Review: ‘Birds of a Feather’ at New Conservatory Theatre Center
This reviewer is a voting associate member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC)
(“Birds of a Feather” plays at New Conservatory Theatre Center May 17 through June 29, 2013.)
Remember the gay penguins of Central Park Zoo? Two male penguins, Roy and Silo, were noted by zookeepers back in 1998, when they participated in courting rituals with one another, usually reserved for males and females. They followed that up by attempting to hatch a rock! Curious, the zookeepers provided them with an egg from a heterosexual couple (they were having difficulty hatching two eggs at once) and the male birds incubated it and raised the chick. Astonishingly, the female chick (whom the keepers named Tango) went on to mate with a female penguin in another gay coupling.
Playwright Marc Acito‘s award winning “Birds of a Feather” cleverly imagines how this story might be told from the penguins’ perspective. The result is quite funny.
Acito uses his premise to explore many of the issues arising around the subject of gay marriage, nature versus nurture, and queer theory. His scatter gun script sometimes wades in shallow sit-com territory, but there are plenty of insights and clever jokes to keep things moving along nicely. He manages to make some gay cliches seem fresh and funny, as when one of the penguins reveals a preference for show tunes over more typically guttural penguin mating calls. This is not a profound play and audiences shouldn’t expect too much but, for what it is, it is very charming frivolity.
New Conservatory Theatre Center presents Marc Acito’s “Birds of a Feather”.
In addition to telling the story of Roy and Silo, the script tracks the history of the (real life) children’s book about the birds, “And Tango Makes Three” which has been one of the most banned books of the past few years. He also incorporates the (true) story of two hawks nesting and forming a family in one of New York’s most expensive residential buildings.
Luke Taylor and David Levine as both the gay penguins and the heterosexual hawks are hysterical, and do a marvelous job of differentiating their bird characters. Levine is especially funny as the macho celebrity hawk, “Pale Male”, providing many of the evening’s best laughs.
A romantic subplot involving Christopher Morrel as a shy birder and Elissa Beth Stebbins as a somewhat nerdish Zookeeper is also engaging.
Further complications involve the troubled marriage of Paula Zahn. Less successful, but intriguing, are some reflections on the tragedy of 9/11 which seem to be from another type of play altogether.
Nothing here will be new to San Francisco audiences, who may find this gentle defense of gay families to be a bit old hat. Still, it is funny and pleasing and the performances charm. This would be a great play to take your elderly visiting Aunt from the midwest who means well, but is perhaps still confused about how to think of gay marriage. She’ll enjoy herself, maybe open her mind a bit, and you’ll have a good time too.
For further information, click here.
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“Birds of a Feather” by Marc Acito, produced by New Conservatory Theatre Center. Director: Tom Bruett. Set Design: Dean Shibuya. Costume Design: Wes Crain. Video Projectin: Lauren Soldano. Lighting Design: Molly Stewart-Cohn.
Zookeeper/Paula Zahn: Elissa Beth Stebbins. Silo/Lola: Luke Taylor. Roy/Pale Male: David Levine. Birder: Christopher Morrell.
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Review: ‘By & By’ at Shotgun Players
This reviewer is a voting associate member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC)
(“By & By”, produced by the Shotgun Players, plays at The Ashby Stage from May 22nd through June 23rd.)
In “By & By”, Lauren Gunderson (a very up-and-coming San Francisco playwright who specializes in work that deals with scientific issues) approaches the subject of human cloning in a play with great emotional appeal.
Biologist Steven (Michael Patrick Gaffney) is the single Dad of a teenage daughter and he has a secret which she has discovered. At first we might think she has learned that she is adopted, but then we realize that she is a clone. When her mother died in an automobile accident, her father created a clandestine clone, abandoned his laboratory, and went into virtual hiding from the scientific world to keep her protected and their secret private.
