Hurricane Diane: ★ ★ ★

Madeleine George’s “Hurricane Diane” opened last night at the Aurora in Berkeley. The idea is that the demigod Diana, the gender-fluid Dionysius of ancient Greece who was the patron saint of theater as well as a champion of sexual liberty, has returned to Earth, in this case to Monmouth County, NJ. Her mission is to warn citizens that the earth’s biological clock is ticking down to zero, but her true purpose seems to be to seduce as many suburban housewives as possible, thereby reducing them to worshiping acolytes. They all hate their stupid, pathetic husbands so they don’t need a lot of convincing. 

On one hand this is Sappho's Magical Mystery Tour, and there were cheers as each housewife fell, but on the other hand a very real message is being delivered here: humans have destroyed the Earth, which means human existence is finished. lady, so you may as well submit to Diane's not-too-subtle advances.

Stacy Ross is Diana. 

She is a wisecracking landscape designer whose very presence excites Beth (Gianna DiGregoria Rivera), Pam (Luisa Sarmol) and Renee (Leontyne Mbele-Mbong). These kaffe-klatch ladies appear powerless to keep Diana from re-purposing their crabgrass. The one exception, however, is Carol, played by Rebecca Schweitzer who is determined to be the last woman standing, even if this means saying adiós to Mother Earth. 

We loved the way Schweitzer developed the role of Carol, from the insipid-ish homeowner obsessed with resale value and curb appeal, to the person who, in the end, controls our destiny -- which is to say, she is all of us. 

The ending can use a little work. We're not sure what Diane and the three Supremes were doing in those robes. 

RATINGS ★ ★ ★

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants THREE STARS to "Hurricane Diane." What we loved best was the acting. All four women have their moments to shine, though we wish Stacy Ross were a little less current - I mean, would a 3,000 year-old Greek demigod really toss around all those f-bombs? 

I guess they would be PHI-Bombs.

And we really loved Luisa Sarmol. 

Hurricane Diane

The Aurora Theatre

2081 Addison Street, Berkeley

Through July 16

$48-$53

"The Road to Mecca" ★★★ BANG

The Road to Mecca is lined with milk bottles and home-made statues. But Mecca is an afterthought. The real question is whether or not art can play an important role in moving along that road, and if there can ever be communication between those who march blindly down the middle and those who take a different, off-center path.

South African playwright Athol Fugard wrote "The Road to Mecca" during Apartheid in his home country. It was first performed in 1984 and debuted on Broadway in 1988, where Fugard himself played the conservative minister Marius. In the current Z-Space production, veteran actor Victor Talmadge gives Marius a skillful and nuanced reading, allowing us to slowly realize his heart is as conflicted as everyone else's.

Wendy vanden Huevel plays Miss Helen Martins, an iconoclastic widow living in Nieu Bethesda, the most remote village in the Karoo desert, an 800 mile drive from Capetown. Fugard based his story on the real Helen Martins, an artist in Nieu Bethesda who committed suicide when she became too blind to continue sculpting. In our story, Miss Helen is befriended by Elsa (Jodi Jackman), a young schoolteacher from Capetown who has become Miss Helen's only true confidant.

The story is brilliant and the cast every bit its equal. We have to mention Eric Flatmo's picture-perfect set with set decoration by Leah Hammond. The moment we arrive in the theater we feel like we are sitting in Miss Helen's windswept cottage, with its candles, twinkling glass and sense of hope.

                                                        

 RATINGS: ★★★ BANG

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants Z-Space's "The Road to Mecca" THREE STARS with a BANGLE OF PRAISE. We loved everything about this production, but most of all the ensemble of three actors at the top of their games. This is a show that has you thinking about it for days afterward.

"The Road to Mecca"

Z Below

470 Florida St., San Francisco

Through June 30

$25

★★★ 

"Chinglish" ★ ★ ★ ★

David Henry Hwang has won a Tony and an Obie and has been a finalist twice for a Pulitzer. His plays, like "M. Butterfly" and "Yellow Face" have been shown around the world, but none, perhaps, is as hilarious and audience-pleasing as "Chinglish." San Francisco Playhouse's production, directed by Jeffrey Lo with fabulous scenic design by Andrea Bechert as well as simple but necessary projections by Spenser Maturing, is nothing short of masterful.

An American businessman from Ohio is trying to sell his commercial signs to the politicians in charge of developing a cultural center in a mid-sized "midwestern" Chinese city. Daniel Cavanaugh (Michael Barrett Austin), with typical American hubris, feels he can charm the Chinese into a lucrative contract for his moribund family company. The Chinese, however, have a different agenda, based around securing income for their own families and associates. Alex Hsu plays Cai Guoliang, who is Minister of Culture. He is under pressure to give the signage contract to his sister-in-law. At the same time, Vice-Minister of Culture Xi Yan, seen above in the green dress and played to perfection by Nicole Tung, is married to Judge Xu, on left in red necktie (Phil Wong), and who might be the recipient of the contract if his wife can successfully seduce Daniel Cavanaugh.

A substantial portion of the show is spoken in Chinese, with supertitles. This is Hwang's supreme joke: no one completely understands what is going on, in part because everyone is receiving inaccurate translations, which reflect more what the translator wants his Chinese boss or American client to hear than what has actually been said.

