THE INCREMENTALIST ★★

★

The acting in Cleavon Smith's "The Incrementalist" is first-rate. Each of the four characters has an important role to play and all are central to the show's theme. Sam Jackson as firebrand Raz, Anna Marie Sharpe as Raz's girlfriend Miriam, Cathleen Riddley as Nina, the college administrator and Michale J. Asberry as Thomas, a successful author chosen by Nina to try and quell student unrest, gets a moment to shine. The ensemble work between Jackson and Sharpe is especially fun to watch. Judging by audience reaction at the World Premiere on April 21 at the Aurora, the show may have a successful future.

Be prepared, however: the Aurora's audience sits in a U. The dialogue between the two younger women is difficult to understand, especially if you are seated, as we were, on one of the two sides. We heard a lot of muffled uptempo exchanges as we stared at the actors' backs. Often, an inaudible line (for us) brought forth laughter from the audience, or even "Uh huh! That's right!" We advise getting seats in the middle of the U. 

There are problems. The show is long, short on action and overly talky, especially in Act Two where the author attempts to tie together loose ends, but instead just confuses everything that came before. We will not give away any plot points here, but...really? Nina is...who? Raz...what?

The overarching issue, of the constant struggle between moving forward incrementally ("Incrementalism") and tossing out the present to start over ("Revolution"), has not changed since the first politicians crawled out from the prehistoric muck. Those who have will always resist the urgings of those who don't. And everyone has a price.  Author Smith seems to be telling us that Incrementalism is fine as long as the payoff is large enough. 

★★

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "The Incrementalist" TWO STARS. We understand that a World Premiere means just that -- the show is brand new. Change will come, incrementally to be sure. The show's premise is strong. Now, let's breathe some more life into the motivations of the characters. 

The Incrementalist

Aurora Theatre

2081 Addison St., Berkeley

Through May 15, 2022

$44-$53

Water By The Spoonful ★★ Bang

Addiction is not an uplifting topic, but Quiara Alegría Hudes's "Water by the Spoonful" shows us how people can choose to cope with a difficult situation. An Addicts Hotline, hosted by Haikumom, an ex-Junkie whose real name is Odessa Ortiz (Lisa Ramirez), keeps hope alive for fellow long-distance addicts Orangutan (Sango Tajima), Chutes&Ladders (Dorian Lockett) and Fountainhead (Ben Euphrat). The idea is to call in whenever you feel the need to use your drug of choice, and instead talk with the others about it until your craving goes away. As Chutes&Ladders tells Orangutan, "A sober day for you is a sober day for me."

At the same time, Haikumom's son Elliot Ortiz and cousin Yazmin Ortiz (Xander DeAngeles and Lara Maria) are having trouble raising enough money to buy flowers for the funeral of an elderly cousin, whose relationship to the others takes awhile to clear up. Elliot is a Vietnam vet haunted by an Arab ghost (Salim Razawi) and Yazmin is the one responsible for keeping things together.

Elliot is hard to figure. He is both angry and haunted, qualities the author assumes we will accept since he is an ex-Marine who fought in combat. We wish Elliot would give us something besides anger. His scene in Act Two with his mother's computer is just too evil. It's hard to pull for this man. 

Chutes&Ladders 's way of coping with his addiction is to take no chances. He works as an IRS functionary and will have nothing to do with Orangutan's need to have him fly to Japan to meet her in the flesh. "Stay in the Box," he says, so there can be no unpleasant surprises. His and Orangutan's relationship feels honest and is the emotional center of the show.

We are totally on board until intermission. Act 2 runs long, however, as the director and author attempt to tie up loose ends and the acting gets a little frenetic. 

We really like Ben Euphrat.

RATINGS: ★★ Bang

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants "Water by the Spoonful" Two Stars with a Bangle of Praise (See sidebar for explanation of ratings.) The performance we saw started very strong but by the end lacked emotional impact, probably due to its length.

"Water By the Spoonful"

San Francisco Playhouse

450 Post St., San Francisco

2d floor of Kensington Hotel

Through April 23

$30-$100

Dan Hoyle: Talk to Your People

I love my couch, but it's really nice to be back live in a real theater. Excitement is in the air. We have seen quite a few Dan Hoyle shows over the years and the thought of experiencing his newest, "Talk to Your People," has filled us with anticipation. We feel no pain, even in the Marsh's unintentional bucket seats. The theater tapes a piece of paper to the red seatbacks with the names of the people displayed who will be filling them. I see lots of fellow reviewers' names, plus a whole lot of Hoyles. Dan's a brilliant performer and he's also a local guy. We're back. 

The Dan Hoyle formula is to tell a story through various characters. This time, however, as he explains in a jaw-dropping opening rap, his subject is not Nigerians, nor women, nor minorities, nor random folks he has interviewed in his earlier shows, but, instead, the people we are told are "his people": White people from Oakland.

