Amid comic bewilderment and general lunacy, “something is taking its course” is the refrain uttered amusingly by Hamm in Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame.” This was the feeling at Zellerbach Playhouse as The Gate Theatre of Dublin brought this absurdist play to life. Not sure what mad sequence of remarks or daft Read More…
Greed and corruption are currently at the center of American discontent. With occupations from Wall Street to UC Berkeley, our attitude towards wealth has become the forefront of daily political conversation. The Aurora Theatre’s latest play, “The Soldier’s Tale,” based on Igor Stravinsky’s 1918 musical work, continues this dialogue by Read More…
Encrusted with diamonds and rubies, a stolen snake brooch lays on a sitting room chair, forgotten by a character in Oscar Wilde’s play, “An Ideal Husband.” It represents the lurid depository of wealth that lies underneath the ever widening buttocks of the fat cats and bigwigs of London society. Just Read More…
“Pelleas and Melisande” serves your standard fare of castles and princesses, romance and tragedy, but this fairytale is perhaps mores akin to something out of the literature stacks than a child’s storybook. To open its 12th season, San Francisco’s Cutting Ball Theater introduces a reimagining of this Symbolist play, the Read More…
“We will be judged by how well we love.” This line, spoken by the title character in Toni Morrison’s “Desdemona,” easily sums up the production’s perspective on humanity: We will not be judged by how successful we are, nor by how many friends we have, not even by how many Read More…
As written in the script, “The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer” is “a stage-play for a Baroque-Orchestra, two sopranos and one actor.” As seen on stage, the show is a full art experience. Presented by John Malkovich and writer/director Michael Sturminger, it is an intriguing format of orchestral Read More…
Peter, Paul, Mary…and Bill? Almost your typical cast of a Biblical saga, these characters are not actually the personalities you’d find in either the New or Old Testament. As seen in Steinberg Award-winning playwright Bill Cain’s newest, autobiographical work, “How to Write a New Book for the Bible,” the cast Read More…
She’s an artist, a writer, a mother and a terrorist. These are but a few descriptions of the elusive main character Anna, who never appears on stage, in Martin Crimp’s experimental play “Attempts on Her Life” performed by the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance studies at the Zellerbach Playhouse. Read More…
With ticket in hand, I approached the showing of William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.” Drawing closer to Cal Shake’s amphitheater, the unexpected thud of club music echoed around the courtyard. The front of the press packet read “Reimagining The Classics” in bold lettering. And a reimagining it was. Read More…
The grand fantasy of spending every last dime on a train ticket to get to Hollywood in the hopes of making it big sets the stage for the American Conservatory Theater’s latest production, “Once in a Lifetime.” Written in the early 1930s by the famous duo Kaufman and Hart, “Once Read More…
