The current production in The Shotgun Players' 20th anniversary season is God's Plot, a world premiere by Bay Area playwright and director Mark Jackson. It takes as its subject the first play ever performed in America, a colonial satire called Ye Barre & Ye Cubbe, and tells the story of the ever-theatrical Puritan settlers in a village a day's journey from Jamestown who staged it. According to a new review in the East Bay Express (we're letting them pinch-hit on this one since it's kind of a busy week), the play is "well crafted, comprehensible, and wildly entertaining," and there's music in it too.
Two musicians upright bassist Travis Kindred and banjo player Josh Pollock sit on stage the entire time, providing a soundtrack of mostly upbeat dance numbers, along with a few sinister, atmospheric pieces. The ensemble members romp through vast swaths of historical exposition in a few song-and-dance numbers.
SFist has heard from other sources as well that show is hilarious, and not at all what one might expect hearing that it's set in 17th century colonial America, and writer/director Jackson sees his subjects, the Puritans, as critic Rachel Swan writes, as "inherently creative and theatrical" people.
God's Plot plays through January 15 at Shotgun Players' Ashby Stage, Thursday to Sunday of this week, and Wednesday through Sunday on all forthcoming weeks, with the exception of the week of Dec. 19, when the theater will be dark all week. Get tickets here.
[EBX]
