ArtsSF

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—Explosions! Horror! Melodrama! Not your average story of a girl learning to play the piano, but there’s all this and more in “The Pianist of Willesden Lane,” a compelling work now showing at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts in a four-week production by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. It all comes from one woman, a stage and a concert grand piano. “Pianist” features the multi-talented Mona Golabek telling the riveting, heart-warming story of her mother’s struggle to…

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BERKELEY, CA—When the critic of the Bay Area’s leading newspaper gave an unenthusiastic review to “Paradise Square,” and yet so many patrons emerged from the Berkeley Rep contending this was their best show ever, some comment seemed in order. Now, just after close of the stunning run, a modest riposte is offered, based on attendance at a preview: Even in previews, Berkeley Rep’s world premiere production of “Paradise Square” had the feel of a hit Broadway musical. This theatrical exuberance…

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BERKELEY, CA—Even in previews, Berkeley Rep’s world premiere production of “Paradise Square” has the feel of a hit Broadway musical. This theatrical exuberance has legs! Set in the Manhattan race riots of the Civil War era, it plays out an unaccustomed harmony of blacks (some of them escaped slaves) and Irish immigrants. It was that great melting pot rarely in a full-melt. All coalescing in that unique mixed-race bar called Paradise Square. The vitality of this show is electric. Imagine the…

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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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