Now the secret is out, because scientists at the cloning laboratory, who have been using Steven’s technique to clone dead children for bereaved parents, have run into a difficulty. Most of the clones are flawed — they develop devastating diseases as teenagers and then die young. Steven’s child, Denise, however, is in perfect health. Why? The scientists want to know and they have found the two of them and they are demanding answers. Congressional investigations are on the horizon.
It is a great premise, allowing playwright Gunderson to explore the situation as a coming of age story for Denise (and a love story between Steven and his deceased wife).
Framed as a sort of detective story, playwright Gunderson has teenager Denise run away from home with her father’s records to investigate the story by following various clues. It is an excellent device, and allows for many interesting scenes, including an encounter with another clone and her aging aunt who suffers from dementia. Two scientist colleagues of Steven’s keep the story on track and provide a kind of Greek chorus of analysis and comment throughout.
Michael Patrick Gaffney is excellent as the father Steven, who gradually comes to realize his responsibilities and works to come to grips, after many years, with his grief for his wife’s passing. Lynne Hollander, an exceptionally skilled actress with a fascinating history (google her name with Free Speech Movement), is quite remarkable in multiple roles, especially that of elderly Aunt Amanda. Jennifer LeBlanc, in the dual roles of Denise (Steven’s deceased wife who lives on in memory) and Denise (Steven’s very present teenage daughter) is outstanding, and Bari Robinson shows range and charisma as one of Steven’s scientist colleagues and a cloned teenager who is dying of unknown causes.
“By & By” is an interesting and exceptionally well crafted play, emotionally grounded, and very thought provoking.
For further information, click here.
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“By and By”, a world premiere by Lauren Gunderson, produced by Shotgun Players. Director: Mina Morita. Set Design: Robert Broadfoot. Light Design: Stephanie Buchner. Wardrobe: Ashley Rogers. Sound Design: Colin Trevor.
Steven: Michael Patrick Gaffney. Amanda/Dr. Green/Receptionist: Lynne Hollander. Denise/Denise: Jennifer LeBlanc. Marcus/Dr. White: Bari Robinson.
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Review: ‘Terminus’ at Magic Theatre
This reviewer is a voting associate member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC)
(“Terminus” plays at the Magic Theatre from May 22 through June 16, 2013.)
Playwright Mark O’Rowe has enjoyed a distinguished career in the Irish theatre, with numerous productions premiering at both the Gate and the Abbey. He first collaborated with the Magic Theatre for the West Coast premiere of his play, “Howie The Rookie”, an extraordinarily successful piece that won the Ronney Prize for Irish Literature. He is known for plays with small casts constructed with lengthy monologues in which stories are told rather than enacted. But what telling! This is a playwright whose poetic gifts are among the most remarkable in contemporary literature, and his monologues soar and thrill and attack the listener with an almost vicious visceral punch that is unforgettable. His characters, and their stories, are often violent, sometimes disgusting, occasionally stretching credibility, always riveting.
“Terminus” takes place in a sort of limbo. The set consists of nothing more than a pile of ash, lit by spotlights which pick out the three actors who speak individually, never to each other, in interlocking monologues. At the start, we do not know who they are or why they are on this ash heap, nor, apparently do they. It is an opening worthy of the Twilight Zone.
Actor A begins to speak of her work as a counselor on a suicide line and tells a story of how she went looking for a client who is the victim of domestic abuse. Her story is riveting and gradually gives way to Actor B who tells an unrelated story about being set up in a sexual situation by manipulating “friends”. This story gives way to a a monologue from Actor C who is himself a vicious murderer.
What the stories have in common is vivid imagery, violence, ugliness and yet always sympathetic narrators – even the murderer.
(l to r) Marissa Keltie, Carl Lumbly and Stacy Ross in the first American production of Mark O’Rowe’s “Terminus” at Magic Theatre (Photo Credit: Jennifer Reiley)
Each story continues with more and more elaboration, gradually interlinking the lives of the three characters, carrying us through a great variety of emotion, situation and setting, even into the skies and descending into hell. It’s astonishing.
