Inspired by mmonk’s yearly tradition, I am presenting the theatrical memories version for this year:
Lovely ladies (esp. Lea)
Rush opera tix (totally worth it)
Valentine’s Day with Mark Morris
Wynton Marsalis’ Red Hot Holiday Stomp
Xanthe’s breathtaking performance
Berkeley Rep’s Argonautika and ABT with Cal Performances
Berkeley Rep’s Argonautika
Two great shows are opening this week:
White crushed velvet leggings? ABT’s Kristi Boone and Isaac Stappas in Tharp’s “Baker’s Dozen”.
or Should Another Actor’s performance change the outlook of the whole story?
I am very conflicted. This play really got under my skin when I first saw it on Broadway a few years ago, it was my very first straight play, and it totally blew me away. I was actually more impressed with Brian F. O’Byrne’s portrayal because it was so…convincing and balanced, I was really torn whether his character, a Catholic priest, really did molest a boy or not. It was so unclear and well played by O’Byrne. South Coast Repertory’s priest, James Joseph O’Neil, also did a balanced job of portraying a priest with questionable yet so innocent looking actions.
Now after seeing the South Coast Repertory’s production a few nights ago, I can see that instead of Brian F. O’Byrne’s portrayal and acting skills, it is actually the accusatory nun (brilliant Cherry Jones on Broadway) who convinced me so well that the priest was guilty of molestation. After watching the Broadway play, I was convinced (yet still had deep doubts) that the priest was guilty, guilty as charged! As Cherry Jones’ portrayal of the nun was so convinced. But then…after watching this play again two nights ago…I am confused once again. Linda Gehringer’s portrayal of the nun was a bit of a caricature; emphasizing the funny lines, so much so that even in serious conversations, the audience thought it was a joke (shocking, especially when she was speaking about child abuse to the mother of the suspected victim , and audience members are laughing). Gehringer’s portrayal of Sister Aloysius was more of a hell-bent nun who doggedly (without much reason or logic) was out to bring down the priest, no matter what. It was such an extreme portrayal; I thought it was a bit unfair to the character. And it made me realize that maybe this nun’s accusations were pretty ungrounded, and the priest may be innocent, after all. In comparison, Cherry Jones played the character with such humanity and integrity, she didn’t strike me as such a vengeful and hateful nun as Gehringer did. (To be very fair, I am not sure if anyone could even compare to Cherry Jones’ acting on stage; it is a difficult act to follow and Gehringer should get props for courageously attacking a difficult character). Hopefully once the play gets past previews, the acting will improve.
I watch many different casts of the same productions a lot of times; many different actors will emphasize different characterizations and bring a new perspective on a character. But no actor has ever made me change my mind about the ending of the play. (Priest = guilty, with Cherry jones as Sister Aloysius, Priest = innocent with Gehringer as Sister Aloysuis). Sorta shocking; which ending is the “true” ending? Should I just go with my first instinct (based on the Broadway cast) or is a community theater production just as valid? How does another actor’s portrayal show the intent of the character in a more extreme way, changing the outcome of my conclusion?
On a complete side note, the portrayal of Mrs. Muller by the brilliant Kimberly Scott completely broke my heart. A full out, emotional, quiet tornado of a performance…the desperation of a mother of a boy who might be abused, to quietly accept it at all costs, in order for her son to have a chance in life at a good education….was heart breaking. And can I say, this is the only production of Doubt where I’ve heard that the young Sister James’ character is “not annoying”. Well done by actress Rebecca Mozo.
The question remains though; is the priest guilty or not? I’m confused more than ever…
And a behind-the-scenes look into Argonautika
The two storytellers on the left, watching the fantasy story of how two unlikely characters save Tokyo, a six foot SuperFrog and a homely businessman. Jennifer Shin, Hanson Tse, Keong Sim, and Paul Juhn
Last night, I finally got a chance to visit the Berkeley Repertory Theater for the first time. And what a treat to see a play that I had wanted to see! I saw Frank Galati’s after the quake, based on a book written by Haruki Murakami. It was one of those hypnotic worlds where dreams and fantasies collide and blur the line between reality.
