“PURPOSE”: A GUT WRENCHING SAGA OF A FAMILY IN CRISIS.

 The La Jolla Playhouse is currently mounting Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play “Purpose” at the Mandel Weiss Theatre through June  7th. 

In 2024 Jacobs-Jennings won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for his 2011 production of  “Appropriate” which played at The Old Globe a year or so ago. Both “Purpose” and “Appropriate” are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Yet both are oft times are riddled with dark comedy sprinkled with complex matters of race, religion, legacy and above all, control. 

The story is loosely based on the life and times of Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson. 

Stephanie Berry, Andrea Agosto, Cornell Womack and Matthew Elijah Webb

At the center is the Jasper family: Rev. Solomon (Sonny) Jasper (Cornell Womack), who in the prime of his life marched with Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at rallies and gave inspirational sermons in their church. His loyal  wife, who has a law  degree, Claudine (Stephanie Berry) has been at his side through the good, bad and ugly. Sonny was hoping his younger son Naz (Matthew Elijah Web) would follow in his footsteps. His older son Jr. (Sean Boyce Johnson) a former senator, was just released from jail for embezzling and tax fraud. His wife Morgan (Crystal Dickinson), who helped her husband was scheduled to follow in prison.  In his retirement, he has taken up beekeeping. 

Breaking the fourth wall, with self-reflexive monologues, son Naz, (or as he is sometimes called their “weird son”) speaks to the audience, introduces his family, tells us of their trials and tribulations and the chaotic mess his family is in. We learn that expectations are not met, long time anger lurks just under the surface and lies are brought to the fore as the Jasper family is on the cusp of unraveling.  

head of the table Cornell Womack

Most of the story takes place on one Chicago snow filled night and into the next day. Naz’s friend, Aziza (Andréa Agosto) had driven him home from a long weekend in Canada where they spent watching Niagara Falls.  And just for you know what and giggles, Naz has agreed to be a sperm donor for Aziza who admits she is gay.  (Tuck that away for a later time) . What Aziza walked into was a storm much messier inside than the one outside.  She is encouraged to stay  at their house because of the nasty weather outside, and… Claudia is celebrating her belated birthday. And Jr. has just been released from prison. And…As a side note, yours truly had just come from a belated b’day party of her own that afternoon. 

Under the superb direction of Delicia Turner-Sonnenberg “Purpose” gives meaning to the saying… ‘to everything there is a purpose’. The ensemble is a tightly knit group balancing comedy, sombernes and tragedy; effortlessly and readily. And as individual characters, each personality is carefully drawn out to let us in on  the grief, anxiety and hurt. Singling one out above the others would be a difficult task, but no doubt, Webb anchors the show in his own easy going inimitable  way.  "Purpose"  as poignant  as are the silly moments that keep the play and the characters alive and above water.   

Cornell Womack and Matthew Elijah Webb

Credit Lawrence E. Moten III for the detailed set of a high end Chicago home with floor to ceiling windows, covered in sheer curtains to see the weather changing with a larger than life portrait of M.L. King, Jr.  Hanging chandeliers designed by Sherrice Mojgani giving the living room, kitchen and staircase well lit. Costumes by Samantha C. Jones are casual, Lindsay Jones is credited for the original music and sound design. Hair, wigs and makeup by Alberto “Albee” Alvarado. Heather M. Brose is  stage manager and Annette Nixon is production manager. 

Matthew Elijah Webb, Stephanie Berry, Sean Boyce Johnson, Crystal Dickinson and Andre Agosto

“Purpose” runs close to three hours. It’s very wordy but oh so purposeful. Jacob-Jennings has touched on ideas of being on the spectrum, sexuality, faith and the ministry. All this in one not so neatly package. 

See you at the theatre.

You’ll kick yourself if you miss this show!

Please enjoy!  

When:  Tuesdays through Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through June 7.

Where: La Jolla Playhouse, Mandell Weiss Theatre, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, UCSD

Photo:Rich Soublet II.