As the depth of characterization and story telling increases, the language gets more and more interesting. Eventually, almost every line begins to feature internal rhyme. The monologues give way to what feels like a long form poem, very musical, very disconnected, not always easy to understand, but endlessly engaging.
This is some of the most astonishing writing I have ever heard in the theatre. It whips, snaps, sings, sizzles, dances, irritates, startles and stuns.
Still, the play frustrates somewhat because it is difficult to grasp the intent of all these pyrotechnics. The actors are all excellent, managing the rhymed language and complex imagery with great skill. Carl Lumbly (recently seen in “The Motherf**ker with the Hat” at SF Playhouse and now making his Magic Theatre debut) is particularly haunting as the mass murderer condemned to hell yet somehow retaining our sympathy and even becoming a convincing figure of romance. Both Stacy Ross and Marissa Keltie have sublime moments as well. But when all is said and done, it is difficult to grasp the point. It is like ambient trance music—it just goes on, carrying us with it, and then stops. There is no destination and no conclusion to be drawn. Arguably, this is the playwright’s intent and perhaps he is making an existential comment upon life and its ending and both the beauty and meaningless of it all. Perhaps. I’m not sure.
Whether it leaves the viewer confused or enlightened, there is no doubt that this will stand as one of the most astounding productions of the season, well worth seeing.
For further information, click here.
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“Terminus” by Mark O’Rowe, first American production produced by Magic Theatre. Director: Jon Tracy. Set Design: Robert Brill. Costume Design: Christine Crook. Lightning Design: Gabe Maxson. Sound Design: Sara Huddleston. Dialect Coach: Deborah Sussel. Technical Director: Dave Gardner.
A: Stacy Ross. B: Marissa Keltie. C: Carl Lumbly.
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Review: ‘Abigail’s Party’ at San Francisco Playhouse
This reviewer is a voting associate member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC)
(‘Abigail’s Party’ plays at the San Francisco Playhouse from May 21 through July 6, 2013.)
Bringing a great comedy from page to stage is a delicate operation, and far too often the patient dies. Not so with “Abigail’s Party”at San Francisco Playhouse. Mike Leigh‘s comedy is delivered here by an expert ensemble with laughs intact. This is one funny night out.
Our pleasure begins watching the delectable Susi Damilano as Beverly, dancing about her house in preparation for the arrival of several guests for cocktails. Ms. Damilano holds the stage by herself, with no dialogue, presenting a little play of her own that amounts to a prologue for what is to follow. It is a tour de force and on opening night, before a word of dialogue had been spoken, Ms. Damilano had her audience in stitches.
“Abigail’s Party” is not, in fact, the subject of the play, but rather the background circumstance that creates the onstage situation. Abigail (whom we never meet), is the 15-year-old daughter of Beverly’s neighbor Sue, who is throwing a party for her friends. Beverly and her husband Laurence have invited Sue and another neighboring couple over for cocktails so that Abigail can party without adults hanging around.
Of course, everybody is worried that Abigail’s party will get out of hand, but it is the adults, downing cocktail after cocktail after cocktail and tearing into each other in a robust, horrifying, and screamingly funny no-holds-barred game of one-upmanship that are the real party animals.
The cast of “Abigail’s Party” from l to r: Allison Jean White as Angela, Patrick Kelly Jones as Tony, Julia Brothers as Sue, Susi Damilano as Bev and Remi Sandri as Laurence. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli.
In the course of a very funny evening, three marriages are dissected, neighborhood soap operas unraveled and weaknesses revealed and exploited.
This is a play of character more than of plot and thus depends on exceptional acting to succeed. Each actor in this production hits it out of the ballpark. Susi Damilano’s shameless vamping of Tony the neighbor, husband of the guileless Angela (a very capable Allison Jean White), is over-the-top but never divorced from reality. As Tony, Patrick Kelly Jones is deliciously stiff and uncomfortable, making the most of a vocabulary of nervous grunts. As Beverly’s embarrassed husband, Laurence, Remi Sendri is convincingly desperate as he tries to maintain his dignity and assert his claims to status.