A lot of the press has spoken about how this play is relevant in today’s post-9/11 society. This play centers around the lives of people who survived the tragedy of the Kobe earthquake in Japan. To me though, it had little to do with how people deal with life after tragedy per se, but more universally about how people deal with having dreams and the dangers of such dreams. The characters adopt the strategy of detachment in order to cope with unreached expectations and lost loves. This detachment is magnified by the characters referring to themselves in the third person, and multiple characters share the narration, as if to prevent personal investment in the story. This mood of loneliness and detachment resonated with me as an audience member – perhaps because the sentiment is so relateable and the feeling is so intimately personal, and stayed with me long after I left the theater. Despite mixed reviews, I was absolutely riveted throughout the 90 minute play, and was disappointed when the play ended.
Hanson Tse and Keong Sim were standouts of this play. Both actors have inhabited their roles since its inception, and it really shows how they fully embody their roles. Hanson Tse really is Junpei, the gentle hero coping with his lost love and restrained and crippled to do anything about it. He copes with his failed dreams by spinning fantastical stories that swirl around him and the people around him, buffering his thoughts away from himself. As the play progresses, we start to see the the bubbling of a volcano of emotions underneath his restrained surface, when he realizes he’s reached none of his dreams since college. Keong Sim played the Narrator/Frog – assured and confident, I was struck not only by his talent but also by how roles like his are so rare amongst Asian American actors. It was refreshing to see, and this play was really a step towards Asian American portrayals on stage.
Despite the compelling stories, the play is still very book-like. The writing includes bits such as, “And he says”, which breaks up the flow and reminds the audience that this is originally a written story. Perhaps intentional, but in this sense, I understand why some people felt like this play doesn’t completely translate on the stage, and might be a better read than viewing it on stage. The drama and the riveting effect still translates onstage – in all, it made me more curious about the book this play was based on.
I left this play with a feeling and a mood – an aching bittersweetness of a lost love, with images of a droll frog fighting earthquake worms, Tonkichi the bear who can’t speak, a terrified girl trapped in a box, and unknown heroes.
A few words about Berkeley Rep: I have a soft spot for small theaters, which promotes a sense of intimacy lost in bigger spaces, and I loved the theater we were in, the Thrust Theatre. A small group of us had been invited to tour the Roda Theater as well, which is a bigger theater but still maintains a sense of intimacy. They were setting up the next play of the season, Argonautika, which is a play that I’m really excited about, as I’ve blogged about before. The half-built set looks really cool and multidimensional, with wood paneling as if you are inside a boat, with an open back wall. Directed by the Tony award winning Mary Zimmerman, she weaves the tale of Jason and the Argonauts with even a modern anti-war themes thrown in for good measure. Rumor also is that they use puppets in the show (I’m thinking more Julie Taymor-style Lion King puppets, not the Avenue Q kind).
And in general, Berkeley Rep is picking good works that challenge the boundaries of theater and redefine it. This, to me, is what art is about. I also love the fact that they are striving to reach new audiences, in different ways from providing discounts to audiences under 30, holding “30 Below” parties for people of similar interests to mingle, book clubs of relevant books to shows they are showing, as well as a series of gourmet tastings of chocolate, champagne, and more, before the shows. Check out more of their special events, here.
For me, there really is nothing more fun than experiencing theater and getting to talk about it with like minded people. Many thanks to Terence, Sarah, and Marissa for a great night at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
after the quake is playing through November 25th. Argonautika opens on November 2. Click here for tickets.
Here are my recommendations for this season at the Berkeley Rep.
Jen’s review of after the quake, when it was playing in La Jolla.
Berkeley Repertory Theatre website
Yesterday, I got to see a great Bay Area show with a few friends. It was a bit of a last minute trip, but I had worked on Saturday and really needed something to look forward to. So I called up two of my friends, and we snagged last minute rush tickets to see Bill Pullman’s Expedition 6 at the Magic Theatre, located at Fort Mason next to the beautiful bay with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
At the Marina, right outside the theater, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background
I went into this show with a few misgivings, as I’ve mentioned previously. The mixed reviews didn’t help, with the main concern that this play lacks coherence. I think it helped that I did some research on my own before I saw it, and knew I wasn’t expecting a Mamma Mia or something like that.
I never thought that I would care so much about a space shuttle disaster, but the story is so human, it’s hard not to care if you hear the story. This play retells the story of the Columbia shuttle mission, which was sent to rescue three astronauts that were stranded on the International Space Station, but crashed while in the middle of this compassionate mission, killing the three members on board. The story continues to tell of the three stranded astronauts and their completion of the mission to return back home to Earth. An interesting twist added to this story is that the Iraq War is occurring at the same time, which buries this space story onto Page 17 of the newspaper, and so very few people heard about this story.
