The Employee Dharma Handbook: ★ ★ ★ ★

Geetha Reddy has written that rare theatrical treasure: a show that makes us laugh and think at the same time. We live within our own walls and tend to forget that we are not the only people dealing with the same intractable issues. Racism is 400 years old in America but the Caste system is several thousand years old in India. Bring Indian tech workers to a Silicon Valley aerospace company where company rules insist on equal treatment of all employees -- and watch how fast ancient prejudices rise up to muddy the waters.

t's a terrific cast, anchored by Kathryn Smith-McGlynn as Val, the H.R. person whose job it is to enforce the idealistic employee handbook. The employees, however, want nothing to do with it.  Boss C.K., played by Ranjita Chakravarty, needs to keep her company up and running so the upcoming launch can be successful. An IPO would be triggered thereafter, making everyone rich. So she doesn't much care about Leela (Megan Siri)'s squabbles with Krish (Kapil Talwalkar), nor Krish's with Baasu (Kunal Dudheker), nor even her college romance with none other than Val.

We have a bit of a problem with the quite improbable love story, but we know it sells tickets. After all, love is, as C.K. says: "An ancient solution to resolve a modern problem."

We especially enjoyed the section of the story where several employees, all of whom have agreed to use only English in the office, become furious at each other and begin back-and-forthing in a blistering native language that not only they understand, but a substantial part of the theater audience. Some of us will never know what they were saying, but on Opening Night we were in the minority. 

RATINGS:★★★★

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants FOUR STARS to "The Employee Dharma Handbook." Writing, directing, acting and Wilson Chin's Scenic design deserve one star each. It's a terrific show.

"The Employee Dharma Handbook"

Lucie Stern Theatre

1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto

Through 8/2/26

$54-$104

San Francisco Mime Troupe 2026: "Wreckage" ★ ★ ★ BANG!

San Francisco Mime Troupe performed its first show in 1959. 67 years later, the company is a fixture in the life of San Francisco arts. Here in the summer of 2026 various parks and venues throughout the region will get to experience another amazingly well-written and produced show, complete with cool, temporary sets (they have to break down after each show to load into the trucks for the next day's date). 

We saw Preview Day in Dolores Park. Two hawks soared over the stage from their home in the nearby Mission High School bell tower. As always, the sky was blue, the clouds were white and the Capitalist stooges took their lumps at the hands of the progressive proletariat. Details and actors might change year to year and new songs are always written, but the theme never varies. People with money (well-dressed but rapacious) take advantage of people without (disadvantaged but proud). 

That pretty much sums up America in the Grifting Twenties, as well as most countries inhabited by humans. In this year's show, on America's 250th birthday, with White Nationalists parading openly down the streets of our Capital, Jed Parsario is a terrific money-grubbing, panties-desiring TV Evangelist. "God put the B in Beyonce," he shouts, in between dance steps. Chloris Li is the Ingenue, somehow blind to her pastor's intent. Keiko Shimosato Carreiro plays Mari, the flower woman whose flower-selling corner is usurped by the Pastor's microphones. Michael Gene Sullivan (who wrote the show along with Daniel Savio's music and lyrics) is a software developer and we all know the technological rabbit holes this will lead us down.

These are hard-working actors. Li also plays Frederika, the brain-dead internet influencer. Parsario is an ex-vet who joined the National Guard to ease his path to citizenship but now sees his role as defender of ICE. Li and Parsario have the standout roles and also get the best songs to sing. 

And how can anyone not love the idea of a General Strike in the Afterlife?

On that note, a shout-out to Michael Gene Sullivan. We've seen him in countless Bay Area productions, but never knew he was this good a singer. Even the hawks stopped to listen.

RATINGS: ★★★ BANG!

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants Three Stars with a Bangle of Praise to "Wreckage." That anyone can work as hard to produce a show with such production values, and perform it constantly in venues across the Bay Area, is in itself a strong statement about standing up for one's beliefs. The Bangle of Praise is for Hori-Garcia, directing her first show. 

(SFTB to Hori-Garcia: We could use a little less banging over the head about the Japanese Internment Camps. We know this story quite well already and it tends to drag out the last part of a show with no intermission.)

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San Francisco Mime Troupe 2026: "Wreckage"

Various venues throughout the Bay Area

Through Sep. 7, 2026

FREE TO ALL