Theater Review: Life Sucks

                            The cast of "Life Sucks"

If you asked me to describe life in the Covid era, I might well say “life sucks.” But playwright Aaron Posner beat me to it – and he’s not even talking about Covid in his new play “Life Sucks,” in its West Coast premiere through Feb. 27 at Cygnet Theatre.

Posner found similarities between life today and a cholera epidemic in Chekhov’s time (the playwright was also a doctor), and has reworked Chekhov’s 1897 “Uncle Vanya” (about aimlessness and wasted lives) to something that plays like a parody, though Posner calls it an homage.

Rob Lutfy has been tapped as director – an excellent choice, as Lutfy seems to get the point, which is that life sometimes really does suck, but we can get through it with a little bit of luck and the help of friends.

He’s moved the locale to contemporary San Diego, and added an audience-participation component, so theatergoers not only get to watch, but are asked to respond at appointed times.

Chekhov’s main characters are here: The old gray-haired Professor (Frank DiPalermo), married to lovely young thing Ella (Emily Shackelford), who is sought after by handsome (not to mention alcoholic) Dr. Astor (Jorge Rodriguez), among others. 

Then there’s Vanya (MJ Sieber), getting up there in age and beginning to realize his whole life has been a waste, and Vanya’s niece Sonya (Savanna Padilla), who actually owns the house where we meet these folks. Sonya would love to be sought after by the handsome doctor, but it is not to be.

Along for the ride are two characters not in the original, both female roles: young Babs (Patty Gallagher), a potter, and the amusing Pickles (Beatrice Basso).

The opening scene is more Chekhov than it meant to be: the light switcher went out, and it took two tries to get it back in working order. But that’s the kind of life we’re talking about, where nothing works quite right.

Much of the charm of this piece is in the artistic design, beginning with  Yi-Chien Lee’s set design – a huge quilt as backdrop, with chairs and lamps placed around the stage. There’s a country look about it too. 

Minjoo Kim’s lighting adds atmosphere and sometimes humor, as do Shirley Pierson’s woodsy-look costumes. Peter Herman’s wigs and makeup designs fit right in as well, as do Steven Leffue’s sound designs .

The atmosphere goes from funny to sad to downright depressing and back, as the characters make lists of what they love and what they hate, and attempt to  figure out how to minimize the sadness.

Is life worth living, with all these problems? Sure it is, at least sometimes, and it’s those times we’re all looking for.

Don’t miss this strange and (sometimes) wonderful play.

“Life Sucks” plays onstage through Feb. 27, 2022 at Cygnet Theatre in Old Town and on demand through Feb. 28, 2022. An ASL interpreted performance on Feb. 23 is also available. Call the box office at 619-337-1525.

Proof of vaccination and the wearing of masks required for live performances.

 

Theater Review: Sapience

 

Mariel León and Alexander Guzman

Human communication is difficult enough under ideal conditions. So is scientific experimentation. But imagine what either would be like if you had neurodiversity issues.

Playwright Diana Burbano can tell you, and shows you in the world premiere of her fascinating play “Sapience,” on the boards through Feb. 20 at Moxie Theatre. This is a co-production of Moxie and TuYo theaters.

Burbano is neurodiverse herself (on the autism spectrum, she has ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and knows what it’s like to be treated as an “other” by people who don’t understand.

Her main character Elsa (played by Mariel León) is a primatologist who is working with an orangutan named Wookie (played by Nancy Ross), a curious female orang who seems to crave connection more than Elsa. Elsa is an excellent scientist, perhaps partly because she is on the autism spectrum and devotes pretty much all her time to setting up situations with Wookie for her to observe.

Elsa’s cousin Miri, tasked with cleaning the lab, occasionally visits Elsa. An outgoing Latinx immigrant with rainbow-dipped hair and lots of bubbly charm, Miri brings her autistic 12-year-old son AJ (excellently portrayed by Enrique Xavier Martinez) with her. Communication is difficult for AJ, but he does strike up a friendship – and verbal communication – with Wookie (who in this case conveniently speaks English).

