Stage Fog: Ashland's Not the Only Theater Destination, You Know
You've heard of tornado chasers, but how about tsunami chasers? Despite numerous aftershocks, this week we're actually heading north to the towns of Arcata and Blue Lake to catch the first-ever Ensemble Theater Festival, where we hope that if we get wet, it's from the lingering rain. A few of our favorite SF theater companies are performing, including Campo Santo, Traveling Jewish Theatre and, best of all, the SF Mime Troupe, which will try out its new summer show Doing Good. We don't expect that you'd haul your ass up to Humboldt County for the theater scene -- you go for other transporting experiences -- so we'll leave you with a few tips for this week in Bay Area theater.
The Thousandth Night at Aurora Theatre Company
The Thousandth Night gets our vote for "best bet" this week. This solo show, written especially for local actor Ron Campbell by Carol Wolf, centers on French entertainer Guy de Bonheur, who finds himself on a train heading for a concentration camp. When it derails, he sees an opportunity to escape-not by running, but by storytelling. Campbell, who portrays 38 characters in this play, is an amazing chameleon, and you'll soon forget that you're watching just one actor. After all, Campbell once performed a one-man Tale of Two Cities, which writer Wolf was so taken with that she offered to pen a piece for him. Sure, give it a try, he said. Ten years and glowing New York Times and London Times reviews later, the play finally makes its Bay Area premiere, opening on Thursday.
Hush Up, Sweet Charlotte at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre
Last week we featured some gay theatre, but because Pride 2005 is actually this weekend and because Make It So Productions' Hush Up promises such campy fun, we couldn't leave it out. A parody of the Davis-De Havilland cult vehicle Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, the show features drag superstars Matthew Martin and Varla Jean Merman in a 1927 tale of love, betrayal, murder and diva fits. Bette Davis aficionados know that Joan Crawford was originally supposed to be in the film, a sequel of sorts to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and a reunion of the two actresses, but Davis allegedly drove Crawford from the project. That's enough drama to keep any queen employed. Lucky for us.
The Busker's Opera at Cal Performances
In the slightly (but ever so slightly) more highbrow category, there's French-Canadian artist Robert Lepage's The Busker's Opera. When Lepage came around with his Far Side of the Moon in 2001, he got "go see it now" reviews -- too bad Moon closed the day the reviews hit, so we missed it. In this turn, Lepage draws from the 18th-century Beggar's Opera, which also inspired the Brecht-Weill hit The Threepenny Opera, and throws in everything from rock to jazz to showtunes to skewer today's music industry. We can't promise that Busker's Opera will hit the same note as Moon, but it is only playing Thursday through Sunday, so if you wait for reviews, it may be too late.
--SFist Karen, contributing