{"id":1472,"date":"2012-07-20T20:58:07","date_gmt":"2012-07-20T20:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=1472"},"modified":"2012-07-25T21:03:12","modified_gmt":"2012-07-25T21:03:12","slug":"mime-troupe-lambastes-the-1-percent-and-the-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/mime-troupe-lambastes-the-1-percent-and-the-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"Mime Troupe lambastes the 1 percent \u2014 and the rest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco Mime Troupe has been performing free shows for just over half a century.<\/p>\n

It may be starting to show its age.<\/div>\n
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\u201cFor the Greater Good, or The Last Election, a Melodrama of Farcical Proportions,\u201d might win a prize for longest title but is unlikely to harvest awards for anything else.<\/div>\n
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Has the troupe, which blossomed in the \u201860s, lost its edge? Perhaps.<\/div>\n
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Its previous barbed, acerbic quality apparently dissipated when Dick Chaney and George W. Bush stopped being targets.<\/div>\n
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That\u2019s a shame.<\/div>\n
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Have the non-silent lampooners turned from biting humor to slight satire a la \u201cGlee\u201d? Perhaps.<\/div>\n
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That, too, is cause for regret.<\/div>\n
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They still draw laughs through over-the-top melodrama, at least from intrepid fans, but even devotees are apt to find the technique a tad stale.<\/div>\n
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The problem may stem from the Mimers trying to be \u2014 instead of hardline leftist radicals \u2014 even-handed (or, to lift a spurious Fox News slogan, \u201cfair and balanced\u201d).<\/div>\n
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San Francisco Mime Troupers (from left, Keiko Shimosato Carreiro, Velina Brown, Victor Toman, Ed Holmes, Lisa Hori-Garcia and Reggie D. White) call for “power to the people” during \u201cFor the GreaPhoto: Fletcher Oakes.<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In this musical comedy, the cast castigates not only capitalists (camouflaged as an oppressed 1 percent) but it lambastes the 99 percent as well (pinpointing welfare recipients and the jobless as well as socialists, occupiers and the na\u00efve).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When the 90-minute show recently played on the lawn of the Mill Valley Community Center, where nearby amateurs propelled a soccer ball throughout the performance, theatergoers cloaked to ward off an evening summer chill munched on gourmet salads and cheeses, dips and roasted chicken.<\/div>\n
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The affluent Marin County audience of 209, give or take, occasionally shouted approval and clapped at allusions to credit unions, the 99 percent and the occupy movement, and booed references to Mitt Romney\u2019s possible election and Michelle Bachmann being one of the \u201cbest minds of our time.\u201d<\/div>\n
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But it failed to flaunt the fury of outdoor followers in San Francisco\u2019s Dolores Park or any of several Berkeley parks.<\/div>\n
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And it displayed virtually no reaction to bait such as \u201cThere are some things more important than decent and fair in this world \u2014 the free market.\u201d Or to wannabe gag lines such as \u201cThis country has enough wealth for everyone \u2014 as long as we don\u2019t try to share it.\u201d<\/div>\n
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None of the troupers\u2019 half dozen songs seemed to connect either.<\/div>\n
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Mill Valley simply may be too tame, too civilized a venue.<\/div>\n
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Only Green Party stalwart Laura Wells handed out flyers, as opposed to countless proselytizers distributing political vilifications at most other sites where the mimics perform.<\/div>\n
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Michael Gene Sullivan, who\u2019s been with the troupe since 1988 and wrote this year\u2019s play, also directed \u201cFor the Greater Good\u2026\u201d He extorted stellar performances despite his nondescript script, chiefly from Ed Holmes as financial finagler Gideon Bloodgood and Lisa Hori-Garcia as his pampered daughter Alida (and her revolutionary alter ego, Tanya).<\/div>\n
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Most of the cast did significant double- or triple-role duty, aided by quick changes of costumes designed by Blake More and intentionally unnatural wigs.<\/div>\n
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Stagecraft by Toman, Ben Flax and Maurice Beesley was delightfully conspicuous, particularly in sequences that simulate a deadly blaze and a rising angel.<\/div>\n
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Pat Moran, a veteran Mimer, turned out a bland score, lyrics and musical direction that when best felt borrowed from \u201cThe Perils of Pauline\u201d or a Buster Keaton short.<\/div>\n
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Choreography, by Victor Toman, was severely limited to a few movements by a small stage.<\/div>\n
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Although \u201cFor the Greater Good\u2026\u201d is based on a 19th century melodrama, \u201cThe Poor of New York,\u201d the storyline\u2019s been upended and updated to 1987 and 2012. Its intent, clearly, was to skewer the billionaires and banking barons who\u2019ve bought elections and fleeced the public while lining their own pockets.<\/div>\n
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Had it limited its targets to those specific bandits, instead of acting like a Gatling gun, it might have found a more receptive crowd.<\/div>\n
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Even in Mill Valley.<\/div>\n
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For a complete listing of upcoming San Francisco Mime Troupe performances of \u201cFor the Greater Good, or The Last Election\u201d through Sept. 9, go to www.sfmt.org<\/a> or call (415) 285-1717<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco Mime Troupe has been performing free shows for just over half a century. It may be starting to show its age. \u201cFor the Greater Good, or The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"