SAN DIEGO THEATRE SCENE

"CURTAIN CALLS" #245

By Pat Launer

www.sdtheatrescene.com

05/30/08

 

The Big Bang is raising Cain

The Wild Duck loved Three Days of Rain

And Request Programme, sans sigh or comma

Is a totally silent, solo drama.

 

 

 

A Deluge of Distress

 

THE SHOW: Three Days of Rain, the 1997 Pulitzer Prize finalist by prolific playwright Richard Greenberg (his earliest effort, The American Plan, was recently at the Old Globe, which has also produced Take Me Out  (2005) The Violet Hour (2006) and Three Days of Rain (1999), which was commissioned and originally produced by South Coast Repertory Theatre.

 

THE STORY: It’s 1995. After missing his father’s funeral, Walker, an antic, brilliant, hyperverbal underachiever, shows up for the reading of the will. He meets up with his sister, the sensible but long-suffering suburbanite Nan, and his lifelong friend Pip, a somewhat shallow but satisfied TV actor, in the abandoned New York apartment their fathers shared years ago. That was when the young men first became architectural partners, before they designed “all of the most important buildings in the last 30 years,” including the groundbreaking, “truly distinguished” Janeway House, one of the most honored designs in modern architecture; that’s what Walker came back for, to receive and inhabit Janeway House. Meanwhile, he’s been camping out in the old, empty flat where, under the ratty mattress, he finds his father’s journal. He searches for clues to his aloof, non-communicative father and to his own life, but finds the diary to be “practically written in cipher.” He’s especially irritated by the entry: “April 3 to April 5. Three days of rain,” which he takes to be merely a weather report. After some whip-sharp repartee, harsh words between Pip and Walker, and Pip’s absurd but hilarious contention that the myth of Oedipus “makes no sense,” there’s a torrent of ideas about what the fathers and their relationships were all about.

 

Act II is set 35 years earlier, in 1960, during those three life-changing, rain-drenched days. We find out how little the children (like all offspring) know their parents. And we learn about the expectations, disappointments and legacy of these two intertwined families. It’s a literate, language-rich, roller-coaster ride, thrillingly conceived and constructed. The actors are deliciously challenged to play both the children and their parents, six juicy character roles.

 

THE PRODUCTION: At the new Compass Theatre (formerly 6th @ Penn), the excellent cast rises wonderfully to the occasion, under the taut, confident and detailed direction of Rosina Reynolds. Christy Yael has a somewhat thankless job in the first act, as the brittle Nan, who’s become quite ambivalent about her brilliant but wacko-manic sib. She could bring a little more color and depth to this resigned family rock and caretaker who’s losing patience with her irresponsible sib. In the second act, she becomes luminous, magnificently attired (by Mary Larson) as the smart, sultry, seductive but unstable Southerner, Lina (aptly compared to Tallulah and Zelda) who later becomes Walker and Nan’s unhinged, institutionalized mom.

 

Jason Heil is superb as the shallow but contented Pip, a handsome, uncomplicated man who admits to lacking “substance” and “gravitas” (Walker says he’s “precision manufactured”) but is far more happy and less angst-ridden than his friends. In the second act, he’s a tad less credible as Pip’s smug, arrogant father, Theo, labeled a genius and tormented by his inability to live up to expectations. Both actors will undoubtedly shore up and expand their second portrayal to match the impressive level of the first.

 

Sean Cox is already giving two superlative performances, as mad, frenzied, loquacious Walker (his name a sly reference to his father’s early desire to be a flâneur, a wanderer who “idles through the city streets with no purpose … no career … no pattern”) and self-conscious, stuttering, introverted and taciturn Ned, whose brilliance is denied and concealed until those fateful three days awaken his talent -- and his guilt. Stunning, scene-stealing work on two vastly different characters, a testimony to Cox’s ever-expanding expertise.

 

The set (Kristine Kerr) is minimalist, which works fine for the vacant apartment in the first act, but offers little in the way of character or design in the second, except for a few books and a rearrangement of the furniture. The lighting (Ashley Jenks) is especially notable when the firelight reflects off Nan and Walker’s faces. The sound design (Matt Warburton) provides a mood-setting backdrop of cityscape and rainstorm.

