Right before the first scene of the San Francisco Mime Troupe's which opened on the Fourth of July weekend in Dolores Park, a trouper walks onstage holding a sign up for the audience: Warning: History Play. It's an apt joke. Most audiences, sweltering in the afternoon sun with their picnics, would rather see a Shakespeare comedy than one of his drawn-out histories. Likewise, Mime Troupe followers have come to expect over-the-top but politically sharp musical comedies. We weren't going to get that this year. Doing Good is more a drama/comedy with music that traces how loans for infrastructure have wreaked havoc on third-world countries for the past 40 or so years. At least it's shorter than Shakespeare, clocking in at under 90 minutes without an intermission. We give the Mime Troupe full marks for delving into more complicated material, but along the way they seem to have lost the story.

Doing Good,