 Tickets: $30-$94

Phone: 858-550-1010

Online: lajollaplayhouse.org

BEAU JEST” OFFERS UP A LAUGH A MINUTE

James Sherman’s romance comedy “Beau Jest” is now being shown at the North Coast Repertory Theatre. It opened on Broadway in 1991 and for all intents and purposes it should be dated but for some reason, it still resonates as a thoughtful essay on truth, overcoming basic fears, being yourself and listening to your heart. 

Simply put, it’s about a nice Jewish girl whose committed Jewish parents expect her to marry a nice Jewish boy. Easy-peasy, right? Well not so much for Sarah Goldman (Katrina Michaels) who happens to be dating a nice non-Jewish boy, Chris Cringle (Benjamin Cole is right on in character). 

Benjamin Cole, Katrina Michaels and Sam Ashdown

Trouble is, she can’t tell her parents about Chris, so she hires someone from a dating agency,  Bob Schroeder (Sam Ashdown who is without question perfect for this role) whom she thinks is Jewish and invites him to meet her parents, Miriam and Abe Goldman (Jill Remez and Joel Polis) at their annual Passover Seder.  She introduces Bob as David Steinberg a heart and brain Dr. Sarah’s psychologist, judgmental  and opinionated brother Joel (an excellent Josh Cahn) into the mix, and what we have is Tzores with a capital T!

Josh Cahn, Jill Ramez, Joel Polis, Sam Ashdown and Katrina Michaels

Bob, on the other hand, when not ‘escorting’ women to the opera or dinner or what have you, is also an actor, therefore much of his performance as ‘the Jewish boyfriend’, like knowing the blessing over the wine at a Shabbat dinner, is a flashback from roles in musicals he was in, like “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Cabaret”. 

However, putting too much horseradish on his Matzo, during the Seder, should have been a direct giveaway. “They’ll know. They can spot a Jew a mile away. It’s like radar.”  But being the actor that he is  Sara’s parents bought it hook, line and sinker.  

Joel Polis, Jill Remez, Sam Ashdown and Katrina Michaels

Broadly directed by a nice Jewish director Omri Schein it registers about a laugh a minute; oft times over done and oft times well deserved. Schein’s ensemble is well balanced for this fast paced rom-com with the exception of Katrina Michaels who is so tightly wound up it’s un-nerving. She  can’t seem to find a good balance for herself. Making her parents happy is a full time job and telling the truth to them is even more difficult.  

The chemistry between Jill Remez, Miriam and Polis’ Abe worked for me. They are completely true to form. Abe is committed to kvetching about parking in Sarah’s Chicago neighborhood and she refuses to have Sarah ‘warm the kugel’ in the oven as opposed to the microwave. It’s a long- standing joke 

Sam Ashdown, Benjamin Cole, Joel Polis, Katrina Michaels, Jill Remez and Josh Cahn

In a compelling second act turn -about after Abe finds out that David/Bob is not Jewish, his rant about Miriam lying, brings about chest pains, 911 emergency and a ‘come to Jesus’ (pardon the expression) moment for the entire group. But for a rom-com, happy endings are a must and Sherman’s “Beau Jest” has just that. 

As stated, it’s dated, it’s predictable, and if it resonates outside a Member of The Tribe (MOT) community, remains to be seen. 

Marty Burnett’s set is neatly designed as Sara’s well kept apartment. Matthew Novotny’s lighting design, Evan Easton’s sound design (Snippets of Fiddler), Jennifer Brawn Gittings costumes are period correct, Peter Herman’s wigs  look great and whoever made the Kugel, it smelled wonderful. 

No question, “Beau Jest brings out some stereotypical mishegas about the Jewish experience. It’s fun, entertaining and will definitely take your mind off the goings on in Washington for about two or so hours.  

See you at the theatre.

Have fun. 

 

When:  Runs through May 24. 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8  p.m. Fridays; 2  and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. and Sundays

Where: North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach

Photo: Aaron Rumley

Tickets: $53.50-$68.50

Phone: 858-481-1055

Online: northcoastrep.org

 

“ALIEN GIRLS”

 “Alien Girls” by Amy Berryman, playing in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre at The Old Globe, now in a world premiere, was developed in part with Center Theatre Group’s L.A. Writer’s Workshop. 

