Past Reviews

Regional Reviews: San Francisco

Gidion's Knot and Hir

Also see Jeanie's review of R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe and Richard's review of Jerusalem and Man in a Case


An Intense Production of Johnna Adams' Gidion's Knot


Stacy Ross and Jamie Jones
Photo by David Allen
Gidion's Knot centers on a penetrating parent/teacher meeting during the late afternoon hours. After her son's school suspension and the tragedy that follows, distraught mother Corryn (Jamie J. Jones) confers with a defensive elementary school teacher named Heather (Stacy Ross). You have never seen a parent/teacher conference as tense as when these two meet in the fifth grade classroom. Two strong actresses hold the audience spellbound for 75 minutes without an intermission.

As they enter the three sided theater, the audience sees Heather sitting at her desk. She seems anxious and keeps looking at a large clock. However, when Corryn arrives for a scheduled parent/teacher meeting, the teacher denies that a meeting was set up, even though Corryn has a paper saying the meeting was set for 3:15 that day. Corryn is a single mother and a Northwestern University literature professor whose son Gidion was a student in Heather's class. A week previous, Heather had suspended the boy from class. He then went home, told his mother the news and then killed himself.

The question here is why the young boy shot himself. Was he being bullied or was it about his own disturbing band of conduct? We learn through the mother that her son was an expressive prodigy. She believes that the teacher could not appreciate the exquisiteness and distinctiveness of her son's domineering mind.

Many subjects are discussed during the confrontation between the two, such as bullying, parent accountability, teenage sexuality, and freedom of expression. The real reason for the boy's suicide comes soon enough, and it explains the behavior of both the mother and the teacher.

Johnna Adams certainly packs a lot into her 75-minute drama. Many of the scenes are poetic and profound, and sometimes during the confrontations you might feel a little discomfort. The play touches on conflicting ideas of childhood development and the educational policy in American schools. The zero-tolerance policy in some schools and what can be viewed as a threat to fellow students is questioned. The mother points out that great poets, novelists and thinkers rarely self-censor their own work even when they are young.

Stacy Ross as Heather and Jamie J. Jones as Corryn give vivid performances and their confrontations are electrifying. Stacy Ross beautifully underplays the role of the teacher while Jamie J. Jones gives a powerful performance as the haughty single mother.

Nina Ball has designed a bright fifth grade classroom with neat desks and a cheerful scholastic décor. Jon Tracy strikingly helms the production. He manages the steer the play from becoming a didactic manifesto.

Gidion's Knot has been extended through March 9th at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison Street, Berkely. For tickets call 510-843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org. Coming up next is David Davalos' Wittenberg opening on April 4th. The company will also present Mark Jackson's The Letter in their second stage starting April 17th and running through May 25th.


A Wild Production of Taylor Mac's Hir

Taylor Mac, who wrote The Lily's Revenge, the five-hour pageant which premiered at the Magic in 2011, has now written a much shorter farcical comedy. Hir is about the weirdest dysfunctional family you will ever meet. The comedy is written in a form that the playwright calls "absurd realism." This kind of dialogue comes mostly from the devilish mother.

The plot is insane but I loved it. Isaac is returning after a three-year tour in Afghanistan with a dishonorable discharge for drugs. He is despairing and seeks out the ease of his own home with a father who dominated the house. Well, he won't find it so now, since his mother from hell, Paige, is head of the household and his father Arnold, in lacey nightgowns and clown makeup, is a rampant fool after a devastating stroke. Isaac's sister Maxine has become Max and his mother has become a hoarder. There are heaps of trash and clothing strewn all over the house. Bottom line: this is not what he expected.

Hir has a lot going on, with a newly enlightened Paige forcing a deliriously liberated world on her children Isaac and Max, who is sculpting a third sex gender identity for "hirself." You might call this a commedia dell'arte version of Sam Shepard's Buried Child.

Nancy Opel (Memphis, Gypsy and Urinetown on Broadway) is dazzling in the role of the giddy, progressive, dominating Paige. She is fantastic speaking the playwright's crazy soliloquies. Mark Anderson Phillips (Waiting for Godot, The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus) is brilliant playing the semi-intelligible Arnold. You just can't take your eyes off of him as he crawls around and attempts to stand up, looking more like an ape then a man. It's a tour de force of acting without words. Jax Jackson (New York Lesbian Love Octagon) is engaging as Max, who is proud of his evolving gay manliness. Ben Euphrat (Ideation, Good People) gives a persuasive performance as the returning Marine who just can't cope with this change of events.

Alex Distler has designed a wonderfully grimy and grotesque set for the three-sided theater. Niegel Smith's direction is piercing and penetrating.

Hir is playing through February 23rd at the Magic Theatre, Fort Mason Center, Building D, 3rd Floor, San Francisco. For tickets call 415-441-8822 or visit www.magictheatre.org.

- Richard Connema