Where's Dick Cheney? Somebody call Dick Cheney!
The one thing you could truly say for our former vice-president was he was easy to hate. Without Cheney, played for several years by San Francisco Mime Troupe veteran Ed Holmes, always to enthusiastic hisses and heartfelt boos, the Mime Troupe has no spectacular villain to kick around. The troupe has been forced back to its same old story: bad capitalists, good collectivists, bad factory owners, good workers.
Even if you agree with the politics, as many in sun-baked Dolores Park always do, the concept seems to have lost some of its lovin' feelin.' The 2010 show is called "Posibilidad, or Death of the Worker," and features telenovela-watching factory workers being displaced by corporate stooges. Rotimi Agbabiaka's Ernesto is a slimy enough bad guy, but he's little! And he's not bald! Lisa Hori-Garcia's Sofia and her mother Claudia (Velina Brown) have several funny scenes, especially when arguing over football instead of sex, but the jokes are few and the scenes are long. There is nobody to shoot somebody else in the face with a hunting rifle.
Who knew we'd miss Dick Cheney so much?
So it's long, there is less music than usual, and there are no real bad guys. What a pity the gulf oil spill didn't start sooner -- THERE are some stooges we could have a lot of fun despising.
But it's always fun to be out in the park to see one of San Francisco's truly pioneering theater companies, and although the Mime Troupe's donations are down during the economic downturn, the show is still free. As for "Posibilidad" -- believe me Troupe fans, you've seen this one before.
RATINGS: ☼ ☼
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Posibilidad, or Death of the Worker" Two Stars. NO BANGLES of Praise, no baubles of despair. It's fun. It's OK. We still love you, man.
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SF Mime Troupe: "Posibilidad, or Death of the Worker"
Various Parks throughout the Bay Area
Mostly weekends through Sep. 19
FREE
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