Berryman explores the relationship between two women over the course of  about a decade sharing with each other their desires, whims, career choices, and intimacy. Tiffany (Brittany Bradford) and Carolyn (Emma Ramos) both want to be writers: their career choices. They share ideas and read each other’s works and are committed to writing with the hopes that one day one of them will write a book that will be a best seller.

Emma Ramos and Tiffany Bradford

When we first meet up with them, they are college roommates and lovers until Tiffany tells Carolyn that she is pregnant. What? But? Yup! She no longer feels that way and now wants this baby because she believes motherhood is the most important job in the world. 

Although Carolyn tries to support Tiffany through her pregnancy, in a moment of questioning her motives and how Tiffany could do this to her, Carolyn writes a piece about her feelings: about Tiffany being pregnant and how betrayed she feels. The piece is accepted by The New Yorker Magazine and goes viral before Carolyn has a chance to tell Tiffany. As turnabout is fair play, Tiffany outs Carolyn to her mother, robbing Carolyn the chance to say goodbye to her on her deathbed. You can imagine the all together tight relationship the two developed over the years, goes south. 

Brittany Bradford and Karina Curet

Making an appearance in several different parts, Karina Curet is just what the doctor ordered. She is a friend to both women, editor of The New Yorker, bride to be, Karate teacher and Carolyn’s new lover. Many years later she too wants a child claiming that motherhood is the most important thing a woman can be. But!!! She wants Carolyn to carry the baby. OY! 

Directed with a light hand and allowing all the humor and sadness shine through, Jaki Bradley allows the actors room to grow and mature over a period of about ten years. Also making this all female friendship work so well is the chemistry between both Bradford and Ramos. They are each-other’s yin and yang. 

Emma Ramos and Friend Puppet

Added to this all female friendship are alien puppets. Yup! puppets from another planet, that may or may not add to Berryman’s story. They are fun to look at and are manipulated by both Bradford and Ramos but to these ears, difficult to understand. And while I’m at it, some in the audience couldn’t stop LOL as if every line was a laugh line. Not so much folks! Yes, there are many scenes that come off as funny, but going overboard just gets in the way of what the actors might say next.

Jason Sherwood takes credit for the spaceship looking set, with  flashing neon light around the perimeter by Rui Rita. Helen Q. Huang is credited for the puppet design and costumes. Sinan Refik Zafar an almost interplanetary sound design.

Brittany Bradford and Emma Ramos

I left the theatre feeling that “Alien Girls” was not my most favorite show. But writing about all female relationships, the good, the bad and the ugly isn’t always so wonderful either. 

Take yourself on a planet ride, never leave the ground, and have fun. “Alien Girls” is after all, part comedy part serious business. 

See you at the theatre.

Enjoy.

 

When:  Runs through May 10. 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays

Where: Old Globe Theatre’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego

Tickets: $41 and up

Photo: Rich Soublet II. 

Phone: 619-234-5623

Online: theoldglobe.org

“FENCES”: WILSON’S PLAY THAT KEEPS ON GIVING.

Sobering is what one might call August Wilson’s “Fences” as directed by Delicia Turner-Sonnenberg now showing at The Old Globe Theatre through  May 3rd. Many years ago, Ms. Turner Sonnenberg directed this very same show when it was co-produced at Cygnet Theatre. Why not get the best for the best? And so here we are with another top notch production which says mountains about her.  

August Wilson’s “Fences”, is he sixth in his Pittsburg Cycle or his Century Cycle. The first nine of the ten are set in Pittsburg depicting the Black experience. This reviewer has seen the entire cycle over the years, but for some reason, “Fences” has held the longest memory and taught the most defining lessons.

Dorian Missick and Rondell McCormick 

Troy Maxson (Dorian Missick) is a bigger than life character who not only dominates the stage as the head of his family in this powerful production, but as an actor who knows his subject matter and excels at it. His deliverance is impeccable as is his persona as Troy Maxson. As his wife Rose (De'Adre Aziza)  remarks, “When he walks through that door, he fills up the house. He sucks the air out of the room”. That about sums up his extraordinary presence. 

The son of an abusive sharecropper, Troy Maxson now lives in Pittsburgh with his wife Rose and their teen son Cory (Omari K. Chancellor). He works as a sanitation worker and ruminates  on all the things he never got to do because… of  his unsuccessful baseball career, which he simply cannot get over.

