"The Light" at PCS

 "The Light" is the best new play I have seen in many years. Welcome Loy A. Webb to my List of Playwrights to Watch. I have not yet had time to ascertain if she is new to the scene, or just new to me. Regardless, I haven't been this excited about a playwright since discovering Stephen Adly Guirgis.

I will completely refrain from plot-summary, the play's brief 75-minute runtime would barely allow for it. Suffice it to say, there were many times I forgot that I was watching a play, which is a difficult feat to accomplish. Despite its very short length, it is almost as though there are two plays in one. The first is about very authentic couple's banter. You really believe these two characters love each other. The second half is such a drastic tonal-shift, it is miraculous that it doesn't seem abrupt, and thus ring-false . This is a mark of masterful writing, and is the element that made me want to know more about the author behind it. Go see "The Light," I've given you enough reasons, without a trace of plot-summary. That should tell you all you need to know.

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" @ PCS

 "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" @ PCS is a production I would sincerely call "unmissable." This production of the classic play by Edward Albee is phenomenal. The verbal-fireworks are unsurpassed in any other play of which I can think. Every second is almost unbearably tense. Most everyone should be familiar with the basic-plot, thanks  to the film-version, so I won't rehash them here. While the film is also a classic in its own right, I had not yet seen a stage-production of this play, and even such a mammoth cinematic treatment as that film, does not compare to the live experience. If you haven't had the electric pleasure of seeing it live, don't miss out. If you have, I don't have to tell you, it's worth having again.

Mrs Harrison at PCS

 "Mrs. Harrison", which opened last night at PCS, is a crackling two-hander. It was a late replacement in PCS' Season, but a good one.It takes place at a college-reunion, and explores a lot of things I personally fear about such events. Namely, living up to the high-expectations of classmates. There'a also a lot of debate about heady matters like which stories are allowed to be told, and by whom? I can't give it all away, but the play taps into anxieties we all share, and though it examines them thoroughly, it leaves them firmly in place. I highly recommend that you see it. Unless, of course, one of  those nerve-wracking events is around the corner for you. But, maybe, you should see the play instead of attending, and remind yourself why you made the right choice.

"The Maltese Falcon" @ Lakewood

Do you love mysteries? Do you want to see a U.S. Premiere? Lakewood has you covered, with "The Maltese Falcon." This just might be the best production I have seen at Lakewood. Yes, I'm a superfan of the novel and film, so I'll freely admit to a bias. But, I'm sure I'm not alone in that. I mean, director David Sikking named his son Dashiell, so I'm willing to bet he's in that group, too. In fact, the smallest facet of the production has "passion-project" written all over it, down to the pre-show score, which sets the mood instantly. The whole show has fabulous small touches like that, such as the rolling San Francisco fog. 

It's all just simply brilliant. Even the fact of Lakewood being the site of the U.S. Premiere, has me swelling with local pride. Director David Sikking was my Sophomore English teacher, and I credit him for introducing me to noir pulp fiction, though in my case, it was Hammett's contemporary, Raymond Chandler. As you might imagine, this made seeing "The Maltese Falcon quite special, and "appointment-viewing." I suggest that it should be "appointment-viewing" for you, as well.

"Clyde's" @ PCS

 It was a wonderful respite from the grind of Spring Term, in my late-in-life return to college, to see a play. This is my reaction every time I intentionally "make room for art." It is always well-worth the effort. This was especially the case with Lynn Nottage's "Clyde's." The play is brimming with crackling,  rapid-fire dialogue. Sometimes it's almost musical in the mouth of the cantankerous Clyde of the title, (like a rap-battle with someone so skilled that their are no challengers.) 

That said, I found he ending to be quite abrupt and confusing. Particularly because the allusion in the beginning to a main-character's crime strongly suggested something far worse than what was eventually revealed. So much so, that I was waiting for it to be shown as a lie.

Regardless, Lynn Nottage has earned a place on my mental "Must-See Playwright's List." She deserves a spot on yours, too.

"A Few Good Men" @ Lakewood

 I am so glad I made time to see "A Few Good Men" at Lakewood. It was the best play I've seen in a very long while. Its reputation is rock-solid by virtue of the film starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore. I'd consider the movie to be a modern-classic. I knew it had been a play first, the play that launched Aaron Sorkin's career. It is indeed a masterpiece. The performances  aare uniformly superb, and it was a particularly pleasant surprise to see my former Language Arts teacher David Sikking on stage.

