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Regional Reviews: San Francisco She Stoops to Comedy, Beautiful Thing and Boom
SF Playhouse is presenting what could be called "thinking person's" theatre in David Greenspan's She Stoops to Comedy through January 9, 2010. This provocative play opened Off-Broadway in 2003 with the playwright playing Alexandra Page. Since then, there have been very few productions of this strange yet fascinating 80-minute travesty on the theatre. David Greenspan's comedy is a take-off of the cross dressing of Shakespeare's female protagonists in such plays as As You Like It and Merchant of Venice. This show is open to reinvention and reinterpretation—there is rewriting at the slightest caprice. The career of Alexandra Page (Liam Vincent), an uncontrolled lesbian actress, seems to have gone into the toilet since she has been playing in Shakespearean plays in Montana for several years. She is worried about losing her lover Alison (Sally Clawson) who is playing Rosalind in a Maine summer theatre production of As You Like It. Alexandra disguises herself as a male so she might play Orlando in Maine. That in itself is very funny since she is now masquerading as a man to woo a woman who pretends to be a man in the play. What happens after this is hard to harness in this unconventional plot. It involves: a gay actor (Scott Capurro) who tries to put the make on Alexandra, who is now disguised as a male; first-time stage director Hal Stewart (Cole Alexander Smith), who is really an independent film director; and Hal's assistant Eve Addaman (Carly Cioffi) ("I am going to present As You Like It with just four characters and then have local talent fill in small background roles," Hal says). Into this weird and strange farce comes Jayne Summerhouse (Amy Resnick), an ostentatious actress who tries to put the make on Alison. She also plays Kay Fein, her former lover who is a lighting designer for the play. You get all of this in 80 minutes of fast-paced theatre and film zingers that are entertaining (Alexandra disguises herself self as a male with hair on her arms "that once belonged to Laurence Olivier"). Liam Vincent (SFBATCC award for best actor in Dead Mother or Shirley Not in Vain last year) is outstanding in the role of Alexandra. His fantastic opening entrance seems to be an homage to the legendary actress Katherine Cornell. Liam turns every sentence into a display of synthetic emotions that run the gamut. Amy Resnick (Dead Man's Cell Phone) is superb playing both Jayne Summerhouse and Kay Fein in one astounding scene where she chit chats and escalates an argument with herself. She does this with drop-dead timing; it is an amazing tour de force of comic acting. Scott Capurro (U.K. standup comedian) is wonderful as the lonely gay actor Simon Lanquish. His very impassioned monologue, "who needs another play about a gay man that is a hairdresser, has AIDS, is lonely, etc., etc.," is very touching. Cole Alexander Smith (Little Women at Foothill) is wonderful as he spoofs independent film directors. Carl Cioffi (The Book of Liz) as Eve Addaman and Sally Clawson (The Rules of Charity) as Allison give solid performances. Bill English's set is bare except for a bed in the center of the stage and dressing rooms off to the sides of the stage. Costumes by Valera Coble look like clothes that actors would wear off stage. Mark Rucker's direction is wonderfully theatrical, especially the entrance of Liam Vincent in the first scene. She Stoops to Comedy will appeal to those who love in-jokes about theatre and film, intellectually barbed dialog, and great comic acting. She Stoops to Comedy plays through January 9, 2010 at SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter Street , San Francisco . For tickets call 415-677-9596 or visit www.sfplayhouse.org. Their next production will be Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper opening on January 19, 2010.