But there are potholes in this road. For a white performer, talking about white people is not a simple subject, even when you are playing to an Opening Night audience at the Marsh, which is, at best, light beige. People may misconstrue what you are saying. Reviewers might too,

One of these potholes is that you can't talk about white people without talking about Black people and/or Asians and/or Latinos. All but one of Hoyle's characters are white, and that one is an Argentinian techie who is also white except that he gets to check the LATINO box. And if you are going to make a big deal out of these people being "your people," it would be better to choose people with more interesting stories to tell. 

It is hard to differentiate one character from the other, which is probably the crux of our niggling. We have seen Dan Hoyle pour himself into his characters to the point that they have become real to us. He is a gifted physical comedian. This time, however, he doesn't seem to be trying all that hard. There is no center to the show, except for one young white man interviewing other young white men, seemingly at random.

We loved the concept of "Strategic Self-Sacrifice," in the bit about a young man trying to figure out how to support his brain-dead boss on a Zoom call. We also loved Hoyle's comparison of the '90s, when we thought we were all the same down deep, to now, when even thinking this thought would get us shouted down as elitists on Twitter.

Hoyle uses home movies as a backdrop during character and clothing changes, as well as interesting musical interludes. The music works. The home movies mostly involve shots of his daughter, who is charming, but we are not sure what she has to do with the concepts of privilege and cancel culture.

Perhaps times have changed since Covid. But maybe they haven't -- it is still about story, characters, performance, growth. For us, "Talk to Your People" is not primo Dan Hoyle...at least, not yet.

                                                RATINGS: TWO STARS

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Dan Hoyle: Talk To Your People" TWO STARS. It is a new show and will obviously be refined during the run. It will be good to see if Hoyle chooses to add characters or perhaps give a more cohesive connection to those he portrays. 

                    "Dan Hoyle: Talk To Your People"

                                        The Marsh

                    1062 Valencia St., San Francisco

                                    Through April 16

                                          $25-$35

"Don't Eat the Mangos" ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

A beautifully written and deeply felt drama, Ricardo Pérez González's "Don't Eat the Mangos" carries a deep secret in the title, but we don't find out about it until the end. The show is so perfectly realized, with actors, set, lights and music working as one well-oiled unit, it is hard to believe we have just seen the World Premiere.

Three daughters and their mother are nursing dying Dad in their small home outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The daughters, late 30s into their 40s, argue about whose chingada turn it is to change the chingada bedpan. The stage directions get it right: "The three sisters greet each other as sisters do, that is to say a blend of familiar affection and loathing."

Ismelda, the oldest, has remained home to care for her parents while Yinoelle and Wicha have left to form their own families. Yetta Gottesman gives Ismelda some strong Eldest-Child Syndrome, which is to say she tries to call all the shots. But she is suffering from a terrible past, of which no one else is aware. Middle daughter Yinoelle (Elena Estér) is the buffer between Ismelda and Wicha (Marilet Martínez) whose incapacity to tell a lie eventually uncovers the secret of the mangos. All three sisters are beautifully realized, as is Wilma Bonet's strong but fading Mami. (Did we mention Mami is dying of cancer?)

Papi is played by veteran actor Julian Lòpez Morillas, whose broken-English laments are punctuated by a bronchial cough that we could feel from Row C.

So Papi is near death, Mami is dying and what is going to happen next? Observe Mami's body language below.

The set by Tanya Orellana allows action to flow between the dining table and the room where Papi's hospital bed has been placed. Chris Lundahl's lights give us hurricane flashes as well as subtle auras of discovery. If we could find fault with David Mendizábal's direction, we would, but we can't. Everything works in this show.

RATINGS ☼  ☼  ☼  ☼

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants "Don't Eat the Mangos" Four Stars. It is excellent the way it is and can only get better. One caveat is that a significant part of the banter between the four women is in Puerto Rican Spanish. We got most of it, but it probably would be better to sit in the center section where you can see their lips move. Section C seats find action at the end blocked by the actors. There! I KNEW I could find something to complain about.

Sit in the middle. Go see this show.

"Don't Eat the Mangos"

The Magic Theatre

Fort Mason, Building D, San Francisco

Through Mar. 22

$15-$75

"On The Periphery" ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

The Periphery Road separates two sections of an unnamed city (probably Istanbul) in an unnamed country (probably Turkey), separated by the city's garbage dump. Only the desperately poor live on one side of Periphery Road, in the Genies and Angels neighborhood, where cardboard shacks spring up overnight and from time to time there are spontaneous methane explosions within the garbage, which serve as entertainment for Genies and Angels children.

On the other side is the city: whose people are called Insiders by the occupants of Genies and Angels, for whom a trip across the garbage into the city is as likely as escaping to the EU.

Ayla Yarkut plays Sultane, the TV host of a program called "Sultane of the Periphery." The show is tremendously popular within the Genies and Angels neighborhood. Sultane grants wishes. Her attitude is that of a big city TV huckster, except she delivers. If you are chosen to be on her show, your wish will be granted.

