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June 30, 2005
Laugh by laugh toward Niagra Falls
by ELLIN BELTZ
REDWOOD
CURTAIN HAS ANOTHER surefire hit on its hands in Wonder
of the World, a fast-paced comedy of manners, or lack
thereof, by David Lindsay-Abaire.
Vivacious Cass (Lexy Cann) is
married to apparently boring Kip (James Hitchcock), who hides
a secret too humorously dreadful to repeat. Cass flees by bus
to Niagara Falls, where she meets Lois (Carrie Hudson), also
leaving a failed marriage for more ordinary reasons. Cass has
a list of things she's always wanted to do and adopts Lois as
her sidekick.
Meanwhile, Kip is bereft and
hires private detectives (Susan Abbey and Lincoln Mitchell) to
find Cass, which they do right after she beds Captain Mike (Brad
Curtis). TinaMarie Ivey plays six more characters including three
waitresses simultaneously and a tourist helicopter pilot who
is secretly afraid of heights. In fact, the whole play is about
secrets held and secrets revealed.
The accomplished cast director
Cassandra Hesseltine and designers, including Daniel Nyiri (set),
Jon Turney (sound), Greta Welsh (lights) and Catherine Brown
(costumes) brings the sights and sounds of one of America's tackiest
attractions to Redwood Curtain. If you are unoffended by plain
thinking, outspoken silliness, relationship truths, smatterings
of adult language and very adult concepts, don't miss it. Wonder
of the World continues Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays until
Saturday, July 16, at 8 p.m., with a matinée on Sunday,
July 10, at 2 p.m. Visit www.redwoodcurtain.com
or call 443-7688 for more information and reservations. Redwood
Curtain is located in the Eureka Mall, on the Henderson side
of 800 Harris, Eureka.
THEATER,
THEATER EVERYWHERE!
Dell'Arte is to be congratulated
on itssuccessful Ensemble Theater Festival. More than 200 participants
and locals watched a staggering lineup of performances.
Kicking off the festival, a
repeat performance of The Golden State, Dell'Arte's
adaptation of Molière's classic The Miser, provided
a piercing look at American materialism and unbalanced family
dynamics. Mother (the brilliant Joan Schirle) is the miser, removing
light bulbs and gypping the maids while amassing millions of
dollars in cash in her bra. Her son Cubby (Tyler Olsen) and daughter
Sylvia (Barbara Geary) are profoundly affected in quite different
ways. This dysfunctional family is enabled, challenged, loved
and observed by two maids, the haughty but practical Russian
(Keight Gleason) and an illegal alien from Canada (Jacqueline
Dandeneau), as well as a Chilean gardener (David Escobedo) and
Federico (Aaron T. Cunningham), simultaneously Cubby's gay lover
and Mother's flexible fiancé. All is made clear when Mother's
old friend Bunny Schimpf (Donald Forrest) appears in the smoky
haze of wildfires burning toward The Miser's multimillion dollar
southern California spread. You'll laugh, you'll cry and when
it's over, you'll think about it for days on end. Next time I
tell you "Golden State is coming back," make
a reservation. You'll enjoy every moment of this sparkling and
intelligent performance.
Less than a week later, the
San Francisco Mime Troupe's newest show premiered. Doing
Good is the story of two globe-trotting American expatriates.
Beginning with their school days during the Vietnam War, the
story follows James (Noah James Butler), Molly (Lisa Hori-Garcia)
and her Uncle Ray (Michael Gene Sullivan) as their parallel careers
in industry, social work and the CIA take them from South America
to Asia and the Middle East. The rest of the cast plays a dizzying
array of characters: bartenders and secret agents (Michael Carrero),
corrupt officials and street performers (Brian Rivera), mullahs
and peasants (Christian Cagigal), and hookers and madonnas (Keiko
Shimosato). This twirling world tour is accompanied by a virtuoso
trio: Jason Ditzlan, Pat Moran and Doug Port, who play just about
every instrument ever invented. It will be interesting to see
this piece again as SFMT performances evolve in response to audience
feedback and the ever-developing understanding of their artistic
collective. Some of the rough edges will smooth as the piece
plays nearly every day this summer in the Bay Area. I hope one
of the changes is that the band members change hats as well as
instruments. They are such an integral part of the performance
that to leave them in T-shirts and tractor caps for the whole
show shortchanges their role and contributions to the feel and
mood of the piece. Don't miss it if you have the chance. It's
daring and disturbing in a very personal way.
ELSEWHERE:
Dell'Arte's 2005 Mad River Festival
continues with NaCl Theatre's Confessions of Punch and
Judy. Based on the classic children's puppet stories,
the title characters engage and collide physically and emotionally.
After hundreds of years of fighting it out, Punch and Judy's
battles reveal the humor and the absurdity of long-term relationships.
See it at the Carlo Theatre in Blue Lake, Thursday, June 30,
to Sunday, July 3, at 8 p.m. Call 668-5663 or visit www.dellarte.com
for tickets and more information.
The Ferndale Repertory Theatre's
"Patriotic July 4th" begins with an old-fashioned
parade down Main Street at noon, followed by a picnic on the
Town Green and a patriotic salute in the theater at 3 p.m. Everyone
is welcome in the parade. Call 786-5483 for more information
and reservations for parade slots and the performance.
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