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Your Connection To The Arts In San Diego
Eternal conflicts -- between cultures and generations, mothers and daughters. The gulf may be wide but it’s not unbridgeable, given a modicum of empathy, tenacity, courage and love.
“The Joy Luck Club” is Susan Kim’s 1999 adaptation of the knockout first novel by Amy Tan, which became an instant bestseller in 1989 and was made into a film several years later. The themes are timeless, especially in the United States: immigrant mothers clashing with their American-born, Americanized offspring.
These stories of four mother-daughter pairs are bittersweet, often touching, sometimes heartbreaking. The women may be burdened by the weight of social roles and rules, but their robust bond transcends age, culture and era.
The mothers emigrated from China and wound up in San Francisco. Displaced from their homeland, wealth and security, united by tragedy, loss and hope, they come together and formed a club, to share dim sum, mah jongg and stories. Their histories are harrowing, unspeakable, but their daughters have little sympathy, focusing on their own challenges in relationships, work -- and maternal expectation. As the individual narratives unfold, the mothers and daughters rubberband toward and away from each other, ultimately moving closer to mutual understanding and respect.
The book was gut-wrenching, funny, compelling and affecting. The play has its poignant moments, but with eighteen separate stories and scenes, the later segments tend to drag.
Asian American Repertory Theatre has plunged boldly into this sprawling epic, casting 18 actors in 33 roles. The large ensemble is a mix of pros and novices. While that’s commendable in theory, and it’s a long-term commitment of director Peter Cirino, it doesn’t always serve the production. At several crucial moments, the performances were uneven and the voices couldn’t be heard, even in the intimate Lab Theatre.
The stage pictures are often stunning, the playing space flanked by provocative red torii gates. There’s even a wildly colorful ceremonial Festival, dragon and all. But the still and moving projections, however evocative, often compete with the action. Dressing each mother-daughter pair in the same primary color helped distinguish them, but still, by the end of the long evening, it’s easy to forget which backstory goes with which duo.
And yet, some of the episodes are so powerful, they linger long beyond the final applause. The Moon Festival that reveals a child’s bottomless sense of loss. A young brother’s tragic drowning on the beach. As with much Asian art, less would be more. But there is so much to learn from these stories, about female subservience and independence, the complexity of domestic relationships, embracing the new ways while appreciating the old. These are issues families across America face every day. AART is to be commended for raising them.
"The Joy Luck Club” runs through September in the Theatre Lab at the Academy of Performing Arts in Mission.
© 2008 Pat Launer
Jonathan Waxman is lost. He may seem like he’s sailing through life, an internationally acclaimed artist whose high-priced paintings are bought sight unseen, before they’re even created. He may be making his big European debut with a retrospective in London. But the central character of “Sight Unseen” is adrift; he’s lost his parents, his passion and his conscience.
He’s come to a rural English farmhouse to visit Patricia, the college lover and muse he dumped summarily 15 years ago. He’s looking for something, and we’re never quite sure what. He leaves with a piece of his past, once again devastating the hapless Patricia. Her husband, Nick, also filled with anger and pain, unleashes all his resentment and jealousy on Jonathan, skewering the man – and modern art. The triangle gets smaller, tighter, more intense, moving backward and forward in time. We ultimately see how Jonathan and Patricia were when they first began, he a shy, tentative artist, she a proud dilettante. Hopscotching across the decades, we watch them and their relationship evolve and devolve. And between those scenes are snippets of an interview with German art critic Grete, who nails Jonathan on his hypocrisies, and riles him with her Jew-baiting questions.
The play is breath-taking, with its sharp, smart dialogue, its many layers of anguish and subtext, its unresolved issues and ultimate uncertainties. No heroes or easy answers here. The motivations and interactions are as messy as real life. And that’s a stunning accomplishment.
In this Obie Award-winning 1992 drama, Donald Margulies is contemplating identity and art, fame and insecurity, fathers and sons, anti-Semitism and Jewish paranoia. The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright paints small, elusive figures on an expansive canvas, filled with color and complexity, ideas and imagery, with flagrant dollops of ambiguity. His multi-hued characters are desperately flawed, hurtful and self-destructive. Like the play, Jonathan’s paintings, he confesses, are about “the lengths people go to in order to feel something.”
The Old Globe Theatre production, nimbly directed by local talent Esther Emery, is a finely etched and moving piece of work. It plumbs the play’s depth and nuance, but less of its humor and sexuality. The performances are solid and the interactions intense. As Jonathan, Anthony Crane wafts in and out of being believably Jewish, but he’s strong in his emotional range. Kelly McAndrew skillfully transforms Patricia from disenchanted drudge to seductive ingénue. Local favorite Ron Choularton, reprising a role he first tackled in 1993, is spot-on as Nick, shaggy and taciturn, with a lifetime of bitterness roiling under the surface.
If you don’t emerge from this provocative, perceptive play with tons to talk about, you haven’t been paying attention.
The Old Globe production of "Sight Unseen” plays in the Copley Auditorium at the Museum of Art, through September 7.