Rondell McCormick, De'Adre Aziza and Dorian Missick 

A former Negro League baseball star, he never quite benefited from the likes of Jackie Robinson, (he was too old), with whom he compares himself. It  is in this context, that almost every reference Troy makes about himself and his life are in baseball terms most of which are metaphors describing his philosophy and his outlook on life: the fastball/death metaphor in a reference to different forms of death or his reference to death as an easy pitch; perfect for hitting a homerun; or his three strike punishment of his son Cory when he defies his father, and finally death ain’t nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.

Troy Maxson isn’t any man, no, he’s everyman who thinks he knows what’s best for himself and his family. And therein lies the rub; Troy thinks he knows it all, but in doing so he drowns out everyone else’s dreams as he does to his son Cory  who is good enough to be drafted as a football player with a scholarship,  but he refuses to sign the draft papers. Instead he wants him to get a job at the local A&P market wedging a bigger gap between father and son who have a tenuous relationship as it is.

(l to r) Donathan Walters, De'Adre Aziza, Rondell McCormick(in background) Oman K. Chandler and Dorian Missick 

His other son Lyons (Mister Fitzgerald), from another marriage and is a no worries musician who comes around every payday for a handout. Troy is not having it. He needs his son to find a paying job and stop asking for money. No one ever gave him anything.

Two things are constant in his life; his friend Bono (Rondrell McCormick) and Troy’s brother Gabe (Donathan Walters). Bono works with Troy and acts as a confidant, someone Troy can share a drink with every payday, and knows pretty much everything the good, the bad and the ugly, about him. 

Troy’s brother is a wounded WWII vet with a steel plate in his head from combat in Vietnam and is psychologically damaged and  half crazed thinking himself the archangel Gabriel. Turned out by the Veterans Administration, with a three thousand dollar pittance which Troy used to build his house, Gabe is as happy go lucky as Troy is as serious as the day is long. 

De'Adre Aziza and Dorian Missick

The more the layers of Troy’s personality are revealed, the more vulnerable, human and tragic a figure he becomes. His relationship with his wife and family, by second act begin to crumble. Even his friendship with Bono deteriorates when he admits he can’t stop seeing a local woman who “makes him laugh” amidst the protests by his best friend that he has a wonderful wife in Rose. 

De’Adres  portrayal  of Rose, the cement that holds the family together, is nothing short of perfection as she shows us an emotional range from passionate mother, trying to protect her son as he grows to manhood and ready to conquer his own demons, and of caring wife. Her ‘coming of age’ speech if you will upon hearing of Troy’s infidelity, is heartbreaking as she unleashes all her pent up frustrations about her own struggles and wants, suppressed by the desire to be the perfect wife, while she directs her anger at the husband she loves but who betrayed her. (“You not the only one who's got wants and needs. But I held on to you, Troy. I took all my feelings, my wants and needs, my dreams... and I buried them inside you....Cause you was my husband.”)

Dorian Missick and De'Adre Aziza

Beautifully set on the Globe’s large proscenium Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage is the back part of Troy’s two story house, a large front porch and open screen door with kitchen windows lit.  Two steps off the porch is the playing field . On the other side of the house is an old, rather dead looking tree with a baseball tethered to it and off to the side a baseball bat. Partially surrounding the yard is a half finished fence Troy has promised Rose he would finish. (credit Lawrence E. Moten III) There are no secrets in this little ghetto but there are fences to either keep the family in or changes out. 

Sherrice Mojgani lighting design signals night fall with orange coloring and Leon Rothenberg’s sound design brings laughter and grief when needed and Yvonne L. Miranda designed the period looking clothes. (Justus Alexander and Ariele Maye Rivers alternate the role of Raynell.)

As mentioned earlier, “Fences” is a sobering experience that, at play’s end leaves you with tears of joy and sadness. 

See it!

Enjoy.

See you at the theatre. 