Elsa’s lab is run by Jason (Alexander Guzman), a charming, boyish zoo administrator who does his best to keep the zoo’s board of directors happy, because that’s his job. He is impressed with Elsa – perhaps even interested in her – and invites her to meetings with the board, but her mind is trained strictly on her work. Her heart may have different needs, but with her limitations those will never include schmoozing with board members.

But Miri and Jason seem to have much in common – dancing, for example, and oh by the way, he can sing. Wookie and AJ, meanwhile, strike up a connection the boy will have with no other human.

“Sapience” manages to be both amusing and thought-provoking while offering 

four humans and one animal with various needs for and abilities to communicate. 

The drama turns on changes (doesn’t everything?). Jason will move on to another zoo in San Francisco. What will happen with Miri, and for that matter with Elsa, Wookie and AJ?

Kudos to Director Vanessa Duron for keeping this unusual piece moving (and for excellently portraying Miri, as well), and to the playwright for illustrating the problems of the neurodiverse in such a captivating way. 

Nancy Ross gets special mention for portraying the only English-speaking orangutan craving connection with humans I’ve ever seen. It’s magical realism onstage, and both Ross and Wookie are delightful.

Mariel León is excellent as the researcher so focused on her research that she may miss out on much of the joy of life. 

Alexander Guzman does the best he can with Jason, whose character seems underwritten and almost coincidental. He’s a board-pleaser, that’s clear, but why late in the show do we find out he has cancer?

Adam Parrocha’s scenic design actually manages to move our attention from Elsa’s office to Wookie’s area (“cage” doesn’t really quite describe it, but then Wookie is a talking orangutan and those don’t exist either), and then to a more neutral zone where interactions between Miri, AJ and Jason can take place.

Major kudos to the tech crew, who change the scene with lighting and sound cues (provided by Colby Free and Mason Pilevsky). The most interesting one (because Moxie expects neurodiversity among the audience) is a red light that flashes when a potentially triggering event is about to occur.

“Sapience” (which means wisdom) could use a rewrite, but gives us an intriguing view into lives lived differently.

Film Review: A Peloton of One

                                         A Peloton of One

Sexual abuse of children is almost too awful to contemplate. Unfortunately, it is neither a new phenomenon nor a rarity.

In 2015, for example, several female Olympic gymnasts came forward to accuse longtime coach Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. That event led to a trial which resulted in a 40-175 year jail sentence, with an added 60 years for child pornography, the sentences to be served consecutively.

One major problem of this kind of abuse is that it creates loners afraid to talk about their experience, who may eventually begin abusing their own bodies by overeating or escaping into alcohol or drugs.

“Peloton of One” tells the story of bicyclist Dave Ohlmuller (abused for the first time at 12 by a priest in his parish, and repeatedly thereafter). Dave fell into the traps – gaining weight, drinking and taking drugs. When he reached 230 pounds, he decided to “fix the problem,” and started by working out an hour a day. 

After he’d dropped 50 pounds and recovered some sense of self, he decided to try to help other abuse victims. To raise awareness of the problem, Dave bought a bike (and got a lesson in how to change a bike tire) in preparation for a solo bike ride from Chicago to New York in 2019, talking to others (including victims) along the way and starting a group called SNAP (Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests).

It’s difficult to imagine even attempting a trip like that, though Dave contends that “once I got through Chicago, I was just in a zone.”

“Peloton” is the word for a group of bike riders, and “A Peloton of One” is the video story of Dave’s solo ride and his experiences along the way. Fun things like finding out he needed foot guards to keep his feet from slipping off the pedals, and what to do when the bike chain falls off. 

He made a lot of friends on this trip, many of them also victims of what they call “soul murder.”  He also found out that abuse isn’t local, it’s a universal problem and deserving of federal laws against it. Though several states have at least introduced legislation, few have passed anything of consequence. 

