Theater Review: Sense of Decency

                         Sense of Decency

It’s difficult to even consider “decency” and Nazism in the same sentence, but that’s what you’ll get with North Coast Rep’s new play “Sense of Decency.”

North Coast Repertory Theatre’s artistic director David Ellenstein read Jack El-Hai’s nonfiction book “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist” a few years ago and found its theatrical possibilities irresistible. It’s about an American psychiatrist sent to interview jailed Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring in jail, before he killed himself with cyanide the night before his scheduled execution.

Not the sort of thing you’d usually find in a lovely afternoon at the theater? To say the least. But playwright Jake Broder adapted El-Hai’s book into the play you’ll see in NCRT’s latest offering, “Sense of Decency,” playing through May 12 at North Coast Rep.

A little, um, difficult to watch? Yep. But just consider what you would say to Göring, if somebody had asked you to interview him. It is a bit fascinating to think about. The play posits a psychiatrist (you know, the white-jacketed type) named Douglas McGlashan Kelley (and played with great amusement by Brendan Ford) being sent to interview Göring. Kelley is reported as saying his fascination with Göring was that he seemed amoral rather than immoral, even narcissistic.

But the good doc doesn’t get any new, strange or startling admissions from the

Nazi awaiting execution.

The play also includes Kelley’s new wife Dukie (played by Lucy Davenport, who also plays Göring’s wife Emmy). Of course, the wives also have things to say but (surprise!) get little chance to say them.

Göring is not above making fun of the American treatment of oppressed people here (such as native Americans) and gets a giggle out of the fact that “you actually had a war fighting for the right to keep slavery going!”

But “Sense of Decency” is neither the topic nor sort of play I would be hankering to see. This one goes on a bit too much and is both too long and too choppy to keep me sufficiently riveted. 

The details

“Sense of Decency” plays through May 12, 2024 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach.

Shows Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.

Tickets: (858)481-1055 or northcoastrep.org

Theater Review: The 39 Steps

                    Dallas McLaughlin and Erica Marie Weisz in "The 39 Steps"
                         Daren Scott, photographer

Spy stories are always fun to watch. They’re especially fun when they’re played for laughs.

Carlsbad’s New Village Arts gives us a rollicking stage version of Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s famous 1935 film “The 39 Steps.” It plays through May 12.

Here, innocent bystander Richard Hannay (excellently played by Dallas McLaughlin) is drafted in pre-World War II Britain, after which he becomes inadvertently entangled in a web of espionage after a mysterious woman is murdered in his apartment.

This is something Hannay is ill equipped to handle, feeling a bit alienated himself. But he does the best he can, which turns out to be good enough and very funny to those of us watching him.

The cast numbers four, two of whom are called “clowns” (hilarious they are) and the others are various women played by one very fine actress named Erica Marie Weisz. Are you confused yet?

Fear not, the director (Dr. AJ Knox, who also serves as sound designer) will make sure it all comes clear (well, more or less) by the end.

My favorite in the cast is Reden Magtira, one of the Clowns whose job is to explain everything to us, the audience. He is just fun to watch, especially when he goes into his “thinking cap” trances.

With the help of stage manager and sound technician Nathan Waits and his assistant Joseff Paz, scenic coordinator Frank Seed, costume designer Grace Wong, lighting designer Russel Chow, props designer McKenna Foote, intimacy coordinator Kate Rose Reynolds, sound operator Marcus Rico and dialect coach Gerilyn Brault, the show comes off as the writer intended. 

Not surprisingly, the original show won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Tony Award for Best Play.

Grab a ticket now and enjoy it yourself.

The details

“The 39 Steps” plays through May 12 at New Village Arts, 2787 State Street in Carlsbad.

Lobby doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts every day at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets available at the box office (760) 433-3245

Theater Review: Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812

Leave it to the Russians to come up with a seemingly endless classic called “War and Peace,” and to playwright Dave Malloy to take that and make a crazy-making electro-pop musical about it.

Musical? About Tolstoy’s “War and Peace?”

Yep. And not only that, but those loonies at Cygnet Theatre have put it onstage, and described it like this: “Somewhere between war and peace, young love burns hot.”

The young lover in this case is Natasha (Selena Ceja), who falls in love with Anatole (Michael Louis Cusimano) while her betrothed Andrey (Brian Mackey) is off fighting the war. How will this work out?

Cygnet’s artistic director Sean Murray directs the show, which runs through May 19. Patrick Marion does the musical direction and Katie Banville the choreography.

The way the cast rushes in and out gives the impression of a cast of hundreds, but no, the totality is played by only ten actors. Described as an “immersive experience,” you will find yourself surrounded by sound, words and dance.

Never mind how nutty it sounds, just go see the show and be assured that at the end you’ll be glad you did.

Theater Review: Ride

What would you do if you were a 19th-century young working-class English woman named Annie Cohen Kopchovsky who desired adventure? You probably wouldn’t do what Annie did, but then you’d miss out on one heck of an entertaining story now playing at The Old Globe Theatre.

The show is called “Ride” and it lets Annie tell her story in a wildly entertaining musical with book by Freya Catrin Smith and music by Jack Williams. The story of the first woman to bike around the world won several awards in England when it debuted in 2023. You can see it here through April 28.

There are only two characters here: Annie (played by Alex Finke) and Martha, a secretary played by Livvy Marcus. When the show opens, it is 1894 and Annie is talking to newspaper publishers like Joseph Pulitzer, attempting to get at least one of them to fund her proposed bike ride around the world. Martha is fascinated, and when Annie gets the approval (she will change her name to Annie Londonderry because she likes the sound), Martha agrees to go with her. Martha will get more and more musical and narrative space as the show continues.

Bikes are seen, though like nearly everything else, they are more often described than seen, and the show moves from ebullience to the grim reality of Annie’s poverty-stricken life as a young wife and mother and her struggles against sexism and class prejudice.

Finke’s voice as Annie is suitably huge, sometimes used almost foghorn-like, and kicks off the show with “The World’s Greatest Story.” Marcus has a lovely, more understated voice as Martha.

The show bounces around, and Marcus changes characters often, from French customs official to cruise ship operator. And Annie’s lot changes too, from enthusiastic adventurer to her struggles with sexism, poverty, class prejudice and the like. 

Kudos also to British director Sarah Meadows, choreographer Jennifer Jancuska and music supervisor Sam Young, who get the most out of the cast.

Bravo also to the crew that created the furniture and to the crew that quietly moves it around. The show runs one hour, 30 minutes (one act with no intermission).

“Ride” is a show like no other I’ve seen. It’s worth seeing for that alone, but fear not, there is substance here as well. Don’t miss this show.

The details

“Ride” plays through April 28 on The Old Globe’s Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

Performance schedule: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.

A post-show forum will be held on Wednesday, April 24. An open-caption performance will be held on Saturday, April 20 at 2 p.m.

Tickets: www.TheOldGlobe.org or (619) 234-5623