Interesting parallels and metaphors are made between the space shuttle story and the concurrent war in Iraq. A common question persists – When is it ok to put someone’s life at risk? What is “acceptable risk, acceptable loss” when human lives are at stake? Other questions are left in the audience minds, such as why are NASA mission members, as well as soldiers, required to always answer positively without questioning orders, when that question could be your final hope for life? And why didn’t we hear more about the Columbia shuttle disaster and Expedition 6 in the press when it happened a mere 3 years ago?
The format of the show was pieced together as snippets of news reports (including CNN), round table debates, Congressional hearings, interviews with the astronauts as well as their wives, and narration as if it occurred in the participants’ heads, with the plot being reenacted in dance and movement. Not all the facts are there, and you get the feeling of a frustrated person who’s searching for the truth on what happened, when your only resources are spotty news reports and commentary. A number of questions remain – perhaps Bill Pullman, in researching for this show, never found the answers himself?
The standout for me was the beautiful integration of dance and movement with the story. I am really loving the integration of different art forms to make a completely new sort of show. This was utilized well in the beginning, where actors walk in random directions around the stage, as if they were flying stars or planets, and simultaneously slow down as the narrator says the word “omen”, to emphasize the word which later becomes an important theme. The use of dance to emphasize the acting and the plot, and vice versa, is what I love about it. Low flying trapezes were used in this production to allude to the lack of gravity in space. Perhaps the dancer in me loves this as a moth to flame, but the flowy swings and the lazy twisting of the trapezes as well as the tremulous balances were beautiful to watch, illustrating and adding to the plot as we, as well as the actors, are objects subject to the forces of nature. Arwen Anderson was a standout to me in her beautiful willowy movements; I suspected a dance background and her cast biography revealed a background in trapeze and aerial silk at the Circus Center of San Francisco.
Arwen Anderson, with Robert Karma Robinson, Justin Walvoord, and Brent Rose
Despite the revelation throughout the show of the failures of government as they hid facts, in both the Iraq War as well as the shuttle expeditions, the show surprisingly ends on a hopeful note, with words on how “home” to each of us always means something different. This could mean exactly that, but what I read was that despite these horrible things going on in America and what we call home, sometimes all we can do is step outside of that and stare out the window in wonderment at what we see, because it’s still our home, and yes, it’s still curiously beautiful.
Perhaps it’s because I love John Doyle’s minimalist shows so much, but sometimes the use of props was too literal. The thing that bugged me the most was when the helicopter rescued the astronauts, not only was there the sound of a big helicopter as if it was landing inside the theater, but an actor walked across the stage holding a power drill with mini spinning helicopter wings. The sound of the helicopter would be enough for the audience members to imagine a huge helicopter landing beside the parachute, and the prop was redundant, as well as looking a tad silly.
The ensemble cast was excellent, acting to genuinely move and impact audience members. All exceeded the physical demands of their roles, and played their multiple roles well. An admittedly biased standout for me was John Behlmann, whom I had seen in Journey’s End on Broadway. It was good to see him sink his teeth into a much larger role, playing multiple roles including humorous ones. His tall stature also added drama and gravity to his dance movements, and his stage presence made it hard not to watch him in the middle of ensemble dancing.
Robert Karma Robinson, Justin Walvoord and Brent Rose
Overall, I found myself deliciously losing myself in this gorgeous moving production, relishing in its open ended question marks and eerie coindences and the raw “unfinished” quality (which the costumes helped to accentuate, or as my friend put it, all the actors look like J. Crew models). I highly recommend seeing this production with friends who are thoughtful – I took a lawyer as well as a scientist, and one of my favorite parts about this production was analyzing and talking about the show with them afterwards. Another random note: if you’re uncomfortable with actors staring at you, stay away from the front rows.
Go see this production before it closes next weekend. Rush tickets are available for as cheap as $10, even full priced the tickets aren’t expensive. Watch with an open and inquiring mind with likeminded friends, and it’s a great evening out. Click here for tickets.
San Francisco Chronicle photo by Lea Suzuki
Left: Karl Hanover, Right: John Behlmann in Expedition 6
At first glance, the fact that this theater piece is directed by Bill Pullman nor the fact that this piece is about the Columbia shuttle disaster did not catch my attention. But reading more into it, it’s caught my curiosity. I’m always a sucker for theater that incorporates dance and music in a play (such as Coram Boy). Expedition 6 uses low trapezes to simulate a sense of anti-gravity through space. Add live music? And then add John Behlmann, who was the sergeant who brings in the pepper in Journey’s End? I’m there.
