ArtsSF

Mira Nair’s highly entertaining play/musical “Monsoon Wedding” at the Berkeley Rep is spot on, based on two weddings attended in New Delhi. “Monsoon Wedding” is based on her award winning movie of the same name. For Nair, the theater is her real métier—her first love, what  she knows best. She had studied theater at Harvard as an undergraduate and went on to act in several renowned avant guard troupes. This play is a splendid and extravagant display of the preparation…

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Berkeley Rep and Zimmerman Do It Again BERKELEY — Having the Berkeley Repertory Theatre (BRT) nearby is opportune indeed. This is one of the premiere theaters in the nation, and thanks to Founder Michael Leibert and current Artistic Director Tony Taccone, we have some of the best plays coming our way. Currently they are producing “Treasure Island”, adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman who has had 7 other shows at the BRT. Besides being a winner of the 1998 MacArthur…

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Theories & Generations Clash in Treem Play BERKELEY — “The How and the Why” at the Aurora Theatre is a terrific two-woman play by the noted playwright Sarah Treem. It is intense and profound with an ending that leaves the audience questioning the scientific theories of the characters. Treem has written and produced the series “”The Affair”, “In Treatment” and “House and Cards”, among others . She has won awards for many of them, including a Golden Globe. She is…

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Playwright Rachel Bond’s “Swimmers” is a play about small and personal subjects set in an office. Large subjects would include the rest of the world out of the office where these dissatisfied workers are stuck. This play underwent two weeks of previews to straighten out some of the kinks, but could use a few more weeks of the fine tuning that it will undoubtedly get if it moves on to other theaters. Is it just a coincidence that two works…

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Image that you live part time in real time, and part time in virtual reality time. Image that all your wishes from one could turn into fait accompli in the other. Of your fantasies, which are morally right? Can anything go? This is the main question posed by Jennifer Haley in her drama “The Nether” now playing at the San Francisco Playhouse. It has played in Los Angeles and New York as well as internationally. It raises the moral questions…

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“Gem of the Ocean” playing at the Marin Theatre Company tells the story of six people with Aunt Ester, played by the very talented Margo Hall, as the center of the action. The other five circle around her, but her story cements the historical and emotional center. She is supposed to be 285 years old, someone whose birth goes back to 1619, the date that African Americans came to North America. She is a spiritualist who is said to perform…

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Berkeley Rep is staging “Disgraced” by Ayad Akhtar, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. It is a drama that exposes the prejudices and myths held by everyone in the small cast (five actors playing two couples and a teenage nephew). The couples represent 4 different ethnic groups, and the nephew, like the main character Amir, is Muslim. The play opens in the chic upper East Side Manhattan apartment of Emily and Amir. Emily (Nisi Sturgis) is the blond, wasp-y…

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Everything is new about “Monstress”, the production of the American Conservatory Theater. The venue is the new Strand Theatre, the script comes from two short stories adapted for the stage and the subject is Filipino-American life both in San Francisco and in Manila. “Monstress” comes from two short stories by Lysley Tenorio. They have been adapted by Philip Kan Gotanda and Sean San José for the stage. Its music is sung beautifully by Melody Butiu and dancing also accompanies the…

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