Theater Review: The Homecoming

 

                           Cast of "The Homecoming"

If you’ve never observed the ugliness of the all-male household in operation, it's on full display in Harold Pinter’s scathing 1965 play “The Homecoming,” onstage through March 27 at North Coast Repertory Theatre.

David Ellenstein directs this Tony-winning family horror show involving only four British men and the American wife of one of them. 

The older generation is represented by two brothers: 70-year-old patriarch Max (Frank Corrado) and his 50-some brother Sam (James Newcomb). They argue about, you know, power.

Also on hand are Max’s three sons: Lenny (Richard Baird), a pimp in his early 30s; mid-20s Joey (Justin Gordon), currently working in demolition but training to be a boxer; and mid-30s Teddy (Bruce Turk), the somewhat stuffy Ph.D emigré who’s been living and teaching in the U.S. for some years.

The action is prompted by the arrival of Teddy and his wife Ruth (Melanie Lora), visiting the old homestead for unknown reasons.

It’s a top-notch cast, and the look of the show is spot-on (thanks to Marty Burnett’s set and Elisa Benzoni’s costumes). Aaron Rumley’s sound design is excellent, Phillip Korth contributes appropriate props, and Victoria Hanlin’s dialect coaching has them sounding properly British.

Pinter isn’t known for jolly comedies, but this is extreme even by his standards. The verbal ugliness never stops, and the appearance of Ruth gives the guys yet another outlet for meanness.

When the talk gets down to “a good bang on the back seat,” and Joey calls Ruth a “tart,” Teddy the academic gets ticked and decides it’s time to get back home to his normal life. He packs their suitcases. Then something even more incredible happens.

Pinter is one of the most influential of English dramatists, and the New York production of this play earned four Tonys. If you’re looking for a play about one-upmanship that questions our notions of family and marriage, “The Homecoming” isn’t a bad place to start. It’s just extremely difficult to watch.

Theater Review: Love Song

“Love Song” is an offbeat story about love – real or imagined – and its effects on people. It plays through March 20 at Scripps Ranch Theatre.

Playwright John Kolvenbach posits a quartet: a married couple named Joan and Harry, Joan’s manic depressive brother Beane, and Molly, who meets Beane when she breaks into his apartment – or may not even exist.

Sound strange? It is, and it’s also amusing and fascinating. The story plays out on Alyssa Kane’s do-it-yourself set, which includes several movable pieces used by the cast to indicate time and locale shifts. The quirkiness of the play is heightened by interesting lighting and sound designs by Jared Jacobs and Robert May, respectively. And Bernice Brosious’ costumes add to the atmosphere.

Joan has taken it upon herself to keep tabs on Beane, who lives in a tiny apartment with only a dilapidated sofa and a spoon.

Joan and Harry think Beane needs to talk to a psychiatrist, and she tasks Harry with getting answers to a psychological survey from Beane (Paul Eddy), but Beane questions the wording rather than the meaning of the questions too much for Harry to make any headway.

Things get really strange when Beane’s apartment is burgled by a woman named Molly (Claire Kaplan), who is disappointed that he has nothing worth stealing, but she does seem to rather like Beane (Paul Eddy). And he instantly falls in love.

And when Beane announces to the world “I think I met someone” (meaning Molly), his depression suddenly lifts and he seems almost normal. At least until we begin to suspect that Molly is imaginary.

Along the way, Joan and Harry decide that their relationship has fallen into a bit of a rut and it’s time to spice it up a bit by making out on the couch, which turns out to be so much fun that they plan to continue it to the extent to playing hooky from their jobs.

The secret to this play is in the catch phrase of the play: “Death to literalism!” And not much that you hear is literally true. But the whole idea of truth vs. imagination may spark interesting conversation on the way home. And those steamy verbal scenes are great fun to listen to.

“Love Song” plays Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. through March 20.

For tickets: https://scrippsranchtheatre.thundertix.com/events/191052 or (858) 395-0573.

Theater Review: El Borracho

 

              Zilah Mendoza, Matthew Martinez and Jesse J. Perez

Families can be wonderful. And awful. In turn, and sometimes both at once.

Playwright Eugene O’Neill wrote about families and their problems. So did Arthur Miller. Now a member of the new generation of American playwrights – Tony Meneses – brings us “El Borracho,” a “dramedy” drawn from his own family.