John Behlmann
The mixed reviews are a little disconcerting however. I’m afraid it’s going to be another Across the Universe, Julie Taymor’s latest project/movie. Great artistically and visually in theory, not so great when put into practice. I suppose I’ll have to see for myself.
The world premiere of Expedition 6 is playing at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco in association with the Chabot Space & Science Center until October 7. Click here for details.
This imaginative docudrama explores the personal and political life-and-death crisis of two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut stranded in space after the Columbia Shuttle disaster. Pullman uses a company of eight actors, movement, live music, and low-flying trapezes in this stylized new work based on writings by astronauts, NASA reports, and other primary source materials.
I was also reminded of this show when a very nice caller from the American Conservatory Theater called to ask me to be a subscriber. Aside from the discomfort of saying that my schedule and my budget doesn’t allow me to subscribe except to a select few theaters, he mentioned the Tosca Project, a collaboration between ACT and my favorite, the San Francisco Ballet. All I can find about this show is, however, the fact that it already passed. The caller was saying it’s playing again at the Zeum Theatre at the Yerba Buena, but I couldn’t find any more information about it. This show also gets points in my book for having the most attractive picture of Muriel Maffre that I have ever seen.
Yes, Maffre’s the one that’s upside down, with actors Jody Flader and Gregory Wallace
This show also includes my favorite ex-SF Ballet dancer Joanna Berman (I can almost forgive her for leaving as soon as I moved closer to SF), Pascal Molat (as a “paranoid druggie”), and Maffre, whose character is described as a “a weird, sexy French lesbian who wants to get near the poet.” Absolutely irresistible!
When you combine two different art forms into one, is the effect exponentially additive? I suppose not always, but it’s experimental and creative – I love it.
Aiko Nakasone, Hanson Tse, Keong Sim and Andrew Pang
Photos of Haruki Murakami’s After the Quake has been posted, coming soon to the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and currently playing at the La Jolla Playhouse. The staging looks really interesting – futuristic, minimalistic, hypnotic – my curiosity about this play is definitely piqued.
Currently playing in San Francisco at the New Conservatory Theatre Center is the successful Off-Broadway show “The Big Voice: God or Merman?”with its original (all two) cast members. What really caught my attention was the great NY Times review of the original off-Broadway show.
“Our contemporary embrace of the memoir is a longing for the true adventures of life. The trick is to make memory art without losing the awkwardness that proves authenticity. Here art is achieved with light hands, and the result is a triumphant and very touching song of praise to everyday love and the funky glories of the show business life.”
Click here for more information.
I realize that my blog has been shifting in focus esp in the last few months – it’s virtually turned into a theater (Jersey Boys?) blog. It’s not always going to remain like this – it’s just that I didn’t even get to finish blogging about the shows that I saw in my second to last trip to NY. On top of that, nothing big is happening at work – experiments are slow, and hopefully with a bit of luck I’ll finish my qualifying exam by the end of summer. Maybe I’m doing all this theater talk to forget about work??
Anyways. Some thoughts on Coram Boy. I had wanted to see this play since I read about it in the NY Times, but in general, it got canned by critics. My feeling is that people were afraid to like it b/c it was so overly dramatic, predictable… From the very premise of it, it’s very dramatic – the program was one of the most full program I had ever held in my hand, with a cast of 40+ actors, and even the orchestra in the pit were dressed up in baroque powdered wigs and costumes. On top of amazing sweeping effects, the play ends in a rousing rendition of the huge cast in the chorus of Handel Messiah’s “Hallelujah” chorus. But despite its predictability and its melodrama, there was something about the show that touched a childlike desire in my heart that was fully satisfied by this play and I fell for it, completely. This is what theater was meant to do – this is what it means to be theatrical.
My favorite scene is pictured above – showing two boys being drowned, with Meshak at the bottom of the ocean, saving their lives by pushing them back up to the surface. My jaw just dropped. I know it’s melodramatic, and over the top, but I lapped it up with my eyes wide open.
Some standouts in the play – Xanthe Elbrick’s Tony nomination is very well deserved. Her portrayal of two different boys was amazing to watch so closeup from the front row. Jan Maxwell’s portrayal of a jaded accomplice was so natural. Another standout for me was Charlotte Parry’s portrayal of the young Thomas Ledbury, the energetic lower class boy who is out of place in the upper class world of the Ashbrooks. One note on Brad Fleischer as Meshak – I realize that his character was supposed to be simple, but from the very opening of the play, the direction of his character seemed misguided, and had me confused and put off from the very start of the show. I was glad to see though, that he graduated from UCSD. 
