PICK ASR Theater ~~ “The 39 Steps”, Mystery Thriller and Comic Farce at SF Playhouse

By Susan Dunn

Even before the story from the famous film begins, missteps, gags, mockery, parody, double-takes, and more abound in The 39 Steps at San Francisco Playhouse.

Our leading man appears, apparently ready to begin the show, then is blacked out by the lighting, comes back into view, then falls asleep in a chair while SFP Artistic Director Bill English gives the welcoming speech. What’s happening? Are they confused? Are they ready for opening night?

You bet!

It’s the audience that should be ready to exhilarate in two hours plus of clowning and buffoonery animating Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of a Hitchcock classic.

… Highly recommended to recharge your funny bone…

The 39 Steps is a classic noir narrative which started with a 1915 novel, was adapted in 1935 by Alfred Hitchcock, and from there morphed into new films, TV series, a radio play, and a stage comedy. It’s a popular and easily adapted story that has proven its popularity time after time. Its secret is a mystery thriller base that has been freely adapted with new or excised material in subsequent renditions.

Richard Hannay (Phil Wong) is captivated by the mysterious Anabella (Maggie Mason) in “The 39 Steps,” presented by San Francisco Playhouse March 7 – April 20.
Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli

The story revolves around the stylish character Richard Hannay, marvelously played by Phil Wong, as he falls into one unlikely scenario after another. The action follows his path from falsely accused murderer to international spy-ring exposer and hero. It snakes from London to Scotland and back again with a cast of 150 characters, according to SF Playhouse. (I confess I lost count.)These roles are hilariously and frantically embodied by three superb actors.

Lithe and intense Maggie Mason shows us the women in Hannay’s life: Annabella, the spy whom Hannay is accused of murdering; Pamela, the girl on the train whom he first meets by attacking her with kisses; and Margaret, the collier’s wife who helps him escape from murderous thugs. Greg Ayers showcases a multitude of male and female roles with comic physical and facial wit that continually inspires laughter, as do his double takes for additional laughs. He both opens and closes the show with an important character, Mister Memory, and his shenanigans expand this role with his stage antics.

Richard Hannay (center – Phil Wong) is apprehended by two policemen (l to r: Renee Rogoff and Greg Ayers) as Pamela (Maggie Mason) denies association in “The 39 Steps,” presented by SF Playhouse. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli

Covering another bevy of parts, including a squadron of police and thugs, a ruthless power-hungry professor, and a dour innkeeper, Renee Rogoff seems to appear in every other scene in new costume or aspect. One of the funniest moments occurs when Mason, Ayers and Rogoff miraculously turn into six marching bagpipers immersing Wong in one of his many escape moves – a showcase for the inspired direction by Susi Damilano.

Like icing on a delicious cake, the lighting design, sound effects, costumes, projections and puppetry mesh together with the clowning to create a play that is a many-layered spoof. The 39 Steps is a farce that skims ever so lightly over themes of fate, chance, romance and ultimately human empathy. This production is a delight for all the senses. Highly recommended to recharge your funny bone.

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com

ProductionThe 39 Steps
Sourced byPlay Adaptation by Patrick Barlow...

From the Novel by John Buchan...

From the Movie by Alfred Hitchcock
Directed bySusi Damilano
Producing CompanySan Francisco Playhouse
Production DatesThru April 20th
Production AddressSF Playhouse
450 Post Street
San Francisco, CA
Websitewww.sfplayhouse.org
Telephone(415) 677-9596
Tickets$15 - $100
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4/5
Performance4/5
Script4/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?YES!

PICK ASR! Oakland Theater Project’s “Cost of Living”

By Susan Dunn

Heading to a show titled Cost of Living, I anticipated an evening of economists discussing the GNP. Given our current rampant politics, that would have seemed a fit.

Mercifully, Martyna Majok’s play is a more personal view of costs—economic, physical, and emotional. Four characters—two disabled and two caregivers—play out the feelings and the passions of their respective situations, juxtaposed against their class and educational backgrounds.

Cost of Living is a “must see”…

In the opening scene, a feisty, loquacious Eddie (masterfully played all over the stage by high-energy Daniel Duque-Estrada), regales us from his bar stool about how the “shit in life is not to be understood.” We learn he’s lost his truck-driver’s license due to a DUI. Moreover, his estranged wife and texting mate has died, and in his loneliness and desperation, he continues to send text messages to her cell phone to comfort himself. When he gets text replies, he is confounded but also mysteriously buoyed.

The play is framed by two capable and well-cast disabled actors: Matty Placencia, who has met the emotional and physical challenges of cerebral palsy all his life, and Christine Bruno, whose accomplished acting resume has focused on a range of acting roles and disability-inclusion consulting.

In Majok’s play, Placencia embodies John, a young upper-class professor at Princeton, who partially manages with one functioning hand, a wheelchair, and a wealthy family, but requires a part-time caregiver for his daily personal hygiene. He is supercilious, defensive, and insensitive to needs other than his own. Christine Bruno plays Eddie’s paraplegic wife Ani, crippled by a traffic accident following her estrangement. Eddie has come back to care for her, hoping to share in her insurance proceeds. Bruno’s wide range of facial expressions and sharp and ironic tongue reveal her frustrations with her ex-husband. But she warms up to Eddie as her caregiver over time.

Finally, there is Carla Gallardo’s Jess, a 20-year-old Latina struggling to sustain herself with bar jobs and living in her car. In desperation she applies to be John’s caregiver, attracted by his higher-class aura and his financial means. Gallardo gains our sympathy through her wide range of expressivity while meeting the physical challenge of showering, shaving, and dressing John on stage before us. Prompted by John, her own challenged history ekes out as they get used to his routine.

The cast at work. Photos by Ben Kranz Studio

Cost of Living is two plays with one set representing two apartments that occupy their own respective mini-set areas and finally merge together in the final scene. The mini-sets create difficulty for the arena staging, but are mostly well-handled by set designer Emilie Whelan. Blocking for disabled actors is also tricky, but necessary to play well to the three audience sections. Some scenes were partly obstructed by the five or more floating mini-sets.