Addiction, age, illness, boredom, annoyance, exhaustion – they’re all here in one 90-minute bite of the old theatrical apple.

“El Borracho” (the drunk) brings us Raul (Jesse J. Perez), an aging, ill, in fact dying old man (okay, alcoholic) who returns to the small one-bedroom house he left 25 years ago when he and ex-wife Alma (Zilah Mendoza) could no longer stand to be married.

Son David (Matthew Martinez) is home and surmises the old guy has returned not because he misses the family, but because he can no longer take care of himself. That seems to be the case; the old guy limps and clutches his groin for reasons we are not privy to.

Raul snorts when he finds out Alma now works at a local school as a “lunch lady,” though his last fancy job was as a pizza delivery man.

Alma is just tired of doing everything for everybody.

David, about 20, has a bone to pick with both parents. He is a budding playwright and wrote a play while in school, and he’s convinced that the fact that neither parent showed up indicates that neither thought it important enough to make the effort to see it.

Everybody’s got bones to pick in this family, and after a while the complaints get to be a bit much.  But at least they have a sense of humor about it, which makes it tolerable, sometimes downright funny to watch.

Theater in the round is ideal for this play; the limited space adds to the “trapped” feeling evoked by the dialogue.

Playwright Meneses, born in Guadalajara and raised in Albuquerque and Dallas, is a graduate of the Juilliard School. After he’d written five plays, his teacher, playwright Marsha Norman, told him, “At some point in your career, you have to write the play that scares you.”

“El Borracho” is that play. Blame the teacher if you have complaints with the play, but you will have no complaints about the cast. 

Jesse J. Perez is well-known in San Diego as the director of the Old Globe/USD graduate theatre program; here he turns in an excellent performance as David’s father Raul.

Zilah Mendoza’s exhausted Alma reminds me of women in similar circumstances I have known. But even she has a sense of humor.

Matthew Martinez gives a fine performance as David, who loves his family but feels they don’t love him back, at least not enough.

Mextly Cousin’s lighting and David R. Molina’s original music and sound add to the atmosphere.

Everybody probably has (or at least has heard) a story similar to“El Borracho,” which plays through March 20 at The Old Globe’s White Theatre.

Showtimes: Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.

For tickets: theoldglobe.org or (619) 234-5623

Masks are required, as is proof of vaccination.

Theater Review: Desert Rock Garden

 

                  
                     Lane Nishigawa and Chloris Li

There’s something calming about a garden. Growing plants are so positive, growing and reaching for the sun or twisting gracefully in another direction. Makes you think all is well with the world.

Gardens and the ugliness of man’s inhumanity to man don’t go together well. But the juxtaposition makes for an interesting play.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 required the evacuation of West Coast residents of Japanese ancestry to “relocation camps,” whether they were U.S. citizens or not. One of those people was James Hatsuaki Wakasa, interned after he had immigrated to the U.S. in 1903.

New Village Arts in Carlsbad is undergoing a major remodel. But meanwhile, they are presenting the world premiere of Roy Sekigahama’s play “Desert Rock Garden” through March 13. It is a fictional story based on Wakasa’s experience in the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah.

There are only two characters: Penny (Chloris Li), a mischievous 12-year-old orphan who arrives at the camp because nobody knew what else to do with her, and “Fuzzy,” a much older intern played by Lane Nishikawa, who at 72 had lived in the U.S. for over 50 years. They meet accidentally.

Fuzzy is a man of few words. Penny never stops talking, a trait which frequently gets her in trouble at school. They have nothing in common, but also nothing better to do, so they become friends.

One day Fuzzy decides to teach her a few things about survival in and out of camp, nicknamed “Jewel of the Desert” or “Cesspool of the Desert,” depending on whom you ask.

They spend their stage time together outside, in Fuzzy’s rock garden, and he teaches the girl about rocks, their appearance and proper placement in a garden while he counsels her about behavior and advises her to leave the camp and put herself up for adoption.

They are an unlikely pair, but then so is the beauty of a garden in the middle of what is essentially a prison. 

Reiko Huffman’s set is the garden, a small area with many rocks of varying sizes, types and states of polish (Fuzzy polishes some of them, and teaches Penny how and why). Slowly the beauty of the garden seems to calm the flighty girl down a bit, and they strike a happy friendship between them.

Both actors are excellent and when Fuzzy gives her a stone he’d polished just for her, it ends the friendship on a touching note. 