Yarkut is a perfect Sultane. We find ourselves believing her, even though our mistrust glands are stimulated every time she begins her spiel for her sponsor, Miracle Pots and Pans.

Meanwhile, a forbidden friendship has developed between the Roma (gypsy) Kibele (Olivia Rosaldo-Pratt) and the villager Dilsha (Sofia Ahmad). The reason this friendship has been forbidden is the Roma are held in even less repute than the other dwellers on the garbage dump. Dilsha and her husband Bilo (Lijesh Kirishnan) have felt blessed to have left their home villages and become city people, even if their home is in impoverished Genies and Angels. They feel fortunate to have jobs in the factory whose toxicity is causing children to be born without navels, but even so their prejudice against the Roma, who have the same problems as they, is unchangeable.

We love Krishnan as Bilo, whose trusting nature allows us to understand what small pleasures mean in the lives of these villagers. At the same time, we are shown how even those at the bottom can find a way to despise those who they consider to be even lower.

Leila Rosa plays Tamar and Zaya Kolia is Azad, the young couple who have a deep bond with all the other characters in the play. They represent hope. We are on their side, but they're not out of the woods yet.

We love this story by Sedef Ecer (translation by Evren Odcikin). Congratulations to both Golden Thread Productions and Crowded Fire Theater Company for sharing in this lovely and spellbinding show.

RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants "On the Periphery" Three Stars with a Bangle of Praise. Writing, ensemble and costuming by Maggie Whitaker earn one Star each, with the Bangle of Praise for a rare look at the way people around the world cope with their situations. In the end, all our children want to live a life of their own. But they can never escape their roots.

"On the Periphery"

Potrero Stage

18th and Carolina, Potrero Hill, San Francisco

Through April 4, 2020

$15 - $50

"Retablos" ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

There is so much to love about Word For Word's production of Octavio Solis's "Retablos." Each retablo is a picture out of time, a memory of a specific event in Solis's early life in El Paso, Texas, pulled from his 2018 memoir "Stories From A Life Lived Along the Border."

We see the entire ensemble playing multiple roles, old, young, male, female, Mexicano, Chicano or Gringo, border jumper or Vietnam-vet border guard. We see the marvelous Maria Candelaria as Consuelo the maid who comes down from the hills of Northern Mexico to stay with Solis's family for many years.

Gendell Hernandez dances at the Quince...

..and Regina Morones gives us a mysterious La Llorona.

There are so many memorable moments. The actors weave in and out of Nina Ball's set as each retablo, each piece, gives us another taste of the El Paso of Octavio Solis's boyhood, when life was never easy but a lot freer than it is now.

RATINGS: ☼  ☼  ☼  ☼

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants "Retablos" Cuatro Estrellas. Four Stars. Writing, the excellent ensemble of actors (Edie Flores, Maria Candelaria, Carla Gallardo, Gendell Hernandez, Ryan Tasker, Regina Morones, Brady Morales-Woolery and Gabriel Montoya), direction by Sheila Balter and Jim Cave and set by Nina Ball all earn one star each. The show is long but we could have used even more. When was the last time we said that?

"Retablos"

Z Space Below

470 Florida St., San Francisco

Through March 15

$20-$50

"The Children" ☼ ☼ ☼

Hazel (Julie Eccles) and Robin (James Carpenter) are retired husband-and-wife nuclear scientists who seem to be living a mundane, normal life in a seaside town somewhere not far from the nuclear reactor in which they spent their working lives. We come to understand there has been some kind of Fukushima-style disaster in the recent past and the town and environs have been dangerously exposed to radiation. 

Enter Rose (Anne Darragh), a fellow former worker at the plant who shows up at Hazel and Robin's cottage unannounced after a thirty year absence. She has a proposal to make to Hazel and Robin, involving an attempt to settle the guilt all three feel at how the work they did led to such terrible consequences for so many innocent people.

There is a great deal going on under the radar. Hazel distrusts Rose for good reason, which of course involves Robin.

It takes awhile for Rose to get to the purpose of her visit, but eventually we understand that story cuts deeper than a simple love-triangle. Author Lucy Kirkwood has put her finger on an issue that plagues us in modern America: who is responsible for the social and ecological disasters our generation has visited upon the next? What shall we choose to do about it?

The three actors are all Bay Area favorites. Carpenter and Eccles are especially effective, and their characters are more nuanced. Still, we would have liked to see director Barbara Damashek shake Rose's proposal out of her sooner. Far less time is devoted to the urgent ethical issues posed here than to the less important discovery of the relationships of each character to each other, Love is not all you need. Courage is even more crucial.

RATINGS  ☼ ☼ ☼

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants "The Children" Three Stars. We loved the acting, story and costumes by Cassandra Carpenter. Though Lucy Kirkwood's title is "The Children," her story is more about the problems faced by us adults in a confusing and guilt-ridden world.

"The Children"

The Aurora Theatre

2081 Addison St., Berkeley

Through March 1

$56