Bay area favorite, Julia Brothers, turns in a real gem of a comedic performance as Abigail’s worried mother, Sue. As she tries, and increasingly fails, to maintain her composure under an onslaught of gin and tonics foisted upon her by her aggressive hosts, Brothers’ gradual drunken deterioration is a marvel of subtle physical comedy. She can communicate as much with her expressive, startled eyes than many actresses can with their entire torso. Her work here is an unqualified delight.
As one should expect from playwright Mike Leigh, who has authored such thoughtful screenplays as “Topsy-Turvy” and “Secrets & Lies“, the comic shenanigans are not without serious implications and by play’s end some unexpected hairpin turns into drama have been accomplished. The actors handle all of it with aplomb.
For further information, click here.
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“Abigail’s Party” by Mike Leigh, produced by SF Playhouse. Director: Amy Glazer. Set Design: Bill English. Sound Design: Brendan Aanes. Lightning Design: Dan Reed. Costume Design: Tatjana Genser. Properties: Jacqueline Scott. Dialect Coach: Lynne Soffer. Choreography: Kimberly Richards. Hair Design: Angels at Alcheme Salon.
Susan: Julia Brothers. Beverly: Susi Damilano. Patrick Kelly Jones: Tony. Remi Sandri: Laurence. Allison Jean White: Angela.
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Review: ‘Prelude to a Kiss’ at Custommade Theatre Company
This reviewer is a voting associate member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC)
(“Prelude to a Kiss”, produced by Custommade Theatre Company, plays at The Gough Street Playhouse from May 21 through June 16, 2013.)
Craig Lucas‘ gentle yet profound fantasy, “Prelude to a Kiss”, dates from the late 1980s, a time when the burgeoning AIDs epidemic was moving artists to consider issues of mortality among young people. Lucas’ astonishing fable addresses the issue of AIDs obliquely (it is never mentioned in the play), but matters of homosexuality and heterosexuality, the loss of beauty, decay, the threat of death, the wrongness of the world are all touched upon.
The premise of this often-produced play will be familiar to most audience members. At the wedding of Peter and Rita, a mysterious old man, unknown to any of the wedding guests, asks to kiss the bride. When he does so, they exchange consciousness. Now he resides in her body and she in his. The old man (with Rita inside) leaves the wedding and Peter and Rita (who is the old man inside) go off on their honeymoon.
In subsequent scenes, Peter gradually realizes that Rita is, well, she’s just not Rita. Bit by bit, he realizes what has happened and sets out on a search for his love, whom he eventually finds in the old man’s body.
Allison Page as Rita and Richard Wenzel as the Old Man share a mysterious kiss. Photo Credit: Jay Yamada
All of this provides wonderful opportunities for humorous writing, peculiar love scenes (a love scene between a very old man and a very young man in which the old man is actually the young man’s beautiful bride?), reflections on aging and mortality and the nature of romantic love.
The play has remained popular, and is repeatedly revived, because of Lucas’ graceful and persuasive handling of these complex themes and his elegant comic dialogue. He makes us believe.
The play works especially well as a showcase for the actors playing Rita and the Old Man, who have to convince us that their bodies are inhabited by one another. Allison Page as Rita and Richard Wenzel as the Old Man are entirely up to the task, delivering sterling performances good enough to send chills of wonder up our spines. They are supported by a skilled company throughout, with Nick Trengove exceptionally charming as Peter, the confused young husband who must provide the emotional backbone of the play.
Director Stuart Bousel applies his usual deft touch to the dialogue and the movement, keeping the stage picture interesting at all times and plumbing the language for layers of meaning. A wonderful set by Andrew Cummings features a constantly moving cyclorama projection of clouds (created by Maxx Kurzunski), evoking an eerie feeling of otherworldliness and the quick passage of time.