For this reviewer, occasionally, actors’ words were lost when delivering lines away from parts of the audience, but in general the utilization of space clarifies the action and imaginatively creates an atmosphere with a single rear window. Projections keep us emotionally in the right plane with grey weather, rain or pelting snow.

With a complex story and characters that ring true as individuals in straits that could be our fate as well if we were not so fortunate, Cost of Living is a “must see.” The authenticity of the actors in this play demands kudos to the production.

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com

ProductionCost of Living
Written byMartyna Majok
Directed byEmilie Whelan
Producing CompanyOakland Theater Project
Production DatesThru Mar 24th, 2024
Production AddressFlax Art and Design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, CA 94612
Websitewww.oaklandtheaterproject.or
Telephone(510) 646-112
Tickets$35-$60
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4/5
Performance4/5
Script4/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK!YES!

ASR Theater ~~ “She Loves Me” – Musical Theater With a Comic Touch at 6th St.

By Susan Dunn

If a musical set in a 1937 Hungarian perfume shop seems like a stretch for a good evening out, you might want to think again.

She Loves Me has all the elements of compelling characters, charming scenes, sonorous music that stays with you, and three storylines that meld together into a hit show and a staple in our musical repertoire. 6th Street Playhouse puts on a visually and musically compelling production that is receiving enthusiastic response in the GK Hardt Theatre.

… humor in almost every scene …

Three couples working in the Parfumerie spin the story, including shy and hardworking George (Lorenzo Alviso) and Amalia, a combative new hire (Molly Larson-Shine). The two bicker through their professional lives but are secretly lonely-hearts pen pals. 30ish and flirtatious Ilona (Julianne Bretan) is having an affair with the male attraction in the shop, suave and mellifluous Stephen Koday, (Drew Bolander). Finally, there is the unlikely couple of elderly and humorous Mr. Marachezek (Garet Waterhouse) and his young delivery boy Arpad, played with amazing finesse by 15-year-old Tyer Ono). Arpad turns our enthusiasm up to boil with his big moment in the show, singing “Try Me.”

“She Loves Me” cast at work. Photo credit: Eric Chazankin

The cast is augmented by an ensemble of ubiquitous shoppers who amuse us scene after scene with their various cosmetic issues and gift needs. They double as patrons and staff for the nightclub scene in which the pen pals, known to each other only as “Dear Friend,” will finally meet.

…see it, for the charm, music, captivating story & production values…

Gracing this production is an appealing set that takes us into the shop, and is flexible enough to transport us to a hospital room and a darkly mysterious nightclub. Director Emily Lynn Cornelius makes use of every opportunity to tweak our sense of humor using pratfalls, original and sometimes noisy props, exaggerated expressions, and actions which resound in laughter through the audience. She deftly varies the shoppers’ scenes which run the gamut of Christmas shopping madness at the play’s end, and feature one-off surprise moments.

“She Loves Me” shows thru Feb 25th at 6th St Playhouse. Photo: Eric Chazankin

The audience-rousing approach emphasizing humor in almost every scene, however, seems to come at the cost of a lack of subtle character development found in other productions.

To this reviewer, some actors were more physically expressive than others, notably Tyler Ono, who seems made to fall through the door when he is revealed as eavesdropping, and Julianne Bretan, who winningly commands all parts of the stage as she details her adventure with new beau Paul, an optometrist she met at the library. Sound design was OK in the miking of the singers, but this reviewer found the orchestra was occasionally too loud for a proper balance and support to the vocals.

Will you love She Loves Me? The plusses outweigh the few minuses in this production. Go see it for the charm, music, captivating story and production values. My prediction: you will love it.

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com

ProductionShe Loves Me
Book byJoe Masteroff
Directed byEmily Lynn Cornelius
Music byJerry Bock
Lyrics bySheldon Harnick
Producing Company6th Street Playhouse
Production DatesThru Feb 25th
Production Address6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Websitehttp://www.6thstreetplayhouse.com
Telephone (707) 523-4185
Tickets$29 to $51
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall3.5/5
Performance3.5/5
Script4/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?----

PICK! ASR Theater ~~ “My Home on the Moon”, S.F. Playhouse’s Huge Serving of Hilarious Cyber-Pho!

By Susan Dunn

Here’s a play that will teach us how to make the Vietnamese soup specialty: Pho. Not quite! My Home on the Moon quickly takes us from our ordinary lives to other realities in the cyber world.

Act One opens on an average-looking Asian soup shop, adorned with pictures of the homeland and featuring a much-revered shrine to the shop owner’s sister, and former joint owner. The discouraged proprietress Lan (versatile and winning Sharon Omi) reveals the desperate straits her business is experiencing with the neighborhood takeover by mega-corporations and the fall to the wrecker’s ball of small businesses like hers.

…”My Home on the Moon” is a humorous take on a Matrix-like reality…

Lan is joined by her grouchy assistant Mai (hilariously played by Jenny Nguyen Nelson), who breaks the 4th wall to great effect. Soon enough, we hear the doom of a building being crushed to rubble off-stage. The corporate enemy is closing in.

Lan (Sharon Omi) reminisces about her childhood with a giant noodle (background: puppeteered by Erin Mei-Ling Stuart) on the moon in San Francisco Playhouse’s World Premiere Play “My Home on the Moon,” performing January 25 – February 24. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli

But Lan has applied for a financial aid grant for her shop, and her winnings come in to save it from default. First, a huge basket of delectable Vietnamese goodies appears, and the consumables seem to anesthetize Lan and Mai, whose binge puts them prone on the floor.

Next, they are greeted by marketeer Vera, who represents Novus Corporation, the company taking over local real estate. She promises the shop will be transformed, dripping with cachét and busy with customers now that Lan has won the grant. And Vera, smartly and charmingly played by Rinabeth Apostal, can make it all happen: the blank white shop turns to orange ambience, NFTs (Non-fungible tokens in cyber-talk) grace the walls, and the backyard becomes a Vietnamese jungle.

(L-R) A food critic (Will Dao) samples cuisine, watched by Lan (Sharon Omi), Mai (Jenny Nguyen Nelson) and a camera person (Erin Mei-Ling Stuart) in SF Playhouse’s “My Home on the Moon.” Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli

Miraculously, both Lan and Mai are smartly re-uniformed to enhance the look of the café. But who is Vera really? And why doesn’t she eat the fabulous Pho?

