The Queen Anne Bible
MTC’s Anne Boleyn radically reenvisions “the harlot queen” as the mother of the Anglican Church.
Read my review in the Marin Independent Journal. Read more
Heavy Viewing
A play about a 600-pound man, performed by a skinny guy in a fat suit, is a tricky proposition.
Read my review of Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale at Marin Theatre Company in the Marin Independent Journal. Read more
Live, Die, Fail
Marin Theatre Company gives us the cheery tale of the untimely deaths of the Fail sisters.
My review of Failure: A Love Story is in the Marin Independent Journal. Read more
A Lad, Two Lasses and a Lasso
WONDER WEDNESDAY
Marin Theatre Company’s Lasso of Truth seems like it was pretty much made for me. It’s a play about the creator of Wonder Woman (and his wife and their lover), as well as the cultural legacy of America’s favorite superheroine. And yeah, I’m pretty much in the bag for that one from the start. But at the same time I’m a pretty tough room, because I know things about Wonder Woman, to put it mildly. I’d pretty much have to, writing about her past adventures every week.
Amazon Stage
It’s Wonder…Thursday?! Marin Theatre Company unveils Carson Kreitzer’s Wonder Woman play, Lasso of Truth. Read my feature in today’s Marin Independent Journal.
Also, I’ll be taking part in a panel discussion on the legacy of Wonder Woman after the 2pm matinee of Lasso on Saturday, March 1, alongside comic creator and women-in-comics historian Trina Robbins and Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, director of the documentary Wonder Women: The Untold Story of American Superheroines. So that may be a good time to come check it out.
Good Bad King
Marin Shakespeare Company gave Shakespeare’s King John a rare staging–perhaps the first production in Marin–and I reviewed it in today’s Marin Independent Journal. And I didn’t even mention that he’s my 26th-great-grandfather! No conflict of interest there, no sir.
The Empathic Duo
Before the opening of the Bay Area premiere of Becky Shaw, SF Playhouse artistic director Bill English gave a stirring speech about theater as a gym for compassion, for developing the muscle of empathy. The sentiment rings true, but it’s also ironic going into a comedy about people who either lack compassion for anyone outside of their chosen circle or whose empathy draws them into trouble. Whether or not you empathize with these characters, you’re such to be entertained by them in this tantalizing first local glimpse of playwright Gina Gionfriddo’s work, thanks to an excellent cast and director Amy Glazer’s sharply paced staging.
Stages of Grief
It’s hard enough dealing with grief when you understand what happened, and why and how it happened, but when what’s happening to someone you love is completely incomprehensible, it’s mighty hard to get your mind around it and resign yourself to anything. For whatever reason, plays all over Berkeley depict families dealing with highly unconventional versions of loss.
