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Regional Reviews: San Francisco The Pianist of Willesden Lane and Underneath the Lintel Also see Richard's reviews of I and You and Emily Bergl at Society Cabaret
The playwright vividly tells of Lisa's life before leaving Vienna, including her Viennese piano teacher who is suddenly forbidden to give the young girl lessons and a trolley stop is no long named after Mahler because the composer was a Jew. There is the horror of the Kristallnacht where the young girl watches her father beaten by Nazi soldiers. Golabek tells Lisa's story as the young teen scavenges on her own during the London Blitz, assuming the voices of men, women and other refugee children Lisa lived and worked with. There is even a romantic interlude during the story. The story ends with her triumphal graduation from The London Royal Academy of Music playing the third movement of Grieg's piano Concerto in A minor. Mona Golabek is an incredibly talented pianist and throughout her story she beautiful renders pieces by Beethoven, Debussy and Chopin. The music is filled with passion and technically impeccable, even as she delivers her line. There is a little bit of "Strike up the Band" and "These Foolish Things" in the setting of a club full of American GIs in London before D-Day. Director Hershey Felder adds visuals to the sensory package through impactful archival photos and newsreel footage projected in the large antique gilt picture frames hanging about the midnight blue stage, with Mona sitting with a large grand piano in the center of the stage. This tour de force performance is a treasure not to be missed. The Pianist of Willesden Lane plays through December 8th at Berkeley Repertory Thrust Stage, 2015 Addison Street, Berkeley. For tickets call 510-647-2949 or online at www.berkeleyrep.org. Coming up next is the Kneehigh Theatre production of Tristan & Yseult by the creators of The Wild Bride. It opens on November 22nd and runs through January 6th.
Once the Librarian gets his stride, he begins telling a story about how and why he lost his job, having to set off on a wild goose chase that becomes increasingly eccentric and eventually takes him around the world. He tells the story in a flood of monologues, intermingled with an "impressive presentation of lovely evidence" culled during his travels. The Librarian follows his leads from London to China, New York to Australia and beyond. Some of the clues are a 1913 laundry claim ticket from London with the home address of the man's library account in China. Other clues include a dry-cleaning ticket, an animal quarantine record, a letter, a photograph, a wax cylinder recording, a pair of tattered trousers—all important clues. He shows the audience slides of the places he visited with fitting background music. The farther he endeavors, the more his prey takes on characteristics of immortality. Even the ancient Christian parable of the Wandering Jew comes into play along with the Flying Dutchman fable and the omnipresent "Kilroy was here" myth. There are some narrative weak spots, including an unnecessary and melodramatic inclusion of the Librarian's girlfriend that 'got away" plotline. As performed by veteran and television actor David Strathairn, Underneath the Lintel is a completely riveting story. From the moment he appears on stage, this actor totally inhabits this unconventional, brilliant and wildly loquacious character, smoothly reeling off the many discoveries, insights and wry digressions as though he were making them up on the spot. It's a bravura performance. Director Carey Perloff keeps a tight focus on the production that keeps the audience engaged. Nina Ball has devised an enormously cluttered, deserter-theatre set. Underneath the Lintel plays through November 23rd at the American Conservatory Theatre, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco. For tickets call 415-749-2228 or on line at www.act-sf.org Coming up next is the Bay Area's favorite holiday tradition, A Christmas Carol. It opens on December 6th and run through December 28th.
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