Understanding who is real and who is a robot or ‘simulation’ challenges us as the story and timeline proceed, and actors take on multiple roles. A standout is Will Dao, playing four very different personas, all to amazing effect. He grabs our attention immediately with every unexpected appearance. This is truly an eye-popping show, replete with suggestive dancers, sinuous and menacing cyber light cords, and alternate states of consciousness or digital manipulation depending on which of the corporate robots or managers are controlling the scene.

Mai (Jenny Nguyen Nelson) and Vera (Rinabeth Apostol) share a moment at San Francisco Playhouse. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli

The challenge and ultimate success of scene changes and manipulations are handsomely done by the creative team under the direction of Mei Ann Teo. Projections are used to great effect in many scenes and in many parts of the stage by Hao Bai, and the scene swivels to reveal three different sets, times/places and states of consciousness.

Finally we are left to ponder what reality we live in. Is it the actual world, or is it the digital river of games, memes, virtual reality, NFTs and other predations on our consciousness?

My Home on the Moon is a humorous take on a Matrix-like reality where people are trapped in a simulated digital world. Warning: the constant food themes may spark your hunger for an immediate bowl of Pho.

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com

ProductionMy Home On The Moon
Written byMinna Lee
Directed byMei Ann Teo
Producing CompanySan Francisco Playhouse
Production DatesThru Feb 24th
Production AddressSF Playhouse
450 Post Street
San Francisco, CA
Websitewww.sfplayhouse.org
Telephone(415) 677-9596
Tickets$15 - $125
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4/5
Performance4/5
Script4/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?YES!

PICK! ASR Theater ~~ “Legally Blonde” Pinks the Stage on Barbie’s Coattails

By Susan Dunn

Kicking off 2024, Tri-Valley Repertory Theatre Company, formerly based in Pleasanton, has come out touting its new name (they’ve dropped the “Repertory”) and moved their venue to the capacious 400-seat Bankhead Theater, which was sold out for the opening night of a rocking Legally Blonde.

The launch for this re-start is a high-energy musical based on the 2001 film and a positive way to show off a 40-plus cast, 19 scenes, an expansive set, and show-stopping choreography and costumes. The two doggie stars Bruiser and Rufus are an audience delight and success capper!

… a show that will wipe away the winter weather and all serious issues!

Some musicals are just for fun, with no apologies. Legally Blonde infects us from the opening number, “Omigod You Guys,” with a repeating anthem to high-energy vocals and sorority-girl buzzy action. The song title personifies Elle Woods, the forceful star who exudes the ubiquitous smile, “out-there” stance, and drop-dead costume changes of a showoff who knows she’s terrific and revels in it.

Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde”.

Elle has it all: the man of her dreams, a secured future, and a validation that she’s a sorority star and adored princess—until she doesn’t have her man. When Warner Huntington III drops her as not being serious enough to be mate to his legal and political ambitions, she spends most of the rest of the musical plotting to get him back.

Deftly acted and sung by Gwynevere Cristobal, she faces the challenge of Harvard Law School and finds her own style and maneuvers to succeed at law. Along the way, she finds new capabilities and some depth in her relationships. But it’s her “Omigod You Guys” prevailing positivity, energy, and in-your-face attitude that move the show to its raucously happy ending.

Themes in this show teeter-totter between being 2001 out-of-date and 2024 Barbie with-it: dumb blondes, popularity queens, gay putdowns, corporate corruption, and sexual predation. But what really matters are the fine direction by Misty Megia, expert, and varied choreography—particularly with jump-ropes—by Cat Delos Santos Reyes, costume eye-candy and surprise reveals by Andrea Gorham-Browne, and continual set manipulations designed and executed by Tom Curtin. With a few standouts, the cast works together to execute an almost flawless high-pitch musical.

In this reviewer’s opinion, the orchestra was a bit of a low point of the evening, but the huge cast just danced and sang their brains out and put orchestra shortcomings in the shade. Time to pull out your own pink wardrobe and accessories and head to the Bankhead for a show that will wipe away the winter weather and all serious issues!

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com

ProductionLegally Blonde
Written byLawrence O’Keefe, Nell Benjamin, and Heather Hatch
Directed byMisty Megia
Producing CompanyTri-Valley Theatre Company
Production DatesThru January 28, 2024
Production AddressBankhead Theater
2400 First St, Livermore, CA 94551
Websitehttps://trivalleytheatre.org/
Telephone(925) 373-6800
Tickets$53
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4/5
Performance4/5
Script4/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?YES!

PICK! ASR Theater ~~ “Fences” – 6th Street Playhouse Honors Wilson Masterpiece

By Susan Dunn

The Monroe Stage is small and dark, an arena with its three sides packed with audience. The simple but evocative set by Aissa Simbulan is a small frame house and yard with a view through a window into the kitchen interior. Surrounding the arena stage is the fence – a work in progress – which marks the passage of time and is finally finished at the play’s end.

Keene Hudson stars as Troy Maxson, with Val Sinckler as Rose in “Fences”. Photos by Eric Chazankin

August Wilson’s Fences is about the life of Troy Maxson (Keene Hudson) and how he keeps family and friends close and how he lets them go. It’s everyman’s story. As Troy’s friend Bono (Nicolas James Augusta) warns in act two: “Some people build fences to keep people out, and other people build fences to keep people in.”

 … Fences is one of our greatest American masterpieces …

In Wilson’s most intense play about family, Troy can’t seem to finish his fence just as he can’t step outside himself and share the musical world of his son Lyons (De’Sean Moore) or the sports world of his son Cory (Mark Anthony). We learn Troy’s own life in detail through his many stories, colorful swagger, sexiness, and bonhomie.

His tales mask a man disappointed in himself and angry at his life’s chances and challenges. He’s burdened by the drudgery of his work as a Pittsburgh garbage collector and by the responsibility of caring for his brain-damaged brother Gabriel (Jim Frankie Banks). His is a story of oppression and homelessness at age 14 and eventual seeming stability in the loving support of his wife Rose (Val Sinckler), a powerhouse of tolerance who finds in herself a way to pardon his many outbursts.