This is a problem no one wants to talk about. Let’s hope “A Peloton of One” helps to change that. This film is a must-see.

“A Peloton of One” opens Feb. 18, 2022 in virtual theaters. It will be released digitally on March 11, 2022.

Theater Review: Heisenberg

            

                   Danae Steele and Charlie Riendeau in "Heisenberg"

You have to wonder about a 42-year-old woman so impulsive as to kiss the neck of an unknown 75-year-old man on a London train station bench.

But since British playwright Simon Stephens has been quoted as saying “Drama concerns itself only with the things people do to one another,” there’s a certain logic to the top of his quirky two-hander “Heisenberg,” playing through Feb. 13 at Scripps Ranch Theatre.

Stephens is perhaps best known in the U.S. for his 2012 play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” which won both an Olivier and a Tony for Best New Play (and which will be presented this season at San Diego Repertory Theatre).

In 2015 he wrote “Heisenberg,” which premiered off-Broadway. The play is named after the German scientist who in 1927 came up with the principle that it is impossible to measure the position and momentum of a particle simultaneously with absolute precision.

Stephens illustrates this with a peculiar 75-minute rom-com in six scenes that is in turns edgy, insane, amusing, twitchy and even tender.

Georgie (Denae Steele) is a high-energy widowed grammar-school receptionist whose behavior alternates from lunacy to amusing to nosiness to genuine feeling. She has lost both a husband (to death) and son Jason, who left London for New Jersey and has never returned. Georgie wants to bankroll a trip in search of her lost son. Does she just want to use Alex or is a genuine relationship growing as time goes by?

Charlie Riendeau brilliantly portrays septuagenarian Alex, a butcher by trade, a loner by choice, who moves from suspicious to confused and from amused to a genuine affection for the young whirlwind Georgie. He takes his real pleasure in music (you name the type, he listens to it), and when she asks about it, tells her that music does not exist in the notes but “in the space between the notes.”

Steele may drive you as crazy with her frenzied, ADHD-like approach to conversation as she did me (and Alex), but it’s in the script, so just relax and watch what happens.

Never mind that the setup here is questionable, nor that the old saw that opposites attract might not in reality reach these two. Just go along with the explosions and enjoy the quieter moments.

Director Charles Peters gets the best out of Riendeau, a local theater staple who has been absent from the stage too long. He has just the right look and attitude for Alex.

Stage directions state that “the stage should be as bare as possible.” Accordingly, Nathan Waits is credited with set construction (a few wooden pieces only), but no set designer is named. Neither is a costumer. This show is not about place or clothes; it’s about the effect these two will have on each other.

Kudos to Steve Murdock and Mitchell Simkovsky for their respective sound and lighting designs.

“Heisenberg” is unusual, to say the least, but recommended for the adventurous theatergoer.

“Heisenberg” plays through February 13, 2022 at Scripps Ranch Theatre, at Alliant International University’s Legler Benbough Theatre, 9783 Avenue of Nations, San Diego.

Showtimes: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets: (858) 395-0573 or scrippsranchtheatre.org

Theater review: Desperate Measures

    Jo Garcia-Reger, Rudy Martinez, Samantha Duval, Michael Louis Cusimano, Rusty Ferracane & Elijah Rock

Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” is nutty enough in its original form, with a character in jail awaiting hanging for offenses venal politicians engage in themselves (like having sex with a woman outside the marriage contract) and several characters pretending to be something they’re not.

But to take that British lunacy, set it in the American Wild West and make a musical of it? That’s real craziness, and thanks to writer Peter Kellogg and composer David Friedman, “Desperate Measures” has just made its West Coast debut at North Coast Repertory Theatre, where it plays through Feb. 12.

Christopher Williams directs the show with panache, and six actors rush around speaking in rhyming couplets like this: 

“And if that offends unduly, 

blame Will Shakespeare, not yours truly.”