When:  Runs through May 3. 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays

Where: Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego

Photo: Rich Soublet II

Tickets: $40 and up

Phone: 619-234-5623

Online: theoldglobe.org

 

CYGNET’S “THE LEHMAN TRILOGY” IS A MASTERPIECE IN PERFECTION

Cygnet Theatre in Liberty Station is staging “The Lehman Trilogy” by Stefano Power, adapted by Ben Power and meticulously directed by Kim Strassburger. “The Lehman Trilogy” has been produced in many theatres and country’s far and wide, but this reviewer cannot imagine it being as fine a work as is being done at Cygnet’s Dottie Studio Theatre. 

The play is a living, breathing rhythmic tale or ode, if you will, as told by three actors, Jacob Caltrider, Steven Lone and Bruce Turk,  playing no less than 70+ characters spanning over 160 years, who not only tell their story but are the story.  To do this the audience must give itself over three hours to watch it unfold. 

‘Trilogy’ winds through the  historical timeline of a  family of Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe specifically Bavaria in search of the American Dream. 

Bruce Turk  as Henry Lehman

The first brother to step foot on American soil is the eldest, Henry (Bruce Turk). He settles in Alabama and opens, what we might call now, a dry goods store; bolts of fabric, nick -knacks, sundry’s and determination. He is followed by Emanuel (Steven Lone), a go getter and finally, the third is Mayer (Jacob Caltrider). Henry is referred to as the ‘head’ Emanuel, ‘the arm’, holding things together and Mayer, the ‘potato’  because of his smooth skinned face and the fact that he can smooth disagreements over. 

Steven Lone as Emanuel

Over the years the three will eventually change the way America does business, run the Stock Market, own cotton mills, plantations, tobacco farms, munitions factories, face fires in the south, live through the  Civil War, the crashing market,  and will rebuild. They will sit on boards of major industries, marry into wealth have children, train the next generation, observe their Jewish traditions until it is no longer acceptable in the world they built. 

Jacob Caltrider as Mayer Lehman

“The Lehman Trilogy” is about family honor. It’s  about a legacy to pass to our children. It’s a history lesson. It’s about greed /love /passion/ loss. It’s about ambition and how it can break a family just as much as it can build a family.  It is about so much more, and as this epic unfolds, it is told with bravado, boldness and panache. 

Bruce Turl, Jacob Caltrider and Steven Lone

To that end the three actors so perfectly match their character or the character they might be at the time, with easy transition, subtle movements, facial expressions, on a table, with an umbrella, at a board meeting, making their first business sign, on a box or a stack of boxes or while moving about the stage and still keeping to their own parameters in the Black Box Theatre.

Keeping this balance, director Kim Strassburger has managed to bring to the fore the discipline, humor, precise movements without flaw. No doubt she is captain of her ship and it serves her well. Brava!

Steven Lone, Jacob Caltrider and Bruce Turk

Props (Bonnie Durbin) are at a minimum; three tables, three chairs, about five or six storage boxes that can be moved or used as needed, a cigarette lighter, a blanket. 

Matthew Herman’s set design is simple lit by Sammy Webster’s LED lights overhead, blaring spot lights emphasizing, and softer ones often less blinding. 

Blake McCarty’s projections circle the rectangle stage with images of New York skyline, The Stock Market, fires raging. Jeanne Rieth designed the turn of the century costumes. 

George Ye designed the sound scape. 

Todd Salovey acted as the cultural consultant and Vanessa Dinning, the dialect consultant.

Mazal Tov to the entire cast and crew. 

Enjoy.

See you at the theatre. 

  

When:  Runs through April 26. 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, 1 and 7 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Cygnet Theatre’s Dottie Studio Theatre, 2880 Roosevelt Road, Arts District Liberty Station

Tickets: $68 and up

Phone: 619-337-1525

Press: Karli Cadel

Online: cygnettheatre.com

 

NO TIP-TOEING AROUND IN BACKYARD RENAISSANCES “WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF”

 In the final scene of  Edward Albee’s tragi/comedy, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , George puts his hand gently on Martha’s shoulder, she puts her head back, and he  sings to her very softly : “Whose afraid of Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf’”, and she responds through teary eyes and sobs, “I… am George…I…am…”

(George nods slowly)

  (Silence, Blackout!