Each family member and friend is memorably etched by Wilson, and the acting in this production never disappoints. Principals Hudson and Sinckler, and supporting cast Anthony, Augusta, and Banks are all simply outstanding. They bring home an empathy that provoked tears and audible gasps and cries from the audience.

What gives this production such a high level of excellence are the many elements that immerse the audience in the scene: blues music from the 1950s, actors’ use of the small stage creating a whole world inside Troy’s fence, a baseball hanging on a string from a tree branch, clothes on a wash line, crates serving as chairs, and the unfinished fence that lines the stage edge. And outside that fence are the forces of unpredictability, menace, constriction, and banishment.

Photos by Eric Chazankin. L-R: Mark Anthony, Val Sinckler, Keene Hudson.

Direction by Jordan Oliver-Verde is spot on: his use of sound and light effects when Troy is wrestling with death, Troy’s meandering as he tells his stories, and the fight scenes, which are brief but unforgettable. In the end, Rose emerges as a woman saved from the loss of her husband’s love by the raising of a daughter, not her own—a lovely stunning performance by Sinckler.

August Wilson’s Fences is one of our greatest American masterpieces. 6th Street’s production does it full justice.

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com

ProductionFences
Written byAugust Wilson
Directed byJordan Oliver-Verde
Producing Company6th Street Playhouse
Production DatesJanuary 12 – February 4, 2024
Production Address6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Websitehttp://www.6thstreetplayhouse.com
Telephone (707) 523-4185
Tickets$29 to $45
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4.5/5
Performance4.5/5
Script5/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?YES!

ASR Theater ~~ ASR’s Favorites of 2023

by Team ASR

2023 was a wonderful year for live theater in the Bay Area. Although many companies are still struggling financially, it’s clear that artistically most have bounced back from the pandemic. Rather than a “best of” list, here are ten of the past year’s favorites submitted by ASRians.

Dinner with Friends: In June, Sonoma Arts Live served up a Pulitzer Prize-winning treat. Director Carl Jordan had the perfect recipe for casting Ilana Niernberger, John Browning, Katie Kelley, and Jimmy Gagarin. Recipe?

The play’s friends are foodies, couples who uncouple and all but food fight on a multi-stage set by Jordan and Gary Gonser. The play had just the right amount of both relationships’ spice to flavor any postprandial discussion. — Cari Lynn Pace

Dragon Lady: Spanning most of the life of Maria Senora Porkalob, the playwright/performer’s grandmother and a first-generation Filipina immigrant, Marin Theatre Company’s Dragon Lady was an inspiring, entertaining survival yarn and a master class in solo storytelling. Part biography, part autobiography, part cabaret musical, and part comedy, Dragon Lady was a tour-de-force written and performed by Sara Porkalob, with wonderful instrumental backing by three members of the Washington-based band Hot Damn Scandal.Barry Willis

 … 2023 was a wonderful year for live theater in the Bay Area …

Stones in His Pockets: Spreckels’ production of this whip-smart Irish comedy was touching, insightful, and laugh-out-loud funny. It demanded the utmost from only two actors, playing no fewer than fifteen characters of varying ages, cultures, social classes, and genders.

All that and no costume changes, no props beyond two simple wooden crates, and a bare-bones stage with only a small stone wall and a projection screen to serve as a backdrop. A brilliant exercise in theater done right. — Nicole Singley

Crowns: Walnut Creek’s CenterREP presented an exhilarating, uplifting celebration of life with this serio-comedic musical. A coming-of-age story about a hip-hop girl from Brooklyn on a journey of discovery in a small South Carolina town, the revival-meeting production starred Juanita Harris as the town’s no-nonsense matriarch and queen bee of a bevy of church ladies, each with a collection of elaborate fancy hats mostly reserved for Sundays, when they want to look their best “to meet the king.” — Barry Willis

Silent Sky: Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions gave us a lovely rendering of Lauren Gunderson’s biographical tale about pioneering mathematician/astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, who toiled at Harvard University Observatory for approximately twenty years until she was finally allowed to look through the telescope. She faced opposition from the scientific establishment of the era, but Leavitt’s insights led to major breakthroughs in human understanding of the universe. — Barry Willis

The People vs. Mona: Pt. Richmond’s cozy Masquers Playhouse delivered a delightfully interactive comedic musical about a trumped-up murder case in the tiny south Georgia town of Tippo. The engaging Nelson Brown served as both MC and inept defense counsel Jim Summerford, who comes to the trial having never won a case. Shay Oglesby-Smith was tremendous as the town’s prosecutor and manipulative mayoral candidate Mavis Frye, matched by Michele Sanner Vargas as the accused Mona May Katt. — Susan Dunn

Clyde’s: Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre was the scene for this scathing comedy by Lynn Nottage, in which four parolees try their best to thrive under an oppressive boss.

April Nixon was brilliant as the voluptuous, wise-cracking owner of the roadside diner named for her character—a deliciously malicious force of nature. An uplifting, uproarious, and realistic tale about hope, Clyde’s was among the best comedies of the year. — Barry Willis

Hippest Trip—Soul Train, the Musical: The stage of ACT’s Toni Rembe Theater was transformed into both a giant 1970s television set and the production studio for Soul Train, reportedly the longest-running music-and-dance show ever made. Dominique Morisseau’s dazzling retrospective of the groundbreaking television show was wonderfully directed by Kamilah Forbes. Played by confident Quentin Earl Darrington, Soul Train founder Don Cornelius was a former Chicago crime reporter who envisioned a TV show that would uplift his community. Through sheer willpower, he made it a reality, and so did ACT. — Barry Willis

The Wizard of Oz: The Emerald City met Beach Blanket Babylon in ACT’s spectacularly goofy psychedelic The Wizard of Oz. The wild production adhered closely to the beloved original, including story and songs, but was as far removed from a 1940s Saturday afternoon movie matinee as you can imagine—a hilariously gender-bending extravaganza just perfect for Pride Month in San Francisco.  — Barry Willis