Kudos to director Yari Cervas, who keeps the pace moving but not rushed.

Jojo Siu’s costumes, Annelise Raquel Salazar’s lighting and especially Marc Akiyama’s music add to the play’s attributes.

This play was developed in a Playwrights’ Project workshop, followed by a reading at NVA’s Final Draft New Play Festival. It’s a short and lovely piece.

“Desert Rock Garden” plays through March 13, 2022 at New Village Arts, 2787 State St. in Carlsbad.

Showtimes: Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. 

Tickets: newvillagearts.org or (760) 433-3245

COVID protocol: Proof of full vaccination is required or negative test result from a COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of showtime. Masks are required at all times.

Theater Review: Trouble in Mind

                   Cast of "Trouble in Mind" at the Old Globe

Geopolitics is a mess, social cohesion seems to have utterly disappeared and we’ve all been off in our Covid-imposed lonely little corners for what seems like eons.

Back in 1955, playwright Alice Childress wrote “Trouble in Mind,” giving us an unsettling story about another kind of isolation, featuring a troupe of hopeful Broadway actors going into rehearsal for a new play about lynching.

Lynching? That’s enough to put you on your guard right off, especially since 

the piece was both written by and will be directed by a white man.

It was in 1955 that Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, which was followed by the beginnings of the civil rights movement, which eventually led to what we know today as the Black Lives Matter movement.

It’s been a long, harrowing, bloody march to equality, and we haven’t even come close to accomplishing it, 60-some years after “Trouble in Mind” was written.

Most of the cast in this play (called “Chaos in Belleville”) is black, but the decision-makers – director and staff – are white, and this is where the problems arise. Interracial communication is difficult enough without tossing in a play that features the old stereotypes.

The star of the show is Wiletta Mayer, a well-known actress excited to finally be getting star billing. 

This is the first role for a handsome young black starry-eyed newcomer named John Nevins, thrilled to be part of “the theater.” 

“Show business, it’s just a business,” Wiletta answers. “Colored folks ain’t in no theater. Why don’t you make something of yourself?”

But when John announces his intention to get to the top in short order, she 

shares the secret of working with this director: agree vociferously with everything he says, and laugh uproariously at his jokes, no matter how offensive or unfunny.

And then we see how that principle works in practice. It’ll make you laugh, and gasp, sigh and maybe get angry, and then you’ll realize how much work we all still have left to do to attain “liberty and justice for all.” Or even to act civilly to one other.

Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, founder of Moxie Theatre, directs this piece with the knowledge of someone who’s been there. She has. She’s black and female, one of the best directors around, and she brilliantly directed “Trouble in Mind” in 2015 at Moxie. Now she’s a resident artist at the Old Globe, bringing her skills to the show again.

The play first opened off-Broadway, then was picked up by Broadway producers, who wanted changes. Childress made many, but when they asked her to change the ending, she refused, and the play never got the Broadway opening it deserved until this year, almost 30 years after her death.

Maggie Walters, a student from the Old Globe/University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program), joins the Equity cast – Tom Bloom, Kevin Isola, Ramona Keller, Bibi Mama, Jake Milgard, Victor Morris, and Mike Sears. All are outstanding.

The production, too, is excellent. Lawrence E. Moten III’s rehearsal hall-look set, Nicole Jescinth’s costumes, Sherrice Mojgani’s lighting and Luqman Brown’s sound design all contribute to making this funny, scathing, still relevant play a must-see theatrical experience. Don’t miss it.

“Trouble in Mind” plays through March 13, 2022 on The Old Globe’s Shiley Stage.

Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday and 2 and 7 p.m. Prices start at $29. An open-caption performance will be held on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m.

For tickets: www.TheOldGlobe,org, (619) 234-5623

Theater Review: Catch Me If You Can

                         Cast of "Catch Me If You Can"

Great news! San Diego Musical Theatre is back on the boards with a terrific production of the 2011 musical “Catch Me If You Can,” the unbelievable but true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a con man who could – and did – begin his lifetime of crime by conning his own father. 

The musical is based on the 2002 film of the same name, which in turn is based on the 1980 autobiography by Abagnale and Stan Redding. This version has a book by Terrence McNally, music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Allison Spratt Pearce directs.

This is the story of an ordinary guy from New Rochelle, New York, whose dad has an ordinary business and a wife who is fooling around with another man. 