Jonathan Harvey's tale of love blossoming between two teenage boys in a sprawl of high-rise apartments has excellent writing and clever dialogue between Sandra (Gigi Benson) the mother and her 15-year-old gay son Jamie (Ben Carver). Jamie is in love with a butch footballer Ste (Brant Rotnem) who lives with his alcoholic father and brother. They seem to think of Ste as a punching bag. The violence becomes so intense that Ste has to leave their flat so Sandra invites him to stay in Jamie's room. Sexual examination and burgeoning romance develops between the two boys without Sandra's knowledge. The mother has a painter boyfriend Tony (Cory Tallman) and slowly accepts the fact that there is love between the two young boys and all's well that ends well. Ben Carver as the shy, geeky Jamie and Brant Rotnem as the handsome, popular Ste work well together, though they struggled with the accents on opening night, occassionally fading into more of an Irish accent. Also, the intimate conversation between them while in bed could be projected more for the small theatre. However, I am sure they have worked their way into the roles. Gigi Benson weaves her way into becoming the beleaguered over-protective single mother Sandra. She dominates the play in the second act with her personality, movements and precise speech in Sandra's confrontations with Jamie about his homosexuality. Shubhra Prakash is good as the barb-tongued next door neighbor Leah. She has an obsession with Mama Cass, and her finely tuned rendering is responsible for many of the show's laughs. However, she speaks too rapidly in the opening scenes; hopefully, she has slowed down the speech patterns of the working class British lassie. Rounding out the five-person cast is Cory Tallman, giving an effective performance as the painter boyfriend. The New Conservatory Theatre Center is using the original set design by Rob Vogt. It is an interesting set of four red doors leading into flats. Lighting is just too bright in many of the scenes. Beautiful Thing runs through January 3, 2010 at the New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness, San Francisco. For tickets call 415-861-8972 or visit www.nctcsf.org Dames at Sea opened on December 4. Photo: Lois Tema
Boom is a glib whimsy 90-minute ride about Jules (Nicholas Pelczar), a gay virgin marine biologist who has spent three years of his life in solitude on a Pacific island observing the life patterns of fishes. He has determined from this experience that a comet is going to hit the earth, obliterating 95% of the population. Jules builds a survival shelter and stocks it with Cheerios, Maker's Mark, Chef Boyardee, tampons and disposable diapers. Now Jules will need a mate, right? So he puts an ad on Craig's List and hot-to-trot Jo (Blythe Foster) answers. From the ad, she is thinking this will be one hot night of sex. Well she could not be more wrong. Jo finds out the world is about to end and she is not a happy camper. The comet hits the earth and now they are Adam and Eve ready to repopulate the earth—or are they? Jules tries to convince Jo that they must populate the earth, to which Jo replies, "You don't want eggs from this basket. They're cracked." Did I mention that Jo is also a virgin and prone to sudden fainting spells? For the next hour a lot happens in this colorful tale, including a critical miscalculation of the location of the food stash and the resolutely anti-childbirth attitude of the deeply messed up woman. Playwright Nachtrieb has a good ear for contemporary dialogue and the three actors throw themselves into this absurdist tale with manic energy as directed by Ryan Rilette. Nicholas Pelczar (A.C.T. War Music, Rock n Roll, A Christmas Carol) gives a lively and full of life performance as the wacky marine biologist Jules. Blythe Foster (Mark Jackson's Faust and Macbeth at Shotgun) is wonderful as the sardonic journalist Jo. Their chemistry together is right on. Joan Mankin (Dead Man's Cell Phone, The Importance of Being Earnest) as the wild museum guide keeps things going at a merry pace. She is hilarious giving observations, using special effects like pulling on levers on the side of the stage, pounding kettle drums and hitting a Chinese gong for effect. She also narrates an extravagant account of her own conception that is a scream. It is a tour de force of comic acting. Erik Flatmo has designed a marvelously crammed survivalist shelter set that moves during the "explosion" of the comet hitting the earth, thanks to sound designer Chris Houston. Lighting by Michael Palumbo is very effective as are costumes designed by Callie Floor. Boom ran through December 6th at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave, Mill Valley. For tickets call 415-388-5208 or visit www.marintheatre.org. Their next production will be the world premiere of Sunlight by Sharr White opening on January 21. Photo: DavidAllenStudio.com
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