A GLITTERING TRIUMPHANT “TEMPEST” ONSTAGE AT SAN DIEGO’S OLD GLOBE THEATRE

Philippe Bowgen as Ariel and Kate Burton as Prospera in the
Old Globe production of "The Tempest" All photos by Jim Cox.

June marks the month the Old Globe Theatre of San Diego launches its internationally famous Summer Shakespeare Festival in the Old Globe’s Lowell Davies Outdoor Theatre.

Opening Nights at the Globe are always eagerly anticipated.  But I feel there is a special sort of electricity that runs through the audience for an opening which debuts in a fitting setting that recreates the outdoor venue of Shakespeare’s Old England, with Arden Forest, a favorite location of the Bard for several of his plays.

Nora Carroll as Miranda and Kate Burton as Prospera in
the Old Globe production of "The Tempest"

This time the play’s setting is wherever our imaginations believe it is.  For me, it was about 600 miles from London on an imaginary island somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea.  In short (which Shakespeare’s plays are not), “The Tempest,” centers around Prospera, the Duke of Milan, who has been thrown out of power by her wicked brother forcing her to live in exile on a desert island.

For company, she has only her daughter Miranda, spirits who are native to the island, along with her beloved books.  The books are the source of her dark magic, which she uses to lure her enemies to the island so she can exact revenge.  But her plot could destroy Miranda’s happiness, so Prospera must choose between her own anger and that of daughter’s future.

It’s a Hobson’s choice and dilemma that resonates today in America’s polarizing political machinations of our body politic.  For those who think Shakespeare and his plays are outdated, perhaps it’s time to think again as to their relevancy.

The Old Globe’s prescient Erna Finci Artiti Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, himself a Shakespeare scholar, understands how the hidden magic in Shakespeare’s plays can still inspire and entertain.  His tapping of Irish director Joe Dowling to helm the technically challenging Old Globe production of “The Tempest,” is both a stroke of genius and of timing.

Robert Foxworth as Alonso, Jared Van Heel as Adrian,
Yadira Correa as Francisca, and Lizan Mitchell
as Gonzala in "The Tempest"

Dowling ran the famous Guthrie Theatre of Minneapolis for 20 years and is an experienced stage director of some 50 plays who brings a wealth of theatrical riches and experience to the Old Globe’s production of Shakespeare’s last great play; underscoring the importance of forgiveness and redemption.

There are twenty-two performers in the 2018 company of players.  Led by the wonderful Kate Burton as Prospera, in a cross-gender performance with several other male characters that are also played by females.  Burton is a classically trained actor who commands the stage when she’s upon it. In today’s theatre, actors of color play all characters, and some in cross-gender performances which is becoming more the norm rather than the exception. Remember, in Shakespeare’s day all the characters were performed by men. We bought the premise then, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for us accept it now.

Sam Avishay as Ferdinand and Nora Carroll
as Miranda in "The Tempest"  

In director Dowling’s splendid production Ms. Burton reigns over her island and those who step upon it.  It’s a bravura performance.  She is both strong and bitter with her existence.  However, in portraying Miranda’s (an appealing Nora Carroll) mother, Burton adds another dimension to her performance: making the resolution of forgiveness and redemption at the end of the play make more sense.

Offering solid support to this glittering, technically brilliant, production is Philippe Bowgen as Ariel, Prospera’s loyal island spirit.  I remember his highly nuanced comedy performance as Pablo Picasso, in the Globe production of “Picasso at the Lapin Agile”; also Sam Avishay as Miranda's love interest Ferdinand; Lizan Mitchell as Gonzala, Robert Foxworth as Alonso, Manoel Feliciano as the wonderfully evil Caliban, Rene Thornton, Jr. as Antonio, Eric Weiman as the Shipmaster; Renardo Charles Pringle Jr. as the Boatswain and Daniel Ian Joeck as Sebastian, the scheming brother of Alonso.

Andrew Weems as Trinculo, Philippe Bowgen as Ariel,
Robert Dorfman as Stephano, and Manoel Felciano
as Caliban in "The Tempest"

The character of Sir John Falstaff and his bumbling mates, Shakespeare’s favorite comic foils, are usually inserted into the action of his plays whenever possible.  In this “Tempest” production that ploy falls to the comic characters of the drunk Stephano, and his bumbling, whining friend Trinculo, who play the characters to the hilt by Robert Dorfman, and Andrew Weems, respectively. This stellar production is also blessed with an ensemble cast to die for.

The production under the seamless direction of Joe Dowling is a visual feast for the eyes, and not be missed.  The Old Globe is without equal when it comes, to technical credits for their productions.  Set Designer Alexander Dodge, renders a performance space that is filled with eye-popping glittering, sparkling, and breathtaking costumes designed by David Israel Reynoso.  Philip Rosenberg provides the nuanced, mood-inducing, Lighting Design. Jonathan Deans, Sound Design is appropriate, and the storm scene that envelopes the characters at the beginning sets the tone for what is to follow technically.