For further information, click here.
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“Prelude to a Kiss” by Craig Lucas, produced by Custommade Theatre Company. Director: Stuart Bousel. Scenic Design: Andrew Cummings. Lighting/Video Design: Maxx Kurzunski. Costume/Props Design: Maria Chenut. Sound Design: Cole Ferraiuolo.
Peter: Nick Trengove. Rita: Allison Page. Old Man: Richard Wenzel. Taylor: William Leschber. Tom/Minister/Jamaican Waiter: Charles Lewis III. Mrs. Boyle: Jan Carty Marsh. Aunt Dorothy/Leah: Elena Ruggiero. Dr. Boyle: Davie Sikula.
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Review: ‘The Medea Hypothesis’ at Central Works
This reviewer is a voting associate member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC)
(The world premiere of “The Medea Hypothesis”, produced by Central Works Theatre, plays at the Berkeley City Club from May 18 through June 23, 2013).
The reworking of the timeless themes and characters of the Greek theatrical genius has been a staple of western theatre for centuries. With “The Medea Hypothesis”, Central Works makes a respectable contribution to this tradition with a remarkably accomplished playwriting debut by Marian Berges.
Berges’ take on the story is fascinating. Medea, in the original, is a witch or sorceress, which might be considered an archetype of the destroying mother. This negative view of motherhood is not popular nowadays, with most of us preferring the positive image of an all nurturing “Earth Mother” or the Godess Gaia. Devotees of Carl Jung will note that every positive image has its dark shadow. Playwright Berges is interested in paleontologist Peter Ward’s suggestion of a “Medea hypothesis” as a counter to the “Gaia hypothesis”. Ward suggests that our “mother earth” may not be as nurturing as we would like to believe but, in fact, is prone to mass extinction and doesn’t really care much about biological life.
Reimagined as a highly successful contemporary fashion designer, this Medea (named “Em”) is a loving and attentive mother, but the pressures of age, a philandering husband, a distant adolescent daughter and her curiously mysterious seductive assistant Ian (in a superlatively creepy performance by the excellent Cory Censoprano) are weaving a terrifying net about her psyche.
Jan Zvaifler as Em and Cory Censoprano as Ian in “The Medea Hypothesis” by Marian Berges at Central Works. Photo Credit: Jim Norrena.
Initially charming, capable and sympathetic, Em’s gradual deterioration and descent into vengeful madness is chillingly depicted by Jan Zvaifler. We know from the beginning that this good mother will ultimately turn bad, and Ms. Zvaifler does an excellent job in taking us by the hand along that dark pathway.
In addition to the aforementioned Cory Censoprano, Ms. Zvaifler is supported by additional excellent work from Joe Estlack in an astonishingly versatile multi-character performance and the young Dakota Dry as her daughter (who appears only in video projection).
Director Gary Graves makes certain that this production is never dull and it flies by in seventy five minutes without intermission.
It is not perfect. It is sometimes too wordy, and it is debatable whether the extensive use of video projections is the best way to tell this story. But it is full of theatrical magic and excitement and genuine emotion, and achieves a true cathartic effect. It is also not without its humorous moments, in particular, an extremely funny scene set in a French/Swiss restaurant that offers some much welcome comic relief.
Em’s ironic complaint, that “one does not have an unlimited supply of empathy”, is a marvelous bit of irony, hitting just the right note of horror and humor and truth.
That’s damned good writing, and in this remarkable debut playwright Marian Berges has shown us work of which she and her colleagues can be justly proud.
For further information, click here.
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“The Medea Hypothesis” by Marion Berges, produced by Central Works. Director: Gary Graves. Video: Pauline Luppert. Sound: Gregory Scharpen. Costumes: Tammy Berlin.
Ian: Cory Censoprano. Sweetie: Dakota Dry. Carl/Christopher/Dad/Restaurant Onwer/Waiter: Joe Estlack. Em: Jan Zvaifler.
