a0https:\/\/vitalitypress.com<\/a>. His books include Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner\u2019s breast cancer<\/em>, aimed at <\/em>male caregivers;\u00a0MysteryDates \u2014 How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I<\/em>, a compilation of 70 of his newspaper columns; and\u00a0Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates<\/em>, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that he co-authored with his then 8-year-old granddaughter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benoit Monin (right) and Rezan Asfaw flirt and discuss their film in ‘Continuity.’ Photo by Ben Krantz. By WOODY WEINGARTEN [Spoiler Alert!] Although Continuity doesn\u2019t reference a dead frog in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":4.6,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-woody-weingarten"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"