 

All in all, a terrific new-theater beginning. I hope this Rain helps set the Compass on a sure and steady course.

 

THE LOCATION: Compass Theatre (formerly 6th @ Penn), through June 16

 

BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET



 

Silence is Golden

 

THE SHOW: Request Programme (Wunschkonzert in German), by Munich-born playwright/actor/director Franz Xavier Kroetz (b. 1946), who’s written more than 50 plays, as well as screenplays, radio plays and novels. In his native land, he’s received the Mülheim Dramatists Prize (1975), the Bertolt Brecht Prize (1995) and the Federal Cross of Merit (2005). Request Programme (sometimes translated at Request Concert) is considered to be one of the seminal works of German realism.

THE BACKSTORY/THE STORY: Kroetz’s plays have created controversy. In 1970, a Munich theater was put under police protection after violent audience reactions to Stubborn and Working at Home, which featured masturbation, attempted abortion and a child murder on stage. Three years later. he was Germany's most produced living playwright. The title of Request Programme was inspired by "Your Request," a Bavarian "Love Song Dedications" show of the 1970s, which is when the play was written. There is no script to speak of, no dialogue at all. The manuscript lays out, in some detail, the silent actions of the single character; the music played on the program is not indicated.

Kroetz was intrigued by police reports that indicate the considerable neatness and efficiency with which the groundwork is laid for suicide. As he put it, “Suicide is, in many cases, unbelievably tidy. The preparations for suicide do not violate the victim’s mundane, everyday activities; and the act itself is performed with the same love of order…”  The perpetrators very often clean their houses and leave everything in spotless array. So it is with Miss Rasch, who comes home to her little flat in a modern industrial city, and goes through the routines of her grim, routinized existence: she changes her clothes, goes to the (onstage) toilet, rinses out her hose, washes her hands repeatedly, obsessively scours the sink, eats a Spartan dinner, drinks a cup of tea, works on a rug she’s hooking, tends to a blemish on her face, makes sure the stove is turned off, lays out her breakfast dishes and clothes for the next day, all the while listening to her “Request” radio program. And then, as silently as she does everything else (this is not a woman who talks or even hums to herself while alone), she quietly puts an end to her drab, humdrum existence. This is, indeed, the epitome of what Thoreau called a “life of quiet desperation.” 

THE PRODUCTION: Ion theatre likes to stretch and test its audience, presenting thematically challenging work (The Pillowman), jagged new adaptations (Punks, La Gaviota) and avant-garde classics (Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape). This play fits into the latter category, though it’s not a classic in this country. But it’s had many productions in the U.S., one of which was seen by ion’s producing artistic director Glenn Paris and it stayed with him for years.

 

Under Paris’ precise, choreographic direction, Linda Libby give an intense, focused and scrupulous performance. She moves deliberately, with an economy of motion and the same fastidiousness she applies to her ablutions and quotidian activities. Emotions plays across her face, a sweet recognition when she hears music she knows, a painful memory, a disturbance about the blemish, disappointment bordering on despair when she makes an error in the rug. But mostly, her face, like her life, is a blank, which is how she looks out at us at the end.

 

It’s a chilling little slice of life, a daunting undertaking for an actor, a sort of ‘fascination for the abomination’ (to quote Joseph Conrad) for the audience, watching (from not so very far away in ion’s intimate theater) the farthest reaches of loneliness and emptiness. We want to turn away, but we can’t. We want to distance ourselves, but we can’t do that, either. This sad, suffering human is one of us, and in whatever way (as object lesson or window on the world), we have to accept her, even if we don’t agree with her lifestyle or her choices.

 

The design, like every other aspect of the production, is painstaking and meticulous. The cramped apartment is wonderfully rendered by Matt Scott and Claudio Raygoza, a small but orderly space where everything has a place (superb details and props by Judy Watson, who also designed the no-nonsense costumes). The musical choices for the ‘Request Program’ are fascinating, too: “Slaughter on 10th Avenue,” to start, followed by some Mozart and Chopin, all introduced by long-term radio personality – and frequent actor – J.D. Steyers, who during his long local broadcasting career, hosted his own award-winning program, “Classics by Request,” on KFSD. The sound (Matt Lescault-Wood) and lighting (Brylan Ranscht) help establish the setting and highlight the solitude and isolation. This is the ultimate reality show, though it’s clearly not for everyone.