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Review: ‘The Whipping Man’ at Marin Theatre Company
(The Bay area premiere of “The Whipping Man”, co-produced by the Marin Theatre Company and the Virginia Stage Company, plays at the Boyer Theatre from March 28 through April 28).
The moment we see Kat Conley’s remarkable set design of a crumbling antebellum southern plantation house and hear the haunting sounds of a stormy night as beautifully realized by sound designer Will McCandless, Matthew Lopez’s “Whipping Man” carries us away into a fantastic Southern gothic world rich with poetic imagery and slippery realities.
Tobie Windham as John, L. Peter Callendar as Simon and Nicholas Pelczar as Caleb in “The Whipping Man”. Photo credit: Marin Theatre Company.
The crumbling facade appears about to collapse. We see only by candlelight (completely convincing with Ben Wilhelm’s excellent lighting design). A masked man lopes mysteriously past the broken windows of the front hallway.
Then a desperately wounded soldier stumbles in and collapses.
This is among the most dramatic openings you are likely to see in the theatre, and it works well. The audience is rendered breathless in short order.
The act that follows is mostly exposition. We learn that the house is the home of the confederate soldier Caleb (Nicholas Pelczar) and that it has been cared for by two slaves of the family who are now free but remain because they have no place to go and are hopeful that the master of the house will return and give them some promised money to make their way north to a new life.
After the initial exposition, the plot of this play is remarkably convoluted, perhaps too much so, but it provides many extraordinary opportunities for a trio of highly skilled actors, particularly L. Peter Callender as the elderly, recently emancipated slave, Simon. Callender is called upon to play scene after scene of extreme emotional intensity and he rises to it over and over again in a performance of operatic grandeur. It is a career highlight performance for this always excellent Bay area actor.
Among the most interesting discoveries in the play is the Jewish identity of the three men. Caleb’s father, the plantation owner, is Jewish and he saw that the slaves raised on his plantation were given a Jewish religious education as well. The peculiarities of this situation bring many opportunities for reflection on the meaning of slavery and freedom. How can a Jew, whose primary religious celebration emphasizes the release of the Jewish people from slavery, hold slaves? What can the celebration of a Passover Seder possibly mean to Black slaves in the antebellum American south? When Callender’s Simon insists upon holding a Seder in the midst of disaster, singing “We are coming Father Abraham”, and reporting how he has learned of Lincoln’s assassination or when he reflects upon the nature of freedom and Jewish identity, the stormy emotional currents set loose upon the stage powerfully reflect the stormy circumstances of the story. This is a play about unending torment: emotional, physical, religious, social, familial, all at the hands of the mysterious figure of the ‘whipping man’ vividly described by the older and younger former slaves, Simon and John (the latter played well by a very charismatic Tobie Windham). One wonders if perhaps this whipping man might not be G-d Himself. It is a deep play.
Perhaps too deep for easy comprehension. One is left with the feeling that the ever more complex details and secrets revealed in the course of two acts are too much to follow. Playwright Lopez makes unusual demands upon his audience, perhaps a bit more than necessary.
Director Jason Minadakis, however, does an excellent job of keeping the play emotionally interesting through every sequence, even in the midst of an over abundance of detail and revelation. The design elements are uniformly excellent, and, most importantly, the actors take the audience on a memorable emotional ride, not easily dismissed, and likely to remain in the heart long after seeing the play.
For further information, click here.
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“The Whipping Man” by Mathew Lopez, co-produced by the Marin Theatre Company and the Virginia Stage Company. Director: Jason Minadakis. Scenic Designer: Kat Conley. Lighting Designer: Ben Wilhelm. Costume Designer: Jacqueline Firkins. Composer: Chris Houston. Sound Designer: Will McCandless.
Caleb: Nicholas Pelczar. Simon: L. Peter Callender. John: Tobie Windham.
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