Make time for this show. If there is one thing I've learned about managing the demands of being a late-in-life college student, it's this: Making time for art is absolutely essential for relieving-stress. Whatever your competing demands may be, do not neglect art, or you'll soon regret it.

"A Tomb with A View" @ Lakewood

 I just glanced at the date on my last review. Over 7 months! I can think of no better way to break my "fast" than a murder mystery show at Lakewood. "A Tomb with a View" is exactly the type of show by which I was introduced to Lakewood., long before the advent of this website. It is the kind of show that I would deem to be Lakewood's signature: A witty romp, with a liberal dash oof the macabre. What distinguishes "A Tomb with a View" is the family of eccentrics at its center. The comedy comes mostly from character rather than plot. My favorite of these was Dora Tomb, the batty winemakeress, whose vintages may or may not be deliberately poisoned, Lisa Knox's daffy performance makes either option plausible. 

If, like me, you consider the mystery-comedy Lakewood's specialty, you shouldn't miss it. In fact, I'm still a little disappointed to have missed "Arsenic & Old Lace" due to late-in-life resumption of college. Despite my newly busy schedule, it is quite gratifying-perhaps even necessary to make room for Art. I will endeavor to keep up with Lakewood, and I am already eagerly anticipating "A Few Good Men."                             

"Mary Jane" by Third Rail Rep @ Coho

 I've been anticipating "Mary Jane" since it was first announced Pre-CoVid. Then, as everything limped back to life, Third Rail put on a few other things I did not see, but the absence of "Mary Jane" from them made me believe they had decided against producing it. So, I decided to read the script for myself. I must say, I'm not a huge Amy Herzog fan,  (She had a play which ended with untranslated French, seemingly out-of-nowhere.) "Mary Jane" has a somewhat ambiguous ending as well, which I disliked. 

Reading the script in no way prepared me for what was on stage last night.

In the exceptionally skilled-hands of CoHo's cast, the play is transformed into something as raw and real as I could ever hope to encounter.

Here's a small example: Mary Jane, (Rebecca Lingafelter) is telling a brand-new mother of a child with a disability all the ins-and-outs of navigating government bureaucracy for medical equipment and other needs. On the page, this registered as merely a vehicle to make the audience think: "my God, it shouldn't be nearly that difficult." If it was written for that purpose, that's fine--and even necessary--because it indeed should not be that difficult, but it was also a monotonous-read. Lingafelter's delivery is anything but monotonous. She speaks the lines as with the breeziness of a vetaeran of these processes, who can spare this new mother some undue frustration. A perfect representation of the parent-top-parent community that forms organically in this otherwise isolating world.

Later, a small but significant promise is broken by the hospital, and Mart Jane just loses it, because it's the last straw in one of the worst situations imaginable. I thought: "that's my mom." It was not a thought I had when reading the scene. Again, I suspect it is Langafelter's brilliant interpretation. 

If she does not win a Drammy, something is very wrong.

"True Story" @ Artists Rep, inside PCS

 "True Story" is the play I've been looking forward to the most all Season. I am a huge fan of murder mysteries, and I couldn't wait. 

"True Story" did not disappoint. 

Its title alludes both to the search for the truth in a murder investigation, as well as a winking-nod to its inspiration by the "true story" of the publication, (and surrounding controversy) of O.J. Simpson's "If I Did It."

It is a brisk show, at a lean 80 minutes. It's momentum builds quite quickly. It is also well-suited to PCS' intimate Studio. My anticipation was richly rewarded. If you're in the mood for a spine-tingling adrenaline-rush, as a story you think you know unfurls, there is no better option than "True Story."

"Where We Belong" @ PCS

(Pardon the rather belated review, please. The Crippled Critic is now also (rather unexpectedly,) the Crippled College Student once again, after a long absence.) 

"Where We Belong" is the best kind of show: The kind that tells you something you completely did not know. Everyone knows about the horrific treatment of Native Peoples, in a broad-sense. But, I had no inkling whatsoever that  the British Museum has unlabeled human-remains in storage, and has actively resisted returning them to tribes who have made a a claim. 

That's disgusting, on every level.

That's far from the only tidbit of nauseating-knowledge that "Where We Belong" will impart in its lean 80 minutes. 

Yet amid these disturbing details, there is also a story of Shakespearean Scholarship, through a Native lens, and that too is much more interesting than one might initially expect.

You'll learn a lot, (some of which, you might wish you hadn't.)