 

THE LOCATION: ion theatre (The Lab at The Academy of Performing Arts), through June 14

 

BOTTOM LINE: A good bet for an open-minded, experimental theatergoer

 

 

 

The History of the World, Part 933

 

THE SHOW: The Big Bang, the musical by Boyd Graham and Jed Feuer, who performed the original production Off Broadway in 2000.

 

THE SETUP: Did your eyes get all misty when you heard Matthew Broderick sing “I Wanna Be a Producer” in the musical version of The Producers? Do you harbor that secret desire, too? Well, now’s your chance. A Backer’s Audition is being held at North Coast Repertory Theatre… and you’re invited. It’s in a posh upper East Side living room, and the composer and lyricist will do what hopeful composers and lyricists do in New York nearly every day… pitch their idea, sing their songs, stand on their heads to get potential investors excited about their creation so they’ll want to open their checkbooks wide. But this is no ordinary musical they’re introducing. It’s the most expensive Broadway musical ever written, and it’s going to require more than 300 singers and dancers, 6400 costumes, 1400 wigs and 300 prosthetic devices, for a total cost of a mere $83.5 million dollars. Oh, and by the way, it’ll take more than 12 hours to tell the entire history of the universe. A modest undertaking, to be sure.

 

The nervous-nelly book writer, Boyd Graham (Omri Schein) has borrowed his parents’ best friends’ apartment for the evening (it’s the high-end home of proctologist Sid Lipbalm and his wife Sunny); they’re not expected home till tomorrow (of course, as these things go, you know they’ll show up early). Boyd and his collaborator, the pseudo-suave composer Jed Feuer (Andrew Ableson) haven’t exactly prepared every aspect of the audition, so they’re forced to improvise on costumes -- which means they tear the place apart. The props (Bonnie Durben) and the use made of them become a show in itself, absolutely hilarious.

 

The songs are a sendup of every musical ever made, every style of every number ever written. The shtick is sheer Borscht belt. The stereotypes are decidedly un-PC, skewering and satirizing every racial and ethnic group imaginable, from the Indians to the Indians (no ‘Native Americans’ here, though Pocahontas and Minnehaha do have a drink at the Algonquin). The lyrics range from silly (Eve’s lament that Adam “cheats on me with a chimpanzee”) to inspired (“eat the apple or the crap’ll hit the fan”) – both lines from the Caribbean-inflected Eden ditty, “Free Food and Frontal Nudity.” Fast forward to Egypt (t-shirts flung over the head make perfect Egyptian headgear, but they’re nothin’ compared to the inverted planter used to cap Nefertiti, with a fireplace tool as her breastplate/neckpiece), where the pyramid builders sing in Yiddish accents “Ve’re Jews… ve’re singin’ the blues.” The Nefertiti song, “Viva la Diva,” isn’t half as good as the costume or pose.

 

There’s a very cute maternal lament by the Holy Virgin and Indira Gandhi, in which Mary sings “Being God’s mother is one helluva job,” to which Mrs. G. replies, "I don't know why you're so hyper/ My son still wears a diaper." Another female duet (with outrageous costumes made from shower curtains and garbage bags – outfits better than the song) is “Asian Ladies,” sung by Tokyo Rose and Shanghai Lil. The Christian-eating lion (“I work the Coliseum”) could be more amusing (except, maybe, for the “A martyr is good for the tartar” line). In the kitchen of Henry VIII, the chefs sing of their boss, who’s “‘half King Kong and half King Lear…  a bloated Buddha from the house of Tudah.” You get the picture.

 

Oh yes, there’s fart humor (this is Mel Brooks territory, after all), and lots of Yiddish words thrown in, and a heavily accented, vibrato-infused, Lotte Lenya-like love song about Hitler, sung by Eva Braun (“Loving Him Was Where I Went Wrong,” which includes the line, “I’m just a girl who can’t say ‘Nein’”). The speeded up ending (after the guys have found out the Lipbalms are due back any minute) is a neck-snapping ride through the last 40 years (“V-J Day, Tammy Faye…. PMS, IRS, IPO, HMO….”).