Frank, Jr. (Beau Brians) doesn’t want to go that route. In fact, he insists on a life “in living color,” as the first song says, and has decided to do whatever he must to get a life that matches his ambition. That “whatever” includes stealing and pretending to be something (in fact, several somethings) he’s not, including a co-pilot, a doctor, a lawyer and a college professor.

But hey, everybody loves a scoundrel, and after all his dad had told him “People only know what you tell ‘em, Frankie.” So Frankie tells ‘em what they want to hear, and is surprised at his initial success.

Even so, illegal exploits tend to attract the attention of law enforcement, here represented by FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Berto Fernández), who along with three other agents spends the rest of the show trying to catch Frank, Jr. 

But though the agents skulk around in dark clothes and darker frames of mind, this show is really a song-and-dance extravaganza, with a cast of excellent dancers and singers who break into song and kick up a storm at the drop of a hat (especially those flight attendants!).

Just when Hanratty is about to close in, Frank Jr. takes off for Atlanta (and the second act). Here, he meets the love of his life while playing doctor in a local ER.

This is nurse Brenda (Adelaida Martínez), daughter of lawyer Roger Strong (Ted Leib) and his wife Carol (Debra Wanger). So, of course our boy pretends to want to “go back to” the law. Dad is having none of it.

Eventually (remember, this is a true story), Hanratty catches up with Frank Jr. and he will end up in the slammer. But they decide they get along so well that Frank Jr. should work for the Bureau when he gets released. (I know, but it’s true!), and they end up in the last song “Stuck Together.”

This show marks the first production in SDMT’s new digs on Mercury Street. The show space is a bit small (it holds about 115 people) and the movable chairs aren’t the most comfortable, but the joy in finally getting back on the boards is palpable and a delight to behold.

If you’re looking for entertainment with a capital E, this is the show for you.

Theater Review: Admissions

                     Tom Steward, Wendy Waddell, Devin Wade

In the wake of the recent flap over rich parents buying their children’s way into top-tier colleges comes Josh Harmon’s “Admissions,” a biting, sometimes excruciating satire of white privilege in education that will send you out of the theater wanting to sit down with some of your fellow audience mates for a talk about what you’ve just seen. It plays through Feb. 27 at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista, under the assured direction of artistic director James P. Darvas.

Bill (Tom Steward) and Sherri (Wendy Waddell) are the headmaster and dean of admissions of a progressive New Hampshire boarding school called Hillcrest. Sherri is proud that she’s increased the diversity of the student body from 6 to 18 percent in the past 15 years. But she is still concerned about appearances.

When we meet Sherri, she is explaining to development director Roberta (Anna Sandor) the importance of diversity in photos the school puts out in its catalog and other school materials. She asks Roberta to take photos that will better illustrate the school’s diversity.

Bill and Sherri have a friend, Ginnie (Holly Stephenson), whose (unseen) son Perry is a student at Hillcrest and buddies with their very bright son Charlie (whose middle name is Luther, for Martin Luther King).

Charlie (Devin Wade) is a senior awaiting his expected acceptance to Yale. But when Charlie doesn’t get that acceptance letter, all hell breaks loose – especially when he finds out that Perry (whose unseen dad is biracial) does get admitted. Charlie storms off to try to make sense of this, leaving Bill and Sherri to try to figure out what they can do to get him into Yale somehow.

The cast of five is, of course, intentionally all white, left to discuss the rightness or wrongness of an educational system that is run the way it is. There is dismissive talk about community college education. The longer it goes on, the edgier the talk becomes, though Harmon has been careful to create human beings, not victims of an idea. But they must discuss questions like who gets to make these decisions, and just what is fairness?

The show is wonderfully presented on an amazing set (by Felipe Ramirez) that manages on that small stage to give us three different looks. The lighting (by Kevin “Blax” Burroughs), costumes (by Pam Stomply-Erikson) and sound (by Estefania Ricalde) are also excellent.

The cast is outstanding, especially Devin Wade’s Charlie, who gets a very long, very fast monologue in which every word is crystal clear. 

“Admissions” manages to be both very funny (especially to me, as I spent 30-some years working in education) and utterly thought-provoking in its exposure of what happens when well-meaning parents who “should” get what they want don’t. If you’re looking for unusual theater, give “Admissions” a try.