The Glass Menagerie: Ross Valley Players returned to the essence of mid-century theater with a sobering production of Tennessee Williams’ classic family drama. Directed by David Abrams, who also played the role of disaffected son Tom Wingfield, the show starred Tamar Cohn as his delusional, manipulative mother Amanda, Tina Traboulsi as his asocial sister Laura, and Jesse Lumb as the good-natured gentleman caller Jim O’Connor, who arrives late in the tale and quickly discovers what a dysfunctional morass he’s stepped into. Tom O’Brien’s austere set, period-perfect costumes by Michael Berg, evocative lighting design by Michele Samuels, and music collected by sound designer Billie Cox all made significant contributions to one of the year’s most compelling dramas. — George Maguire

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PICK! ASR Theater ~~ “The People vs. Mona”— Masquers Playhouse Delivers “Hootchie” & “Koochie”

By Susan Dunn

This musical comedy at Point Richmond’s cozy venue is all about involvement: our involvement. As we await the opening, actors drift into The Frog Pad bar, engaging audience members as they proceed to the stage. The MC and lead actor, the likeable, energetic Nelson Brown, opens the show for those in the seats: “Take out your provided fans and wave in unison.” First joke of the night, and a heads-up: “Listen up! You’re in this show too!”

It’s present day in the tiny south Georgia town of Tippo, where a murder has divided the populace into two factions, one represented by town prosecutor, suave manipulator, and would-be mayor Mavis Frye (Shay Oglesby-Smith). Their opponents are fronted by defense counsel Jim Summerford (Brown) who cannot get a truthful statement from the accused Mona May Katt (the stagey Michele Sanner Vargas). Frye’s fiancé of more than eight years, Summerford has never won a case—quite a defense attorney!

…This production sports a fine cast …

Early on, the odds are stacked against a not-guilty verdict. The town converges on The Frog Pad where an opening number pays froggy tribute with amusing choruses of “Ribbet, Ribbet.” A podium appears center stage and we are now in the courtroom, with an unpredictably opinionated Judge Jordan (Jeffrie Givens), who leads us through the trial. Givens swaps her judicial robe for a choir robe as Rev. Purify, guiding cast and audience alike through a rousing revival. Judge Jordan repeatedly reminds her court that she won’t tolerate any “hootchie” or “koochie.”

Musical comedy depends on outsized characters, hummable or memorable music and action paced at various speeds to bring us to a satisfactory conclusion. I enjoyed many of the songs, in various styles from hoedown blues, gospel, rock, and Cajun, to a winsome ballad by defendant Mona. The composers are the married duo Jim Wann and Patricia Miller, who keep us rapt with special surprises such as Officer Bell (Steve Alesch) trumpeting an operatic note whenever appropriate or not.

The town’s coroner Dr. Bloodweather (Arup Chakrabarti) turns out to be a dentist who, for clarity, insists on adding an extra letter to his professional title. Two key witnesses—including the town’s legendary litigator Eubal R. Pugh (Harrison Alter)—expire during the trial and their ghosts hilariously waft out the stage. Street-performing soul singer Blind Willy (Kamaria McKinney) does an outstanding number with cane and dark glasses. McKinney is also delightful in the role of local heartbreaker Tish Thomas. The show’s director Enrico Banson appears as bartender, court reporter, and does triple duty as onstage keyboardist.

Just when we thought we had seen all the play had to offer, Mona suddenly appears, in jail, in a sly side stage area where she performs the show’s only heart-rending ballad. Through all the fast-paced musical numbers, audience engagement is palpable.

This production sports a fine cast with outstanding leads and a “laugh a minute” script that whets our appetite for more. The numbers are long enough to engage us but short enough to keep the action going. The production is pulled together by Katherine Cooper’s choreography, perfectly scaled for a small stage. Marla Plankers Norleen supplied the characters’ amusing costumes; Vicki Kagawan did the props. This production makes for a fun evening!

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com.

ProductionThe People Versus Mona
Written byJim Wann and Patricia Miller
Directed byEnrico Banson
Producing CompanyMasquers Playhouse
Production DatesThru Nov 26th
Production Address105 Park Place
Pt. Richmond, CA
Websitemasquers.org
Telephone(510) 232.4031
Tickets$27-$30
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 4.5/5
Overall4/5
Performance4/5
Script4/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?YES!

Pick! ASR Theater ~~ Rags to Riches Hilarity: “Nollywood Dreams” at SF Playhouse.

By Susan Dunn and Barry Willis

An aspiring actress gets her chance in Jocelyn Bioh’s uproarious Nollywood Dreams, at San Francisco Playhouse through November 4.

Ayamma Okafor (Angel Adedokun) works at her family’s travel agency in Lagos, Nigeria, where the entire story takes place. Probably not a well-known fact among Americans, Nigeria’s thriving film industry is one of the world’s most prolific.

Ayamma (Angel Adedokun) is starstruck as she meets Wale (Jordan Covington) and Gbenga (Tre’Vonne Bell) in San Francisco Playhouse’s “Nollywood Dreams,” performing thru Nov 4, 2023.
Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli

Ayamma hopes to lift herself out of the tedium of her daily work and venture into the glitzy world of film—and fame. Her lackadaisical sister and workmate Dede (Brittany Nicole Sims) has no such aspirations, but does worship film stars, especially the handsome charmer Wale Owuso (Jordan Covington).

…Nollywood Dreams is exactly the feel-good antidote we need today…

The Playhouse is lit with neon and splashy patterns, accompanied by throbbing rhythms of Africa. Your heartbeat is up even before the actors appear. The production is significantly interactive: we are invited to let the actors know how we feel about them and their story by joining in with our own reactions. Breaking the “4th wall,” one scene includes an actor sitting with the audience.

On a huge revolving set by Bill English, Nollywood Dreams features continual scenes across three different locales: the travel agency, a TV studio, and the office of film director Gbenga Ezie (Tre’Vonne Bell). Initially we meet our protagonist, wannabe actress Ayamma—slim, intense, and sincere—who pours her heart out to older sister Dede, an outrageous, outspoken, but unmotivated couch-potato. Their dynamic is loving and hilarious at each turn.