 

THE PRODUCTION: It’s so goofy and off-the-wall in its intent, and it moves at such a breakneck pace, you can’t help but love these guys and their zany antics. They’re working so hard, they’re shvitzing so much. They even look funny together: Schein is squat and Ableson, lanky. Director Rick Simas loads them up with a zillion accents and a boatload of craziness, and they handle it all with humor and agility (Schein is especially nimble). The voices are good, but the getups steal the show (costumes by Peter Herman). Marty Burnett has designed a swanky New York penthouse with the skyline out the big bay window. Every element is convertible and removable (the curtains and the sheers come tearing down; the mantelpiece clock becomes Napoleon’s hat; the fruit and bowls and cactus and sconces – it’s all fair game and put to fantastically funny use).

 

The show isn’t gonna go down in musical theater history. But it’s a great showcase for a pair of multi-talented comic actor/singers. And musical director Steven Withers makes his onstage keyboard sound like everything from a full orchestra to a Japanese samisen. So fill up on froth; summer’s officially here.

 

THE LOCATION: North Coast Repertory Theatre, through June 22

 

 

 

Nice weather for Ducks…

… It was a wild way to spend Memorial Day, but it was The Wild Duck, the fifth installment of ion theatre’s “Intimate Ibsen.” The evening performance was preceded by a seminar by Brian Johnston, the translator of all the plays in the yearlong series, an Ibsen scholar who happens to have been a professor of director Doug Jacobs (at UC Santa Barbara) and ion’s producing artistic director Glenn Paris (at Carnegie Mellon). Johnston gave a thought-provoking presentation about the 1884 classic and its multiple levels of storytelling and interpretation. On the surface, the drama is a domestic tragedy about the bourgeois Norwegian Ekdal family, a clan that seems unable to deal with reality and retreats to a fantasy attic where they simulate Nature and keep the bird of the title as a pet. On a deeper level, the play is a morality tale, all about archetypes and symbology. According to Johnston (who was loath to entertain other theories), it’s the story of Christ: a Son, a Father, The Fall and the hope for Redemption. There’s much talk of Truth and Ideals; the Redeemer and the Deceiver battle for the ‘fallen’ Ekdals. Clearly, there are many Christian references scattered throughout the play. But it can appreciated enormously as a tragic family saga.

 

One intriguing point Johnson made was how, with The Wild Duck, Ibsen “invented for the modern theater one of its major recurring metaphors. In the fantasy attic to which the Ekdals retreat from alienated reality, we can see … the pipe dreams … in Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, the illusory world to which Tennessee Williams’ vulnerable characters retreat… the escapist retreats of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and of George and Martha’s fantasies of parenthood in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

 

The symposium, of course, set the stage and whetted the appetite for the reading to come. And this stellar cast did not disappoint. In days of rehearsal, Jacobs teased deep and satisfying performances from his actors. Jeffrey Jones, continuing in his string of wonderful portrayals (especially in Ibsen) was wonderful as the idealistic Gregers, returned to ‘save’ the Edkals from their own delusions. John Polak was superb as the naïve and volatile Hjalmar Ekdal, Walter Ritter aptly doddering as his aging father; Judy Bauerlein excellent as his practical, plain-speaking wife and Rachael Van Wormer heartbreaking as his young daughter Hedvig who, adoring both her father and her Wild Duck, sacrifices everything. Dale Morris was potent as the cynical Dr. Relling and Linda Libby made a congenial appearance as the upwardly mobile Mrs. Sorby. The rest of the competent cast included: Brian Mackey, John Padilla, John Anderson, Bill Dunnam, Dan Feraldo and Matt Scott.

 

Next up in the ‘intimate ibsen’ series: Rosmersholm  which, when it premiered in 1886, was seen as a scathing critique of the "social norms" of day. It remains, like most Ibsen works, surprisingly relevant, featuring a "new woman" of a type much more advanced than Nora of A Doll's House. The reading will star Jeffrey Jones, Amy Biedel, Ralph Elias, Annie Hinton, Jon Sachs and Dale Morris. Paris, who’s helmed a reading of the play before, directs. Monday, June 30, 7pm at Compass Theatre (formerly 6th @ Penn).