© 2008 Pat Launer
There’s been a tragedy in the Park. And a comedy, too. The Old Globe is in the midst of its annual Shakespeare Festival in Balboa Park – and if you haven’t partaken of it yet, shame and forsooth! Get thee to a funnery. That would be “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” one of the Bard’s sillier works, which is being re-set in the American Old West. It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds, and under the skillful direction of Paul Mullins, the time-and-place transfer works surprisingly well.
This is the only play Shakespeare wrote about middle class life. No kings, dukes and earls here. And though Fat Jack Falstaff was a knight in the Henry plays, here he’s a down-and-out, low-down buckaroo, dressed in suede fringe and chaps. He thinks he’ll snag some extra cash by seducing two wealthy, happily married women, the Merry Wives of the title. When smart, savvy Mistress Ford and Mistress Page get wind of his scheme, they plot to dupe, embarrass and humiliate him, which they do in spades. There’s a comeuppance for a jealous husband as well. All this plus can-can dances, swinging-door saloons and six-shooters, too.
The performances are a hoot, a whole heap of character roles excellently executed. If the target is fun, the production unequivocally scores a bull’s-eye.
On the darker side of the Shakespearean ledger is that most beloved and tragic of love stories, “Romeo and Juliet.” This is a traditional staging, set in 15th century Verona, Italy. It’s an attractive production, if not a definitive one. The actors portraying those teenage, star-cross’d lovers grow in credibility and dramatic acumen as their situation becomes more dire. But all the adults bear some responsibility for the double-suicide that terminates the play and the family feuds. They should have known better, but they battled and bumbled and failed to protect the young.
Some of the stage pictures and death scenes in this production are remarkable. One of the most notable performances is by Owiso Odera, a UCSD Master of Fine Arts alumnus who makes for a comical, overblown Mercutio, best bud of Romeo, joking till his bitter end.
I’ve already told you about the third summer Shakespeare offering – “All’s Well That Ends Well,” which falls mid-way between comedy and tragedy, and is therefore classified as a ‘problem’ play. But there’s no problem at all with Darko Tresnjak’s splendid and stunning production.
One of the delights of the Globe’s outdoor Festival is its talented, versatile repertory company. You get to see the same actors in vastly different roles, observe the sheer versatility, and marvel at the difficulty of doing a different play every night.
Folks come from all over the country to attend our Shakespeare Festival. Shouldn’t you be there, too?
"The Merry Wives of Windsor" and “Romeo and Juliet” play in repertory with “All’s Well That Ends Well” outdoors on the Old Globe’s Festival Stage, through September 28th.
© 2008 Pat Launer
Okay, we all know that anyone who wasn’t born between 1946 and 1964 is sick to death of hearing about Baby Boomers. But you’ve gotta admit: we’re a giant-sized group, the largest ever in U.S. history, and the era we lived through was pretty significant, including Civil Rights and the Sexual Revolution, the Vietnam war and political assassinations. And you might have noticed that ‘60s styles are back and the music is still valued and emulated. And those ‘60s bands of 60 year-old seniors are still touring worldwide and raking in huge crowds and big bucks. So, give it a rest, young whippersnappers. There’s a lot you could learn from our generation, about activism and proactivism. Yeah, we know it didn’t all work out so great in the long run. But in the homegrown musical revue, “Boomers,” Lamb’s Players Theatre lets it all hang out, the good times and bad, from bra-burning to menopause; Free Love to Viagra; anti-establishment and anti-war to middle classed, middle aged mediocrity. Including selling out, multiple divorces and the never-ending quest for the Fountain of Youth. They’ve got it covered. The story of a generation is told in song. Songs that are iconic and unforgettable. In fact, so memorable that, before the show begins, there’s a “Name That Tune” contest, and the band need only play 3 or 4 notes before folks are jumping up, waving their hands, and singing along, trying to be first to snag a “Boomers” hat or T-shirt to take home.
This is an updated version of the musical revue, which originated in 1993, and has been one of Lambs’ most popular perennials. Now it’s on the boards for the long haul they hope, in the new Lamb’s venue, the Horton Grand Theatre in the Gaslamp Quarter. The show has already been extended twice, and is likely to go on well into the Fall and perhaps beyond. There are lots of Boomers out there, of course. But the production is fun for anyone of any age. You just can’t sit still when there’s an evening that includes “Purple Haze,” “Satisfaction,” and “Stairway to Heaven.”
Writer Kerry Meads has added new dialogue, decreased the individual characterizations and pumped up the universal concerns. As the Boomers age, of course, so does the cast, some of whom were in the original production. They’re not quite as limber as they once were, so the choreography’s been adapted to creaking hips and weaker knees, but the energy and enthusiasm remain sky high, and the singing and the band is outstanding, especially given the terrific arrangements by co-creator Vanda Eggington.
Each of the 7-member cast has a stellar spotlight moment, but the ensemble work is actually the best. So, hate us if you will, but you gotta love our music.
"Boomers" has just been extended again, through September 28, at the Horton Grand Theatre in the Gaslamp Quarter.
© 2008 Pat Launer
For an archive of all of Pat's reviews, going back to 1990, use the 'search' function at www.PatteProductions.com.