Somewhere in Arizona, there’s a jail administered by Sheriff Martin Green (Elijah Rock), whose only prisoner at the moment is Johnny Blood. The Sheriff doesn’t especially relish the task of executing Blood, but sings that “Justice ain’t kind” and “You can’t fight every battle. Most days you muddle through.”

Michael Louis Cusimano plays the condemned prisoner, who shares a cell with Father Morse (Rudy Martinez), a relatively relaxed prelate just looking for a place to sleep. Blood has the top bunk.

Johnny, hysterical about his upcoming execution, is thrilled when his sister Susanna (Jo Garcia-Reger) shows up, and asks her to petition the Governor for a pardon. It’s Susanna who is about to take the veil, but she agrees to intercede for her brother.

Now here’s a character for you: the Governor is a Nazi-inflected jerk with an utterly unpronounceable name, played with Hitlerian relish by Rusty Ferracane. He thinks good government is about security and safety. “Someday They Will Thank Me,” he sings, finishing with “Make Arizona great again.”

When Susanna asks him to spare Johnny’s life, the Gov wants something in exchange. Susanna stomps out in a hurry, but meets local hooker Bella Rose (played wonderfully by Samantha Duval) on the way, and since they look rather alike, they make their own arrangement that will save Johnny’s life.

It’s a goofy play, full of funny lines and jaunty songs played with great relish by a quartet of fine musicians.

Marty Burnett’s minimal, easily-movable set pieces, Elisa Benzoni’s costumes (especially the Gov’s mostly black number), Jill Gorrie Rovasto’s jaunty choreography, Matt Novotny’s lighting and Aaron Rumley’s sound design all contribute to the look and atmosphere of this crazy show.

If you’re looking for relief from the last couple of awful years, grab an N95 mask (must also prove vaccination status) and get a ticket for “Desperate Measures.”

The details

“Desperate Measures” plays through February 12, 2022.

Shows Wed. @ 2 and 7pm, Thurs & Fri. @ 8 pm; Sat. at 2 & 8 pm; Sun @ 2 and 7 pm 

For tickets: ncrt.org; (858) 481-1055

 

Theater review: A People's Cuban Christmas Tale

                     

You know about that grasping old coot Scrooge, right? Maybe you even saw the Old Globe’s version of the story in Balboa Park.

Have I got a switch for you. James P. Darvas, artistic director of Chula Vista’s OnStage Playhouse, has mounted a new, Cuban version of the familiar tale, written by that crazy guy Herbert Siguënza, perhaps best known as a founding member of the comedy group Culture Clash.

So what’s different? This is the political version that reimagines the story from the perspective of the Cuban people who became political pawns in the late 1950s and ’60s.

The old story is here, with modifications: the rich Ezequiel Scrooge (Richard P Trujillo) is a sugar baron who treats his workers (including Roberto Cruz, played by Javier Guerrero) badly and threatens the folks who rent living spaces from him with eviction if they can’t pay the rent.

He’s a tightwad who won’t even donate to good causes like the one represented by collectors (Nick Young and Vanessa Lopez), who come around at Christmas trying to raise money to feed the poor. 

Scrooge isn’t even nice to his relatives – his niece Alicia (Sandra Ruiz, who also plays Cuban poet José Martí), for example.

Yep, Scrooge gets what he deserves: the ghost of his deceased former partner Marley (Jose Balistrieri) shows up, promising visitations on three nights to come. 

Things get progressively more scary for Scrooge, until on the third night he sees his own tombstone, a big, ugly thing that says “Scrooge. Capitalista” as an insult. And he decides to change his stingy ways.

But these Cubans aren’t just poor factory workers who want to celebrate Christmas. Some of them are revolutionaries who, in this version of the story, support Fidel Castro, and there is talk of taking over the government by force if necessary.

It’s a whole different take on the Dickens story. I loved it. A three-piece band is set up close to the door, and they contribute great Latino-inspired beats like “Guantanamera.” 