The stage turns and a TV interview is in progress. Now we (the play’s audience) become the vocal audience of a daytime TV show hosted by the queen bee of Nigerian celebrity gossip, the brightly-swathed and head-dressed Adenikeh (Tanika Baptiste), a character partly modeled on America’s own Oprah. Baptiste is totally engaging and effusive as she prods interviewee Gbenga about auditions for his next film, a romantic comedy called The Comfort Zone.

Adenikeh (Tanika Baptiste), the Oprah of Lagos, dishes on her talk show in San Francisco Playhouse’s “Nollywood Dreams.” Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli

Her outsized female persona foils his suave, understated but sweeping masculinity. Our verbal reactions to his story of marital and extramarital love up the ante of our emotional engagement. Through some Nigerian film history projections we meet the final two characters in this play: Wale the endearing lover-boy actor already well-known to Nigerian audiences, and Fayola (Anna Marie Sharpe), an established actress whose career has hit an impasse. Sharp’s wise-cracking subtlety must be seen to be believed.

Who will be cast in this next movie? How will previous dating relationships, careers (or lack thereof) and political machinations solve the casting choices? The set revolves to reveal the director’s office, where auditions of a kind, amid spats and jealousies, play out evoking old loves and new emotional blooming. A favorite scene involves Dede’s curse on the rival actress to aid sister Ayamma’s chances for snagging a role.

Nigerian film director Gbenga (Tre’Vonne Bell) dishes on a talk show in San Francisco Playhouse’s “Nollywood Dreams” Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli

Nollywood Dreams is a terrifically paced production of a laugh-out-loud script, filled with characters who pop with iconic familiarity. The show is blessed with performing excellence, directorial finesse and assurance and production values that excel in every scene. As fabulous or ordinary costumes (Jasmine Milan Williams, designer) change from one quick scene to another we wonder how they can top the previous look.

Theater veteran and director Margo Hall has coaxed the utmost from her richly talented cast. The eye-candy set and projections, and especially the unexpected finale, deliver a luscious dessert of a play that on opening night provoked a sustained standing ovation. Nollywood Dreams is exactly the feel-good antidote we need today.

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com.

ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.

 

ProductionNollywood Dreams
Written byJocelyn Bioh
Directed byMargo Hall
Producing CompanySan Francisco Playhouse
Production DatesThru Nov 4th
Production AddressSF Playhouse
450 Post Street
San Francisco, CA
Websitewww.sfplayhouse.org
Telephone(415) 677-9596
Tickets$30 - $125
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4/5
Performance4/5
Script4/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?YES!

ASR Theater ~~ “Anna Christie” – Eugene O’Neill’s Fallen-Woman Play Rescues the Genre from Convention

By Susan Dunn

The annual Eugene O’Neill Festival is dedicated this year to the voices of women, and Anna Christie is the play that delivers that goal. To get there, we took a Festival Bus to an old barn on a remote hill in Danville to be entertained, time-warped, and enveloped by three compelling characters.

It’s the story of a former prostitute who must reveal her past to her father and fiancé. The denouement is a nut to crack enveloped in fog. Is this a drama, a tragedy, or a melodrama? Anna Christie has occasional aspects of all of these elements. But the engaging characters, their stories, and ultimately their charm work their magic.

Look up and see the stars through the holes in the barn ceiling. Pray that rain won’t come during the performance. Crickets crawl across the stage, and flies waft by. Where is this superb venue? At the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site, managed with cooperation and support from the Eugene O’Neill Foundation.

…a triumph for one of O’Neill’s best plays to our delight…

Before showtime, one can tour O’Neill’s former residence, Tao House, now a complete museum and gift shop, just a short walk from the barn. At the end of September, the whole cast and production will perform again at The Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theatre in New Ross, Ireland. It’s an annual cultural and civic celebration of the strong ties between Ireland and the United States exemplified by O’Neill’s Irish heritage.

Anna Christie opens with a glimpse of Anna, now a refugee from a hard-knock life, scurrying through the scene with her belongings in hand. Adriene Deane’s every expression reveals a 20-year-old who is oppressed but aching to recover from her past. It’s a subtle and primarily low-key role that is an excellent foil to her two loves. Her father, Chris Christopherson, hasn’t tried to see her in 15 years. He’s a crusty, boisterous, hard-drinking womanizing scamp ably captured by Charles Woodson Parker. He packs a hidden, vulnerable heart of filial love and a penchant for cursing “Ye old devil sea!” on whom he blames all life’s challenges.

Into this unlikely duo charges Matt Burke, a lowly Irish sailor whose profession is stoking coal on ships and living the itinerant life of the sea. Expertly played by Kyle Goldman, Matt makes up for his ignominious status with an explosive personality. His body writhes, his limbs contort or strut, his eyes bug and pinch, his eyebrows arch, and his chatter is non-stop, with an appeal that makes us want to take him home. This reviewer couldn’t wait for his next entrance.

Anna re-enters her father’s life, playing her last and lost family card, and hopes for help to recover from the abuse of her former professions: farm worker-slave, nurse, governess, and finally prostitute, a past she must hide. She moves onto the barge with her father and Matt. She ultimately is restored by the sea and the fog, which hides her past life from her consciousness, and the attentions and affections of Matt, who takes her for a well-bred young woman.

By Act III, this restorative happiness is challenged by Matt’s proposing marriage and her father’s attempts to control her – to steer her back to the land, to stability, to permanence, and away from the sea and the life of a sailor’s wife. She finally finds her voice and declares her love for both of them–and her right to personal responsibility and determinism.

Assisted by minimal but appropriate production elements, three featured roles, and the embrace of being set next to O’Neill’s former residence, the play delivers a triumph for one of O’Neill’s best plays to our delight and the Festival’s excellence.

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager.

An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com

ProductionAnna Christie
Written by Eugene O’Neill
Directed byEric Fraisher Hayes
Producing CompanyThe Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House
Production DatesThrough Sept 24th
Production AddressThe Old Barn, Tao House, 1000 Kuss Rd
Danville, CA 94526
Websitehttps://eugeneoneill.org/event/eugene-oneills-anna-christie/
Telephone(925) 838-0249
Tickets$60
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4/5
Performance4/5
Script4.5/5
Stagecraft3/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?YES!