The Old Globe’s presentation of “The Tempest” is an impressive production to kick off the Globe’s 2018 season of its Shakespeare Summer Festival in the Lowell Davies outdoor theatre. The production runs through July 22nd. “Much Ado About Nothing,” follows and runs from August 12th through September 16th.

WEST COAST PREMIERE OF “THE FATHER” AT NORTH COAST REP THEATRE IN SOLANA BEACH A WINNER

In the world of theatre and its artistic kissing-cousins cinema and television, everything begins with “the word” (both Biblically and artistically).  Good creative writing can elevate performances to greater moments on stage when those words rest in the creative hands of gifted trained actors.

North Coast Repertory Theatre (NCRT) Artistic Director David Ellenstein, has a penchant for selecting plays that challenge, yet still entertain, his savvy, sophisticated audiences, donors, and supporters.  Case in point is the West Coast Premiere production of “The Father”, from the pen of French writer and playwright Florian Zeller now on stage at NCRT that is skillfully directed by Ellenstein.

Zeller’s latest play, a tragic/comedy with a translation from multi-award winning Tony and Oscar playwright/translator Christopher Hampton, practically guarantee’s one an evening of stimulating quality theatre. Hampton does all the translations for French/Iranian playwright Yasmina Reza of “Art” and “God of Carnage” fame, as well as Zeller’s plays.

Director Ellenstein has gathered a wonderful cast that breathes life into Zeller’s on-the-nose play of a subject matter that has been vexing societies for millennia:  Dementia and now, how we as a 21st century society, are beginning to come to grips with end-of-life issues; that ultimately come to everyone on the planet.

Now before you turn the page and tune out. Wait.  You will be depriving yourself of a life-affirming opportunity to not only to learn, but to enjoy as well from this splendid production and cast. There is humor in all of life’s endeavors. It’s hiding in plain sight.  We just need to confront and embrace life in all its binary forms, ie, happy and sad. Good and bad, right and wrong, love and loss; after all we’re only alive for nanoseconds on this turbulent blue orb spinning away toward the never ending expanding universe.

Broadway and film star Frank Langella won his third Tony playing Andre, the father of the play’s title.  His take was to play him as a man dealing with anger management issues trying to beat the rap, so to speak.  That’s merely one actor’s darker vision.  It’s not thankfully, the only way to tell Andre’s story of what’s going on in this non-linear, flash forward; flash backward, comic-tragedy play on stage at NCRT.

Audiences of NCRT’s production catch on quickly to the reason of Andre’s behavior.  His speech is peppered, mainly with bewilderment, not anger, which to me is part of the beauty of live theatre. Not only is every production new or fresh.  No two performances are exactly the same every night.  Actors tend to be constantly peeling the onion to its core as a way of finding the hidden character barriers and nuances in their performances as they search for that perfect theatrical moment.

The performance by journeyman actor James Sutorius, is a triumph of timing, introspective analysis, and a delivery that rings true, as well as poignant.  It’s a star-turn performance richly nuanced and deserving of the standing ovation that he and the entire cast received on opening night.

The story in short, set in Paris, in the present, centers around Andre (Sotorious) who is sliding ever so quickly into his dementia, to the concern of his daughter Anne (a caring but frustrated Robyn Cohen), who realizes that her father can’t be left alone to live by himself any longer.  He accuses his visiting health-care worker of stealing his watch, which Anne always finds in his secret hiding place where he keeps his valuables. He doesn’t recognize his son-in-law Pierre (Mathew Salazar-Thompson), anymore and repeatedly asks Anne what is this man doing in his apartment? Dementia patients can’t grasp the reasons why they’re in a strange situation in the first place.  To them everyone else is confused.

These are poignant trip-wire moments and behavior that some members of the audience will no doubt recall in their own families and those of relatives and friends.  I can attest to that on a personal basis.  Solid support from Jacque Wilke as Laura, Shana Wride as The Woman, and Richard Baird as The Man, is the icing on the cake of this stellar production.

As usual, resident set designer Marty Burnett, and resident lighting designer Matt Novotny provide a sleek, beautiful Paris apartment set, which magically become different rooms and a hospital room which is then splashed with lights of muted white and hues of blue; very Parisan. The costume designs of Elisa Benzoni, are appropriate and functional.  The sound design by Melanie Chen Cole is spot-on. Kudos for selecting chello music, which is so appropriate.  Prop designs by Holly Gillard complete the creative team led by director Ellenstein.  Aaron Rumley stages manages this excellent production.

