San Francisco
(Bay Area)

TRAGEDY FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY If you have ever wanted to introduce teenagers to Hamlet, the production directed by Leisl Tommy at California Shakespeare is the one to take them to. Staged on a decrepit waterless swimming pool, as if to suggest a decaying family mansion, Ms. Tommy wisely turns the most famous play in…

WILL THE REAL AMERICANS PLEASE STAND UP? I was on a road trip in 2007 seeking to explore the plethora of National Parks that we, the American people, own. While heading through Des Moines, I came upon a huge crowd of people gathered outside an unassuming “Barack Obama for President” campaign office. Within a few…

MORE POLEMIC BARK THAN EMOTIONAL BITE IN THIS NORMAL HEART Some eyes will be misty, some guts will be wrenched, and some souls will be startled after attending Larry Kramer’s seminal play The Normal Heart, the Broadway transfer of which opened this week at A.C.T. However, discerning theatregoers will find something missing from Kramer’s semi-autobiographical…

LOTS OF LEVELS TO PLAY WITH If you tend to like  plays with concrete storylines, well-defined goals, and a balance of symbolism integrated into reality, you may find The Custom-Made Theatre Co.’s 14th  season-opening production of Edward Albee’s The Play About the Baby  a cacophony of absurdist abstracts that requires too much guesswork  –  one which  teeters on the tedious and…

LANGUAGE AND CUSTOM ARE SOURCES OF HILARITY IN CHINGLISH At a time when Americans may feel a little uneasy about the rising power of China, Berkeley Repertory Theatre offers us a chance to step back and see a more human side of Chinese-American relations with its cleverly staged, sophisticated and uproarious Chinglish. Chinese-American playwright David…

A THREE-RING ONE-MAN SHOW Start with a true story about a family circus that shot to prominence even though it eschewed big-business-conglomerate backing, ran in a single ring without exotic animals, and interacted with and embraced the communities where it performed. Spice it up with superbly executed acrobatics. Top it off by having it performed…

DRAT THAT UNAPPRECIATIVE 99% For a good marriage of politics and theatre – pure melodrama, bull’s-eye political satire, a live band and zapping social commentary all served up by amazingly versatile actors – go (with almost the same urgency as you would to vote) to the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s For the Greater Good, or…

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE: AS TRUE NOW AS THEN Setting Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in the cutthroat world of contemporary finance a la Wall Street is an inspired notion and Custom Made Theatre Co. has produced a timely rendition of a timeless classic that’s creative, just right, and highly satisfying. In this story about…

SALOMANIA BLENDS HISTORY WITH GREAT THEATER The year is 1918 and the world is fraught with an unimaginable war. Only a doctor or a pervert knows what a clitoris is. For anyone else during this era known for its hypocrisy, such knowledge meant scandal that could and did blast lives. In Aurora Theatre Company’s   Salomania,…

A MYTH ADVENTURE In retelling Euripides’ Medea, Luis Alfaro stirs mythology, mysticism, vengeance, raw passion, the immigrant’s plight, and unfathomable traditions of cultures past into a theatrical crucible with Bruja (meaning a witch or sorceress). The Magic Theatre production has cooked up a colorful Mayan theatrical tapestry with nary a weak thread, creating a powerful,…

BARED  SOULS AND BARE FLESH The huge production of Ray of Light Theatre’s The Full Monty may be packed into the tiny Eureka Theater (opening night was squirming-room-only), but it astonished me how satisfying such full measures of delight, laughter, robust song, and crisp dance could be packed into this revival. Add to that the musical’s…

THE ALIENS CUTS CLOSE TO THE BONE The Aliens was already sailing high when it made its West Coast premiere at the SF Playhouse, as it has been hailed by the New York Times as a “gentle and extraordinarily beautiful new play.” Playwright Annie Baker, an emerging young talent already rising to the top of…

A GRIPPING PLUNGE INTO THE DARK SIDE Watching Marin Theatre Company’s Othello, I wondered if William Shakespeare was determined – with teeth-gritted ferocity – to make the audience squirm with the effort of holding back shouts of warning and outrage. While Elizabethan audiences were uncensored, presumably barking back to the stage at any of the…

THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD 18 year-old Jesus of Nazareth has heard some distressing news from his sucky carpenter of a father, so he bails Galilee with his whiny, Girl, Interrupted-like friend, Abigail, who’s, like, way in love with Jesus. They arrive in India where Jesus is ready to party. Like, suck on a hookah….