PICK! ASR Theater ~~ Theater and Politics Send-up: “Mondragola” at CentralWorks

By Susan Dunn

Gary Graves new play sends up both theater and politics where the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Niccolo Machiavelli is commonly known as the cynical and amoral philosopher of politics from his signature work, “The Prince” (Il Principe). Who would guess that Machiavelli, living the good life as Secretary in the Medici government for many years, would be exiled and forced into writing saucy comedies to eke out his living?

 taps every production’s nightmare…

Mondragola (Mandrake) takes its name from a farce Machiavelli wrote in exile, along with “The Prince”, while hoping to return to the Medicis’ good graces and the sustenance of government life. On opening, Machiavelli, handsomely played by Rudy Guerrero, describes how critical this play performance is to his future career. He hopes that the Cardinal who will be in attendance and loves comedies, will be so impressed that he will commission him to write a history of Florence, but his actors have fled with the production money, and it’s eight hours to showtime!

(l to r): Battista (Edwin Jacobs) and Zenobia (Monique Crawford) agree to perform in Niccolo Machiavelli’s silly comedy. –At TheaterWorks

In desperation, he cajoles his gangster producers, Battista and Luigi, into covering as actors, along with the revolutionary Zenobia, girlfriend to Battista. This works as the joke of “taking actors off the street” almost literally. As the drama “to pull the drama off” continues, another drama—of revolution and murder—is organized behind Machiavelli’s back. As he tries frantically to get the actors to learn their lines and rehearse, we discover the printed scripts have only each separate actor’s lines. Without cues, they must memorize without context. And since they are non-actors, they make up their own words, to the fury of the playwright.

Mondragola taps every production’s nightmare, and giving more of the story would be a spoiler. But a fine cast of individuals brings out individual personalities. Edwin Jacobs as Battista is a slick hoodlum and secret revolutionary who pulls off his many faces of bravado and bewilderment with finesse. Monique Crawford is imperious as a committed political rebel and activist, while Steve Ortiz, as Luigi, the crazed, crazy and hilarious thug/sidekick can talk his way out of anything.

Florence, 1522. Fifty years before Shakespeare: Niccolo Machiavelli, author of “The Prince” – the infamous “handbook for tyrants”- has returned to perform his silly comedy “Mondragola” for the Cardinal de’ Medici.

The four actors address all three wings of the “in the round” arena stage with great skill and breathless pace thanks to Jan Zvaifler’s direction. It all made sense and played to every part of the house. A special treat of this production is Gregory Sharpen’s sound design, which expands this trim conceit of four backstage actors to Machiavelli’s actual play going on outside.

The feast in Mondragola is historical, theatrical, political and comedic. There is also a large dose of irony at the play’s end, with each actor finding a new end or a new beginning, depending on the circumstances. Recommended for those who like a big meal served in a short space of 65 minutes.

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager.

An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com

ProductionMondragola
Written byGary Graves
Directed byJan Zvaifler
Producing CompanyCentral Works
Production DatesThru Apr 16th
Production AddressBerkeley City Club
2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704
WebsiteCentralWorks.org
Telephone(510) 558 -1381
Tickets$35 - $40
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4.5/5
Performance5/5
Script5/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?YES!

Other Voices…

"Playwright Gary Graves has taken facts about Machiavelli and added his own creative twist in a fascinating play..."East Bay Times
"...history’s most famous political strategist...finds himself a pawn in someone else’s gambit. But some tricksters don’t know about Machiavelli’s past life..."San Francisco Chronicle

ASR Theater ~~ Gordon Dahlquist’s “Tea Party” More Political Future-Scape than “Mad Hatter”

By Susan Dunn

Tea Party opens on a black box stage with political interrogation. No set distracts us from the fireworks to come. A government agent (Cassidy Brown) rips into a political prisoner, exposing her liberal, left-wing persuasions. A right-wing prisoner joins the cross-examination, and is physically brutalized and bloodied by the agent.

(L-R): Livia Gomes Demarchi and Cassidy Brown. Photo by Cheshire Isaacs

Many such scenes ensue, transitioned by music of competing voices ranging from choral to hard rock. The first scenes are from the present, then revert to the past, and finally address the future, playing out in that sequence. One is left hoping the scenes come together into a sensible tableau by the end of the play. More on that later.

Dahlquist’s play posits that the Tea Party movement–which began during the presidency of Barack Obama and effectively over time changed our politics to a zero-sum game–has created this nation’s current divisions.

From “Tea Party” Photo by Jeff Rumans.

I think there is a real misunderstanding about what the Tea Party movement is. The Tea Party movement is a sentiment that government is broken, free market principles have been abandoned, with both parties to blame,  and if we don’t do something soon, this exceptional country will be lost.

…a strong cast of featured actors…

So agrees director Erin Merritt, in her director’s notes. She exhorts us to recognize this nationwide divide and governmental failure and get involved to bridge it, or civil war will be our future.

Characters represent left-wing, right-wing, and government. All sides are shown with their problems and power struggles exposed. Cassidy Brown, first as a government agent, then as a Dutch journalist, leads us through key scenes, with a strong cast of featured actors assuming different roles. Special mention goes to Anthony Cistaro and Bob Greene who cover their parts with diverse movement and vocal projection.

(L-R) Cassidy Brown and Livia Gomes Demarchi at work in “Tea Party”. Photo by Cheshire Isaacs

Other performers sometimes suffer from static blocking and muffled delivery to an audience surrounding a thrust stage. The many violent scenes are carried out with finesse through the guidance of Dave Maier.

Although delving into the Tea Party is most timely, and delivered to a mainly liberal and politically receptive part of the country, this reviewer believes that Dahlquist’s message could use more dramatic tools to help the audience lock in and see a path to activism. I was also left with the feeling the playwright missed the boat on addressing the impact negative social media has had on our national discourse: enabling the spread of disinformation, distrust, and animosity.

And as mentioned earlier, I felt that better identification of various scenes would have also gone a long way to sustain this viewer’s interest in this otherwise engaging production. This play, and its message, deserve it.