“The Father”, performs without an intermission at about 95 minutes, at North Coast Repertory Theatre, in Solana Beach, CA and runs through June 24, 2018.

POWERFUL DRAMA “DISOBEDIENCE” ON SCREEN AT CAMELOT THEATRES PALM SPRINGS

Alessandro Nivola and Rachel McAdams star in "Disobedience"

Movies have come a long way since 1934 when it comes to the subject matter of ‘forbidden fruit’ as depicted in Lillian Hellman’s muted, but daring play and film, “We Three”, was produced in the heyday of the Hays Office, when movie censors reigned supreme as to what American audiences could or not see In the cinema.   The ‘no-no’ subject matter in the legitimate theatre was breached by Tennessee Williams when he referred to sexual subject matters in his plays as “that of which we dare not speak”. That was in the 50’s.

It’s now almost the second decade of the 21st Century, where filmic boundaries, stories, and audiences, now accept homoerotic love; which if, tastefully and honestly done, keeps forbidden sexual love as a legitimate subject-matter category and one that reflects and recognizes all aspects of human relationships. In most western societies we now live as a true global community free to live as one chooses.

The 2017 Oscar-winning Argentina-born, now a Chilean citizen, film director, Sebastain Lelio of “A Fantastic Woman”, fame is once more in 2018 Oscar Nomination territory with his riveting, deeply emotional, romantic new drama “Disobedience”, starring Rachel Mc Adams,  Rachel Weisz, and Alessandro Nivola.

The story set in England is adapted from the novel “Disobedience” by Naomi Alderman and the screenplay, sensitively written by Sabastian Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz, centers around now New York-based photographer Ronit Kruska (a sensational, smoky, alluring, introspective Rachel Weisz), who flies home to London after learning about the death of her estranged, charismatic, Rabbi father Rav Kruska (Anton Lesser), the Spiritual leader of a highly Orthodox temple where traditions run deep.

Ronit returns to the same Orthodox Jewish community in North London’s Hendon district, that shunned her years earlier for her childhood attraction to Esti Kuperman, a close female friend brilliantly portrayed by a conflicted Rachel McAdams, who is now married to Rabbi Dovid Kuperman, a childhood friend of both women; now sets in motion a series of internalized emotions that soon reignites their burning attraction and passion as the two women explore boundaries of faith and adult sexuality. England only rewrote its sexuality laws in 1967, changing their penal law system concerning mutual consent age between adults, which now avoids the “gross indecency” laws that ensnared Oscar Wilde at the turn of the 20th century.

“Disobedience” is a mesmerizing, interior, fascinating, and affecting screenplay that carefully structures the movie to squeeze maximum emotional impact from its two stars, which it does in spades.   It’s a bold and daring film even by today’s standards.   The power and fascination of its subject matter is what propels the human story that director Lelio wants to tell and that cinematographer Danny Cohen wonderfully captures.

Jewish life in England is somewhat different than here in America.  The closest link to English Jewry for American Orthodox Jews are the Orthodox Hasidic communities of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  Also, there are many background story points and echoes that one will find in the stage-play “The Wanderers”, written last year by playwright Anna Zeigler, who set her powerful play within New York’s Satmar Hasidic Judaism sect in Brooklyn.

In fleshing out his screenplay director Lelio, delivers a richly textured small story with large implications and ramifications.  One doesn’t have to be Jewish to appreciate and understand the character dilemmas facing actors Ms. Weisz and Ms. McAdams.  The journey of life presents everyone with critical agonizing choices. “Disobedience” allows us a peek into the lives of a small insular community that grapples everyday with making choices hoping to make the right choices, be they life altering or not.

Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola

Alessandro Nivola as Rabbi Dovid, delivers a finely nuanced, pivotal and potent performance as the helpless husband caught between his emotional pain and his faith, and the passion of two women who make him feel as if he is an interloper is this conflicted threesome, where all are spinning around the traditions that bind yet separate them at the same time.  I dare say, that some women who see this film will secretly relate, despite its slow glacial pacing.  There are a lot of moments where Ms. Weisz and Ms. McAdams stare at each other communicating from a deep emotional center within.  We men, may be hard-wired differently in our relationships, but, ultimately, I feel audiences will make up their own minds as to the truthfulness and honesty of “Disobedience”.

There are strong key scenes where nudity and sexual situations take place in the story.  These scenes are not gratuitously filmed to arouse.  They are integral to the story and are filmed in such a manner that the emotional depth felt by the characters and performed by two Hollywood stars, doesn’t become a seat-squirming experience but rather, as a catharsis for both the characters and the audience.

“Disobedience”, is now in wide release and currently screens at the Camelot Theatre in the Palm Springs Cultural Center.