 

NOTE: ion is making a SPECIAL OFFER: Smith and Kraus Publishers, corporate sponsors of “ion’s intimate ibsen,” is test-marketing a new series called IN AN HOUR, short works on playwrights such as Chekhov, Ibsen and Tennessee Williams. So, if you’ve seen ion’s La Gaviota or attended the Ibsen series or plan to buy tickets for ion’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire (previews begin June 28), call the ion-line (619-374-6894) and leave your name and phone number. ion will make a copy of one of the books available to you at their homebase at The Academy of Performing Arts. Fill out a survey after reading the book (hopefully completed IN AN HOUR, as promised) and mail or fax it to Smith and Kraus; the publisher will send you a Smith and Kraus book of your choice for free. Such a deal. Check out their offerings at www.smithankraus.com.

 

NEWS AND VIEWS ….

...New Kid on the Block … Charmen Jackson, a multi-talented veteran of numerous Ira Aldridge Repertory Theatre productions (Ain’t You Heard, Raisin’ the Rent, Dear Ella, Passion and Honey, Five Shades of Blues) has founded the new Ascension Theatre Company, which will present its premiere production, Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, ‘Night, Mother, starring Jo Dempsey and Joan Westmoreland, helmed by artistic director Jackson. June 6-29 at Sews and Shows Community Theatre in Lemon Grove. www.ascensiontheatre.com

 

… Resilient!... Compass Theatre announces the second annual Resilience of the Spirit Festival, running from June 26-August 3. Playwrights from around the world have contributed 15 scripts (12 world premieres) that tell compelling stories celebrating the power of the human spirit. The first offering, which will serve as a preview and Festival fundraiser, is a reading of Bhopal by Rahul Varma, directed by George Soete, that recalls the events that shaped India’s greatest industrial disaster, the 1984 lethal gas tragedy. June 5-6 at 8pm.

 

…Rhymin’ Simon… Veteran acting coach and director D.J. Sullivan is presenting a FREE workshop entitled “An Evening with Neil Simon.” 7pm on June 4 and 5 at the Swedenborg Hall in University Heights.

 

… WS and JM… The Moonlight Cultural Foundation presents Jonathan McMurtry's Shakespeare & Friends, a co-production with The San Diego Shakespeare Society, featuring the nationally recognized, award-winning Old Globe Associate Artist onstage with celebrity buds, including Kandis Chappell, Ron Choularton, David Ellenstein, Sandra Ellis-Troy, Antonio “TJ” Johnson, Rosina Reynolds, yours truly, and other surprise guests. Monday, June 30 at 7:30pm at Moonlight’s Avo Playhouse in Vista. Admission is FREE. Info at 760-639-6199. 

 

…Signs of the Phantom and Cats… Broadway San Diego is once again offering American Sign Language-interpreted performances of its upcoming musicals, with discounted orchestra seats for deaf patrons. The interpreters include Liz Mendoza, Doug Hlavay and Jean Kelly (who was my first sign language instructor in San Diego, and she’s terrific!). The ASL-interpreted performances are June 7 at 2pm for Cats and the 2pm matinee performances on July 26 and August 2 for The Phantom of the Opera. www.ticketmaster.com

… Return of Rent… The Broadway production of Rent (directed by former La Jolla Playhouse artistic director Michael Greif) is headed to a movie theater near you. The final performance of the rock musical, which exits Broadway on September 7 after a 12 year run, will be exhibited nationwide as part of a new venture by Sony Pictures. The company plans to bring concerts, stage shows and sporting events to multiplexes in limited engagements, similar to the highly successful program of the Metropolitan Opera. The Rent filming will also feature “special closing night extras,” with original cast members of the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical expected to join in the farewell festivities.  No dates have been announced yet, but you can check back here, or check out http://the-hot-ticket.com.

.. and speaking of Jonathan Larson creations (Rent, that is), his earlier show, the intimate autobiographical musical tick, tick… BOOM!, which had a wonderful run at Stone Soup Theatre this past winter, will be back this summer. The high-octane, small-cast, live-band, 90-minute rock musical will settle into the 10th Avenue Theatre from July 10-August 17. www.stonesouptheatre.net, www.myspace.com/stonesouptheatre.

