Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle<\/p>\n
The Magic Theatre, which was once home to playwright-in-residence Sam Shepard, is presently staging a \u201cLegacy Revival\u201d of what is arguably his greatest opus: BURIED CHILD.<\/p>\n
If you can temporarily transcend your sensitive understanding, liberal guilt and human compassion for a wacked-out dysfunction family, then you can laugh until to reopen your liposuction scars watching this superbly crafted comedy.<\/p>\n
This is a hyperbolic parody of a dysfunctional family: a total shipwreck of a family: beyond therapy, possibly beyond industrial strength psycho-therapeutic drugs and beyond shock treatments from even a Van de Graaff Generator.<\/p>\n
It is a stygian comedy about five people who are only identified as a family because they happen to share similar DNA strands.<\/p>\n
The patriarch, Dodge, is addicted to prescription drugs, cheap whiskey and television; he has abandoned the battlefield, or cornfield, of life and now reclines on a moldering living room couch.<\/p>\n
The matriarch, Halie, still has a functioning endocrine system\u2014although winding down from the warp drive of earlier years\u2014and she is making the most of it with the pastor of her church: Father Dewis.<\/p>\n
Tilden has retreated from the jarring realities of the outer world in lives deeply submerged beneath the sutures of his sagittal crest; rarely is he cognizant of such external stimuli as people; he is bereft of both audio processing and cognitions.<\/p>\n
Brother Bradley, who shortened his leg with a Homelite, is weak but vicious; however, take away his prosthetic and he is a lamb chop: as weak as Samson after a coif.<\/p>\n
Grandson Vince is the canopic jar: the living vessel of the toasted family\u2019s ashes; genetically predisposed to settle-in to the family paradigm of booze, television and the couch; self-determination is merely an abstraction to Vince.<\/p>\n
The nearest brush anyone in the personae dramatis has with sanity is Shelly: Vince\u2019s girlfriend; and even she finds herself temporarily drawn into the family flame although she has the sense to pull the chocks when the action cranks up.<\/p>\n
Rod Gnapp, is no stranger the Magic Theatre (Remember Cintra Wilson\u2019s TRIPLE X LOVE ACT? That was Rod playing Artie Jay Mitchell).<\/p>\n
Rod Gnapp plays Dodge as if he were Dodge.<\/p>\n
Having seen Rod on Bay Area Stages for the last 25 years, one could easily say that this is his finest hour; this is an award winning performance.<\/p>\n
You may have missed Led Zepplin at Knebworth or Hendrix at Monterey; but don\u2019t miss Rod Gnapp at the Magic.<\/p>\n
Denise Balthrop Cassidy, as Halie, is simply a riot; she gives her character a determined air: still trying to wrangle dignity and sensual enjoyment from the smoldering ruins of her life; she is both dauntless and deluded.<\/p>\n
Elaina Garrity, as Shelly, is able to do some amazing but convincing transitions.<\/p>\n
Arriving at the farm, she has well founded trepidations but within a few hours she is tormenting Bradley as if she were one of the family; her primal release and gleeful unleashing of her shadow self is both credible and remarkably affected.<\/p>\n
Just as deftly, she puts the Genie back in the bottle and makes a timely exit to the world of light and the living.<\/p>\n
James Wagner, as Tilden, is fried\u2014maybe deep fried or stir fried\u2014hard to tell.<\/p>\n
Picture a direct high altitude lightning strike to your iPad; what 70,000 volts can do to your semi-conductor collection, is what life at the farm has done to Tilden\u2019s neurons and James plays it to its zombie best.<\/p>\n
The whole show is simply the best of the best\u2014from the Klieg lights down to the set design.<\/p>\n
For a delightful, safe excursion into the netherworld of rural, corn-fed and carrot-fueled insanity, you want to see BURIED CHILD.<\/p>\n
For tickets call the box office at 415 441-8822 or visit the Magic Theatre website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle The Magic Theatre, which was once home to playwright-in-residence Sam Shepard, is presently staging a \u201cLegacy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"