Stage Fog: A Smorgasbord
Stage Fog: A Smorgasbord
This week we take you from Orinda to Fort Mason to the Artaud Building for Shakespeare, an Irish story and a reimagined Greek myth.
The Tempest at Bruns Amphitheater
It's your last chance to catch a California Shakespeare Theater production this season. Not only that, it's your last chance to catch a Shakespeare play at Cal Shakes this season. After a triumphant though butt-numbing go with The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, parts 1 and 2, the company turns back to the Bard with The Tempest, a poetic tale of storms, spirits and forgiveness. Local theater geeks will look forward to Anthony Fusco, who memorably appeared on the Geary stage last season in The Gamester wearing yellow feathers, as the lead Prospero. We're also looking forward to the return of Lillian Groag, a regular guest director, who is reunited with New York actors Triney and Mhari Sandoval, who play Caliban and Ariel.
Playing September 28 to October 23.
Family Butchers at Magic Theatre
The Magic Theatre, artistic birthplace of Sam Shepard, dedicates itself to producing new work by lesser-known writers. But it loves to court the celebrities, too. And why not, especially when those great writers bring in box office? After a successful extended run of Triptych last season, famed Irish novelist Edna O'Brien is back in town for the American premiere of Family Butchers, an engaging if familiar story of an Irish family in the midst of social change trying to hold onto their farm. The production reunites O'Brien with director Paul Whitworth, who's also a fine actor and artistic director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz. The playwright has already been seen around town, appearing at City Arts & Lectures with New Yorker theater critic John Lahr, not to mention appearing in Leah Garchik's column. San Francisco certainly loves the Irish.
Opening October 1 and playing to October 23.
Not the More Lovely: A Circus Sideshow at Noh Space
In the Pandora's Box myth, a curious-to-a-fault woman unleashes evil into a perfect world by peeking into a box delivered by the gods. Apparently, this version may have been warmed over by the Christians, because a new version contends the box contained both evil and good. Well, in any case, Circus Proboscis looks at the myth in a dreamscape of physical theater featuring actors, dancers and musicians. Writer Karen Penley sees the story as "a metaphor for the self and the reluctance we can have for looking deeply into it," which sounds a little warmed over by psychology. But we'll give Penley the benefit of the doubt. After all, how could you not be curious about a company called Circus Proboscis?
Playing September 30 to October 22.
Photo: Anthony Fusco as Prospero and Mhari Sandoval as Ariel in Cal Shakes' production of The Tempest. Photo by Kevin Berne.