Stage 2 is an experimental offshoot of Pacifica Spindrift Players, where out-of-the mainstream productions have a chance to get staged.\u00a0 This season\u2019s offering is a pair of short plays by a new playwright Kathryn Murdock, simply staged as readers\u2019 theatre for three nights only.\u00a0 Director Barbara Williams managed to make the most of the bare-bones staging\u2014a pair of stepladders, a handful of chairs and a table before a blue curtain\u2014and the cast, most of them taking a role in each of the plays.<\/p>\n
The evening opened with Time Was<\/span><\/em>, an elliptical theatre of the absurd, Murdock\u2019s ruminations on the nature of time, memory, and mortality (\u201cBig whoop!\u201d) given voice by actors on a stage within a stage.\u00a0 \u201cI wanted to remind you, I\u2019m equity.\u201d\u00a0 First one character, then another and another are given sacks to carry dangling from their necks: \u201cMy childhood, I carry it with me everywhere.\u201d\u00a0 But sometimes this is a good thing.\u00a0 A child sees everything through a lens of awe and wonder.\u00a0 Just not for everyone, or all the time. \u00a0White shrouds, even the stage manager herself, become characters, leading to a surprise and snappy ending.<\/p>\n At intermission, you have a chance to meet the cast and production staff in the gallery, one of the wonderful features of small productions like this.<\/p>\n The evening\u2019s second offering, Partitions.<\/span><\/em>\u00a0 left the absurd and entered the\u00a0 <\/em>complicated world of ordinary life, of a sea-captain loved by, and seen through the eyes of four different women:\u00a0 a past love, a present fling, a sister, and an office manager.\u00a0 Each knows some but not all things about him, and none of them know or understand the same things.\u00a0 Each deludes herself as she enables his free-wheeling philandering, until the climactic scene following his sudden death in the hospital.\u00a0 In the wild confrontations there each comes to see herself as a part of a larger whole that was his life, and included them all.<\/p>\n The direction and acting in these productions, particularly the latter, brought the show almost out of the realm of readers\u2019 theatre, to the point that one was barely aware that each had a script in hand throughout.\u00a0 A special nod to Dianna Collett for her spot-on and sensitive portrayal of the betrayed Melinda in Partitions<\/span><\/em>.\u00a0 If you want to catch this show, you\u2019ll have to hurry.\u00a0 Three nights only, final performances Saturday 9\/15 8:00, Sunday 9\/16 2:00.\u00a0 Admission for this Stage 2 is FREE, but bring a little cash for the donation box.<\/p>\n Box office:\u00a0 (650) 359-8002\u00a0 or\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.pacificaspindriftplayers.org\/Tickets\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n