Virginia Woolf is not just some old play written in 1962. It is more like a battlefield for George and Martha, who have been waging this mêlée since their marriage began. It’s the play that put Albee on the map and changed the tone of  contemporary literature. In examining “Virginia Woolf” now, we have to look at it through 2026 eyes rather than 60’s eyes when some of the language was almost forbidden and frowned upon. Did that make it any less disturbing? I think not. It might make this production less shocking, but not any less troublesome.

Howard Taubman of The New York Times said of Virginia Woolf : “…towers over the common run of contemporary plays. It marks a further gain for a young writer becoming a major figure on stage.” And Newsweek said,  “…a brilliantly original work of art- an excoriating theatrical experience, surging with shocks of recognition and dramatic fire.”

Francis Gercke and Megan Carmitchel

You don’t have to trust these critics. These reviews were written after it was performed off-Broadway in 1962 and then went on to win the New York Drama Critics Circle and Tony Awards as the Best Play of the 1962-’63 season. And if you are still not convinced, take a trip to Backyard Renaissance Theatre Co. on 10th Ave. Downtown and decide for yourselves. Just be aware that the show is three house long with two intermissions and we the audience only get to breathe between acts.

Jessica John

Jessica John and Francis Gercke real life husband and wife team  are not averse to bringing hard- nosed theatre to their company: “August: Osage County”, “Waverly Gallery” , “Streetcar Named Desire” in which she played Stella, come to mind.  Now she has taken on the juicy Elizabeth Taylor movie role of Martha in “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”  

Before we even get to see the couple, we hear their laughter and animated chatter outside their front door, which sets the tone for Act One, subtitled “Fun & Games”. Martha and George have just returned home from partying with  Martha’s father and other faculty members. Her father is president of the college, somewhere in Massachusetts,  where George teaches History (two bones of contention; the president and the teacher as opposed to The Head of the Dept.).

Megan Carmitchel and Drew Bradford

They are both three sheets to the wind, and instead of going to bed, they are awaiting the arrival of a new faculty member, Nick (Drew Bradford) and his wife Honey (Megan Carmitchel) who Martha had invited over for a few drinks and to get to know them better. It’s two o’clock in the morning and they are just warming up for the next round of blows to keep the adrenaline  pumping. Their  unsuspecting guests don’t have  a clue as to what’s coming. Heaven help them.

At this time in their twenty something year marriage both Martha and George are fueled by disappointment in themselves and each other. They drink too much and hold a sick little secret over each other’s heads.

Drew Bradford and Jessica John

John's Martha is a tigress ready to leap, criticize and rip apart her husband of twenty some years. It’s all in the game. Martha stalks, attacks, drinks and attacks again! She is caustic, funny, nasty, amusing and a tireless warrior. To say that her aim is the jugular would be an understatement. She hits him, both physically and mentally,  on all fronts from being a failure as a teacher to failing as a husband and everything in between.  Be aware, she is more than perfect at it. 

He strikes back . As George, Gercke is the perfect foil and agitator: ‘bring it on!” He is more cerebral. The less he responds, the more she charges. The more she rides him the more he focuses his attentions on the younger couple while still managing to humiliate Martha in ways she never thought possible. Gercke's  perfect portrayal of George is one for the books and almost has you rooting for him, as he circles the wagons and looks for his next big opening to strike- no attack, anyone in his line of fire. 

Jessica John and Francis Gercke

While Nick and Honey are  the ideal couple to trample on for Martha and George, they look on with awe and amazement and are eventually and mercilessly drawn in to the fray. She by sheer cluelessness, but as she keeps the Brandy coming, she dances around like a wind force and he by his superior attitude thinking he can get the best of George. 

Defenses down, liquor loosening the tongue and other boundaries put aside, they unwittingly become part of Martha and George’s war strategy. It starts out slowly and builds to a crescendo when Nick, his smart aleck face dropping to a concession of facing the truth about himself, his marriage and his own secrets, in Act ll,  aptly called Walpurgisnacht” (a nod to a folkloric gathering of witches).