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager.

An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com

ProductionTea Party
Written by
Gordon Dahlquist
Directed byErin Merritt
Producing CompanyOne Of Our Own Theater
Production DatesThru Mar 19th, 2023
Production AddressThe Rueff at ACT’s Strand Theater, 1127 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Websitehttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/tea-party-a-world-premiere-play-tickets-528984997367
Telephone-----------------------
Tickets$20- $50
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall3/5
Performance3/5
Script3/5
Stagecraft2/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?----

PICK! ASR Theater ~~ “The Travelers” — A Wonder at the Magic Theatre

By Susan Dunn

Luis Alfaro exposes our strengths and weaknesses in a climate-changing world with The Travelers at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco’s Fort Mason arts complex.

Five ordinary men appear on a candle-lit stage and start to strip down. Provocative, right? But soon they are covered by cassocks of the Carthusian Order of Catholic brothers. Before we can get to know these individuals, a stranger staggers into their monastery and collapses in a mound of dirt, bleeding from a chest wound.

Excellence abounds in Catherine Castellanos’s direction…

Luckily, the wound did not pierce his heart, but Alfaro’s play is all about heart and the ways we find to mend so many that are broken by circumstance.

But where are we?

We are in Grangeville, CA, a semi-abandoned town of now only 49 in the Central Valley. Drought has forced people from their occupations, many from working the fields. They either leave town or find places of succor such as the old monastery, which is still supported by the Archdiocese.

Important back-wall projections herald each change of scene, such as “Transformation,” helping us understand why the men shed their clothes and enter the seminary. They are desperate and leaving their former lives behind. The captivating set is mostly dirt floor, candles, and ceiling candelabras. The lights create a hierarchy: memorial candles set in the small dirt piles on the floor are for the commoners who worship there, and the multitude of brass candelabras overhead, to which the brothers often visually appeal, sway and flicker as the support from the Archdiocese gives hope and then peters out.

Brian River, Juan Amador, & Ogie Zulueta, at work. Photo by Jay Yamada.

In Alfaro’s inimitable style, we learn the stories and personalities of these brothers, and their new recruit, Juan, who has so dramatically joined the order with a bullet wound and street-trash vocabulary – a most unlikely student for this seminary run by Brother Brian. And Juan in turn unmasks the mystery of the man who lives in the bathtub without a cassock, brother Ogie. Each brother has a backstory of loss: of family, of nurture, of education. They profess a bond with church and God just as long as the tenuous support of the church sustains. When that door closes on them, they become again travelers to parts unknown.

And in “Seminary,” only one heart is lifted.

Kinan Valdez, Ogie Zulueta in “The Travelers.” Photo by Jay Yamada.

This play is a full meal with much to absorb and digest later. Excellence abounds in Catherine Castellanos’s direction of so many quirky characters and scenes, casting of spot-on actors and clear rendering of script. Although some disjointed elements of this play may leave viewers scratching their heads, I dare you not to marvel at its humanity and scope.

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager.

An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com

ProductionThe Travelers
Written byLuis Alfaro
Directed byCatherine Castellanos
Producing CompanyMagic Theatre
Production DatesThru March 5th, 2023
Production AddressMagic Theatre Ft. Mason Center, Bldg D 2 Marina Blvd. San Francisco, CA.
Websitemagictheatre.org
Telephone(415) 441-8822
Tickets$20 – $70
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4/5
Performance4.5/5
Script4/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK!YES!

ASR Theater ~~ “Exodus to Eden” – A Fever Dream and Journey of Hope

By Susan Dunn

In a reverse metaphor from Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, in Exodus to Eden, a company of wanderers travels from California, which climate change has rendered a dust-bowl, to Oklahoma, which offers the possibility of affordable housing and hope for new life.

The always-unique Oakland Theater Project goes to the mat in this sprawling three-hour new production which seeks to save us from our current gods of capitalism and power. In a promo video, Arielle Powell, who plays the lead role Miriam, shares that this new play, written and directed by Michael Socrates Moran, is about this theater company coming together to try to right our seriously-wronged community.

According to The Man: “Exodus isn’t about ‘The People.’ It’s about gods. Gods fighting over a nation’s economy.”

What is wrong? That’s not always clear in the mix of character groups, historical and theatrical allusions, fuzzy transitions between dream sequences and reality, and above all, the difficulties with everyday communications across our own community. What’s wrong is conveyed to us from harangues, from bodily reactions, from mysteries, from the weather, and from technology. These elements arrive helter-skelter. Sorting this out through the play is the audience’s challenge.

The prologue announces the end of history, the end of the Cold War, and the takeover by capitalism and power. Embodied by “The Man,” we are lectured that the world is now ruled by contracts, by transactions to individuals. The social covenant is the glue which binds our communities across all different peoples. And that covenant is now dissipated by drugs.

The Man and a prisoner at work for Oakland Theater Project.

As technology advances our lives, it also destroys our planet. In a brilliant touch, a guardian angel shadows and protects The Man with a ray gun which zaps our cares for the planet by shooting off constant TV announcements of trouble. Readily available drugs help the rest of us chill out, like soma in 1984.

For the wanderers, life is a prison boxing them in. Their journey, the search for home, for house, for safety and sustenance, is to find out how to get out of that prison. As they face enormous odds, most will not survive.

Does technology “zap” our lives? See “Exodus to Eden” and find out.

This panorama of issues is fitted out with fascinating costumes, projections, sound effects and props which help to punctuate and sort out the many themes and characters. However, the road forward through the central character of Miriam, is not easily understood. She has dodged a deal with the devil throughout the play.

What she carries forward with her new child is up to our imaginations. See this play for the scope, the passion and occasional magic of the work, and decide which world you need to live in.

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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager.

An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com

ProductionExodus to Eden
Written byMichael Socrates Moran
Directed byMichael Socrates Moran
Producing CompanyOakland Theater Project
Production DatesThru Feb 26th, 2023
Production AddressFlax Art and Design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, CA 94612
Websitewww.oaklandtheaterproject.or
Telephone(510) 646-112
Tickets$10– $55
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall3/5
Performance3/5
Script2/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK!----