The cast is uniformly terrific, the story is both classic and revolutionary, and it ends well. What more could you ask?

“A People’s Cuban Christmas Tale” plays through December 19, 2021 at OnStage Playhouse.

For times and tickets: onstage playhouse.org/2021-2022-season

Theater review: My Fair Lady

That brilliant (just ask him) but boorish professor Henry Higgins is back in town, trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear (or, as he so elegantly puts it, “a duchess of this draggletailed guttersnipe”) in Lerner and Loewe’s great musical “My Fair Lady.” The show is here through Sunday at Civic Theatre, under the auspices of Broadway San Diego.

One day, cruising through Covent Garden, Higgins (Laird Mackintosh) sees Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Shereen Ahmed), and becomes fascinated with her manner of speech. He’s making notes on it (and planning to tape her speech patterns), when Colonel Pickering (an expert on Sanskrit who came to London to meet Higgins) emerges from a theater and sees him. They compare notes on her speech. When Higgins boasts that with training, he can pass her off as a duchess, Pickering (Kevin Pariseau) bets he can’t and the experiment is on.

Meanwhile Eliza, who wants to work in a proper flower shop someday, volunteers for training and will go to live with Higgins for the duration. Eliza will soon discover what a real jerk Higgins is, but she will be treated well by Higgins’ housekeeper Mrs. Pierce (Gayton Scott) and by Col. Pickering.

Along the way, another character: Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Sam Simahk), the rich son of a rich mother sees Eliza and becomes enchanted with her. 

And let’s not forget Eliza’s dad Alfred P. Doolittle (Adam Grupper), a dustman, who hears about Eliza’s adventure and visits Higgins to try a little graft of his own in order to maintain the lifestyle to which he aspires – getting just enough money to get drunk and have a pleasant evening, and to do it again every night.

After the amusing first-act ender at the Ascot horse races – in which Eliza uses rather colorful language to encourage the favorite horse – Higgins and Pickering get back to work to ready her for her presentation at the ball.

Eliza succeeds in the charade despite the efforts of Lee Zarrett as obnoxious Professor Zoltan Karparthy to expose the plot. But Higgins takes all the credit and won’t concede that Eliza deserves any credit even after they all return to the Higgins household. The men, in fact, ignore her, congratulate each other and then toddle off to bed, leaving Eliza both crushed and furious.

“My Fair Lady,” a 1957 Tony winner that became an Academy Award-winning film, is one of the best musicals ever written, and it’s great to see it back in the theater. This version boasts fabulous sets and costumes, a fine cast and a particularly excellent orchestra in the pit.

Ahmed is an adorable Eliza, the object (and I do mean that literally) of Higgins’ efforts and victim of his boorish manners. 

Pariseau and Scott (Col. Pickering and Mrs. Pearce) are excellent as they treat Eliza humanely and try to mitigate Higgins’ behavior.

Grupper is terrific as Eliza’s old dad, pointing out the class differences in a delightful song “With a Little Bit of Luck.”

And Simahk rounds out the fine starring cast as Freddy, who offers little to Eliza other than attention, which is what she needed. 

This production offers really fine revolving sets (by Michael Yeargan) and colorful costumes by Catherine Zuber. Kudos to Trude Rittmann for the fine dance arrangements, and to Donald Holder and Marc Salzberg for the lighting and sound.

Orchestra conductor John Bell helms a particularly fine 14-member group, many of them local musicians.

“My Fair Lady” offers an amusing night of theater, though I always leave pondering why it is that some people want to “fix” others.

“My Fair Lady” runs through Sunday, Dec. 5 at Civic Theatre. 

Shows at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday; Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m.

For tickets: broadwaysd.com

Patrons must wear masks and show proof of full vaccination or a negative Covid-19 PCR within 72 hours, or rapid antigen test performed by a medical professional within 12 hours of showtime.