Jessica John and Francis Gercke

The Carmitchel/Bradford choice is also a finely balanced duo as the couple/ adversary to occupy that young and innocent spot that was played by George Seigel and Sandy Dennis in the movie version.  Both Carmitchel (who was also in “Streetcar”) and Bradford are excellent as the youth that has long passed the ageing and calloused Martha and George. 

Francis Gercke, Megan Carmitchel and Drew Bradford

Every move, every pouring of the liquor, every look and every step is choreographed perfectly by Hanna Meade and of course the co director’s  Gercke and Coleman Ray Clark make that possible. Chad Ryan is credited for the fussy, 60’s living room set with National Geographic’s spread out on a coffee table cluttered with full, half empty whisky glasses and an open cigarette case and an ashtray filled to the brim with  half smoked cigarettes. (Jeffrey Neitzel props designer)

Evan Hart Marsh's mood music fits right in never getting in the way of the dialogue, but enhancing the tension. Brenna Maienchein designed the three costumes fit for each of John’s with Carmitchel's happy sunshine yellow crinoline dress and Nick’s blue suit. All in contrast to George’s academic tan shirt, tan pants and brownish sweater.

Jessica John and Drew Bradford

At the end of an exhausting evening for both audience and players, Albee manages to rip the layers off of two marriages; one already on the rocks in desperate need of reconciliation, the other about to be exposed for the phony veneer it portrays. (Part 3; The Exorcism) 

It’s riveting and worth every minute of it!

When:  7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. Through March 21

Where: Backyard Renaissance Theatre at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center. 930 Tenth Avenue, San Diego

Photo: Michael Makie)

Tickets: $50

Online:  backyardrenaissance.com

“AN ACT OF GOD”

Samantha Ginn

 Scripps Ranch Theatre is currently mounting David Javerbaum’s sometimes sacrilegious, oft times funny, other times edgy and more often than not chaotic take on God’s remake of the Ten Commandments; ergo: 10 new ones are written for humanity sake.  

With Samantha Ginn, dressed all in white with LGBTQ striped sox, (Dawn Fuller-Korinek), She is in complete command of the universe as she begins Her journey (about 90 minutes) touching on everything biblical (and then some) from Adam and Eve to Jesus Christ and the manger story,  to the burning bush, to 911, to the Holocaust, to the Via Dolorosa, to Jesus being a difficult child, to the jealousy and first murder of Abel by his brother Cain, to Sodom and Gomorrah, to the question of why children die of cancer to believing in ourselves and forgiveness. 

It’s a bit of a stretch to imagine all this to be covered by God Herself. But fear not. She did have two Angel Helpers. Toga clad Archangel Michael (Devyn Wood) and Archangel Gabriel (A.J. Knox) who encouraged audience participation, er, when She approved.

Devyn Wade and A.J, Knox

Throw in a little pop culture, old TV shows a la “Family Feud”,  some two step, side step choreography by Luke Harvey Jacobs, scenic and lighting designer David Kievit (“God’s, Open 24 Hours.” Neon over the door) and Ted Leibs sound design left no one in the dark about what the next Commandment  boomed in would be.  

Between Director Phil Johnson, who in his own right is funny, and Ginn, who teaches ADAH (inclusion specialist) children as a profession, giving voice to those who feel they have no voice, “An Act Of God” is a perfect piece for this outstanding comedian.  Ginn is also no stranger to Off Beat Shows; “She-Rantulas” comes to mind.

Samantha Ginn as God

As for her two archangels… Knox has the biggest voice announcing the new 10 Commandments while Wade, the more compassionate, and good natured is more of a pain in God’s side, for some reason? Both have feathered wings although Archangel Michael, gets his feathers ruffled in a little kerfuffle with God. But I guess it comes with the territory…sigh. 

I was surprised that in the end we all didn’t stand and sing AMEN but I guess it wasn’t in Her plan. Instead of Brushing up your Shakespeare, I say brush up on your Bile studies… or not. But have fun along the way.

See you at the theatre.

Enjoy.

The New 10 Commandments

When:  Runs through April 13. 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2  p.m. Sundays

Where: Scripps Ranch Theatre, 9783 Avenue of Nations, Alliant International University, San Diego

Tickets: $10-$45

Photo: Michael Pearce

Phone: 619-568-5800

Online: theroustabouts.org