Sadly it closed this weekend. The Tony Awards management committee, I think, was afraid to nominate this show for its melodrama (a quote from Michael Riedel’s column: “As for Coram Boy, the only people who despise it more than the critics are the Tony nominators.”) And with the show barely selling at half capacity, it really had no reason to stay open until June 10. I’m glad it sold out for the last show though, and glad I got to experience it before it closed. It was a piece of classic, entertaining theater. As someone mentioned, it was nice to have a play that didn’t hurt your cerebrum as much as the other plays that are currently on Broadway. I love Journey’s End, which would be under this category of a cerebrum hurting play, but it was fun to get lost in the world of the Coram Boy.
Hugh Dancy and Justin Blanchard
Jen told me I had to see Journey’s End so of course, since she’s my most influential theater recommender, off I went. I was excited and also anxious because I didn’t know to expect from a show that was so critically acclaimed but not very popular. Being a play about soldiers in World War I, admittedly the subject matter did not grab my attention. But oh what a play.
Highly acclaimed as the best show on Broadway, it was a perfect theater experience. Gripping, powerful – It’s one of those shows that stays with me way past the time I get to see it, like Company. I’ve also realized that these are the shows that I don’t completely understand the first time I see it, mostly because it’s so layered and nuanced. I would love to see it again. And what other play could be so relevant in today’s time of war?
The play takes place in between the battles and raids on the front lines in WWI. You listen in on the conversations and the concerns, the dreams, and the personal demons of these officers in the midst of such tragedy. With the stage intimately lighted with candles, sometimes you had to strain to make out their faces. In this intimate setting, I felt like I could pull up a chair with them, and get swept up in their emotions. Jen knows how disturbed I was during certain scenes in the play! I felt like I was there. I was there!
This show reminds me of the idea that someone had, that the Tony’s should include an award for “Best Ensemble”. This show would win it hands down. There is no weak link in the entire cast. Boyd Gaines is “quietly overwhelming” as the Uncle of the group and brought me to tears as he prepared himself for a raid. Jefferson Mays was my favorite – he is such a natural talent, it was amazing what he could communicate to the audience with a look (e.g. his reaction when Trotter recited him a nonsensical poem). Stark Sands was also a standout, because he was Raleigh – fresh faced, and in awe of being there in the midst of war (as well as on the Broadway stage?). Justin Blanchard’s performance as Hibbert was absolutely riveting. As one fan said, his character “scares the hell out of me”, which always kept me at the edge of my seat. I never knew what to expect, and his extremes of emotions is such a crazy ride. Hugh Dancy was, admittedly, slightly disappointing. To be fair, his performance was extremely hyped. He plays the role of a tortured soul well, but… something about his performance I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s like looking at a portrait of a man in which you notice that his teeth are a bit too white. Dancy was a tad smooth-edged, a hint of a comfortable glint in his dark eyes, where it didn’t convince me entirely that he was the edge of a complete breakdown.
“[War]… It’s all so silly, isn’t it?”
My favorite scene in the play is when Stanhope (Dancy) is trying to convince Hibbert (Blanchard) to stay and fight the war without deserting his team. You see Hibbert going insane because he would rather die in shame than to stay in the uncertainty of war, with Stanhope equally desperately fighting to keep his precarious leadership and unity from falling to pieces around him. Stanhope presents a desperate plea to Hibbert that he should stay to fight with his fellow soldiers, with an explanation that makes sense yet makes no sense at all.
“D’you ever get a sudden feeling that everything’s going farther and farther away, till you’re the only thing in the world — and then the world begins going away, until you’re the only thing in the universe — and you struggle to get back — and can’t?”
My favorite picture below: the Journey’s End boys in a spoof of their own show, at the Easter Bonnet competition, where they pretend to be the Jersey Boys and make fun of their low ticket sales. “We Want You!” is in reference to their low ticket sales, in that they want you to be in their audience.
Lyrics from their song:
“We are playing to 3% capacity.
We have an intimate relationship with the audience…11 of us…11 of them.
No cute chicks, and only one real Brit,
Who would want to see our play?
What to Do?
Have Hugh Dancy do a shower scene
Put a puppet on your hand!
Choose our new leads on reality TV.
Riverdancing Feet!
Will put Butts in our Seat!
A show for the whole damn family.
Sell Outs Don’t Flop”