… Sweet 15… The San Diego Repertory Theatre is closing its 32nd anniversary season with the 15th annual Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival (through June 30). The all-new, First Annual Festival of New Jewish Plays opens at North Coast Repertory Theatre, with Bluish, by Atlanta playwright Janece Shaffer, June 16 at 7:30pm.  And on the next night, there’s the world premiere of The Wondering Jew , a reading created by local actor/director/writer Matt Thompson, artistic director of the new Compass Theatre. In his comedy, a Jewish son brings a very non-Jewish date to his family’s not-so-traditional Passover seder.  June 17 at 7:30pm.

Both plays will be presented at North Coast Repertory Theatre. www.northcoastrep.org.

 

…Super Nova soars… Vox Nova Theatre Company opens its 2008–2009 season with a week-long new play festival called SUPER NOVA, featuring two world premiere productions (by San Diego playwrights Ruff Yeager and Allan Havis) and a staged reading of an exciting new musical, with book and lyrics by actor/singer/dancer/writer Karole Foreman and music by actor/writer/director/composer Ruff Yeager, founding artistic director of Vox Nova.

 

The Festival opens with the musical, The Venus Hottentot’s Extreme Makeover (6/3 at 7:30pm and 6/7 at 5pm), which chronicles a young black woman’s struggles with body image, relationships and societal pressures to be “the perfect woman.” Jeannine Marquie directs Ria Carey, Andy Collins, Brittany Cooper, Charles Patmon, Cortney Wright, and Michael Zlotnick.

 

After a well-received staged reading of Allan Havis’ drama, The Tutor, last year, Vox Nova presents a full production. This world premiere shows on 6/4 & 6/5 at 8pm and on 6/8 at 2 & 7pm.  Set in La Jolla, the play explores the relationship between a troubled teen and his tutor, both running from a difficult past.  Ruff Yeager directs Julia Fulton, Mike Sears, Fred Harlow and Josh Adams.

 

Dance on The Sun, a new play by Ruff Yeager, is the third offering of the Festival, to be performed on 6/6 at 8pm and 6/7 at 2 and 8pm. Two classical ballet stars reunite after a 25-year hiatus and discover that their relationship is still as volatile and intense as ever. The drama stars Robin Christ and Ruff Yeager, under the direction of DeAnna Driscoll.

The SuperNova New Play Festival runs June 3-8 in the Lyceum Space.

 

 

DANCE DEPARTMENT

 

… UCSD Faculty members Patricia Rincon and Yolande Snaith will be featured in the 9th installment of Blurred Borders International Dance Festival, May 30 and 31 at 8pm in the Saville Theatre of San Diego City College (C St @14th). The Festival is an “across the waters” cross-cultural event, created to foster the artistic and intellectual exchange of ideas by international, national and local progressive artists. The current edition features a blend of dance theater and video dance dealing with cultural identity. The companies include Mexico’s Lux Boreal, as well as international choreographers Yolande Snaith and Patricia Rincon, and Argentine video artist Paula Zacharias.

 

… Also at UCSD: Yolande Snaith directs Highly Sprung, which features undergraduate student dancers performing original works created by undergraduate choreographers. Fast and furious hip-hop, dance and film collaborations, edgy physical theatre, and dancing that ranges from sensual and fluid to athletic and electric, are all part of the mix. June 5-7 at 8pm in the Potiker Theatre. http://theatre.ucsd.edu/season/highlysprung/

 

 

 

 

'NOT TO BE MISSED!' (Pat’s Picks)

 

 

Three Days of Rain – wonderful performances, excellent direction, provocative play

Compass Theatre (formerly 6th @ Penn), through 6/16

 

Corpus Christi – highly theatrical, thoroughly delightful – and very respectful (even if Jesus and the Apostles are gay)

Diversionary Theatre, through 6/1

 

 

 

The summer is officially launched, and the theater season is heating up.

Pat

 

© 2008 PATTÉ PRODUCTIONS, INC.

 

For more than 20 years, Pat Launer has been the only regular broadcast theater critic in San Diego. An Emmy Award-winner with a Ph.D. in Communication Arts & Sciences, Pat sees and reviews more than 200 local theater productions every year. For the past decade, she has hosted and produced The Patté Awards for Theatre Excellence, a gala community event that honors local theatermakers (“San Diegans making theater for San Diego”) and celebrates the broad diversity of San Diego theater.