Sound complicated? It's not. We, the audience, revel in the foolishness and confusion on stage.  It is farce, but we are used to this by now - the politics, especially, feel way too familiar. The pace of "Chinglish" allows us time and enough gags to figure everything out for ourselves. 

And the part about Enron. Wow.

One suggestion: for this performance, because you really need to make sure you can read the supertitles, we might suggest acquiring seats in the middle rather than on one side or the other. Don't miss this show.

RATINGS ★ ★ ★ ★ 

The San Francisco Theater Blog gives FOUR STARS to SFP's production of "Chinglish." Writing is first rate, and then acting, direction and sets keep everything bubbling along. When you consider how difficult casting was, wherein comedic actors fluent in Mandarin as well as English had to be found and assembled, these Four Stars feel even more remarkable.

CHINGLISH

San Francisco Playhouse

450 Sutter St. (2d floor of Kensington Hotel), San Francisco

Through June 10, 2023

$15-$100

" The Ni¿¿er Lovers" ★ ?

 Here are two nice things to love about Marc Anthony Thompson's "The Ni¿¿er Lovers." Number one, the wacky and intriguing opening scene, and two, the excellent performances throughout from Rotimi Agbabiaka and Aejay Marquis Mitchell. The Opening Night audience at the Magic Theatre laughed at every gag and howled for the actors when they came out for a bow. 

Everyone knows the theater is in trouble in America. Younger, more diverse blood is desperately needed, on stage and in the audience. It is always an admirable achievement to bring in a younger, hipper crowd, in this case one that finds the word "ni¿¿er" to be entertaining. For those of us who are not the target audience, yes we understand the cultural nuances surrounding this word in different situations, but if the N Word were not hateful, you wouldn't need the upside-down question marks. 

Of course, it's all supposed to be slapstick. But the greatest joke in the world is only funny until it truly is not.

This is author Thompson's first show and he also directs. After the enticing first scene, in which Agbabiaka and Mitchell play two unsuspecting Africans who are heading onto a slave boat thinking they have signed up for a cruise -- "Did you apply for House or Field?" --  the action pivots into a variety show, where M.C. Tanika Baptiste tries to make the audience laugh every time she screams "Ni¿¿er" or "My Ni¿¿er!" or "Ni¿¿er Lover!" 

After the final curtain, the author came to the stage to deliver a long thank you. He apologized to "those who might be uncomfortable with the word 'ni¿¿er.'" What would have comforted us more might have been a real ending. 

This show is also a musical, with songs written by the playwright, about whom the Playbill notes "Marc Anthony Thompson is a reluctant singer and indolent songwriter."  

Sure, the whole thing is a joke. Sure, it's also a joke that killing white people gives the characters super powers. Yes, they also get to include gender and the Jews ("Mazel Fucking Tov!") for no discernible reason. Perhaps the bigger joke is on us.

There is also no way to write this review without sounding old and white and in the way so we stop here.

RATINGS ★ ? 

The San Francisco Theater Blog awards "The Ni¿¿er Lovers" One Star with a Question Mark. The Star is for Agbabiaka and Mitchell, with gratitude. The question mark is a thank you for whomever reached through the curtain to remove the dildo. 

This production needs a lot of editing, but it has promise. If it really is to be a musical, some of the actors need to be given something more tuneful to sing so they can be a little surer of their notes. 

"The Ni¿¿er Lovers"

The Magic Theatre

Fort Mason, Building D, San Francisco

Through May 21

$30-$70

Word For Word's "Home" ★ ★ ★

A Word For Word production has unique conceits. Since no liberty can be taken with the written word of the short story being performed on stage, the company must go to great lengths to keep an audience's interest. Part of this process comes from choosing the correct story to act out, but the other part comes from humorous visual clues -- the actors becoming, say, flowers along the road or a barking dog. These visual clues feel like "ah-ha!" moments for an audience and they almost always work.

But George Saunders "Home," a tale of a war veteran returning home with what appears to be PTSD, is anything but funny.  Brian Rivera, who plays Mikey, the returning vet, is confused, both by the home town he left and the unspoken act he committed while in the military for which he has been court-martialed.  Everything and everyone around him have changed. Perhaps this overwhelming seriousness makes it difficult to chuckle at an actor pretending to be a phone booth, so the visual clues can feel contrived. "Home" is not an easy story to feel lighthearted about.

As always, we loved the ensemble, all playing multiple roles. Norman Gee is terrific as a toothpick-toting sheriff and as the father of the especially obsequious Ryan (Tre'Vonne Bell). Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe and Robert Ernst are hilarious as Mikey's parents, whose deflated lives illustrate to us the class-consciousness at the heart of Saunders' story.

"Thank you for your service," the most clichéd phrase in our public discourse, next to "hearts and prayers," is on everyone's lips. It means nothing. The truest lines Saunders has Mikey say are his final ones: "You sent me. Now bring me back."

RATINGS: ★ ★ ★

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants Three Stars to Word for Word's "Home." All Word For Word productions are worth seeing, not only because of their excellence, but because they give us a totally unique form of live performance. We have seen W4W shows we liked more than "Home," but part of the problem may be that we have entered the post-Pandemic "Please Make Me Laugh" portal. "Home" feels a bit close for comfort.

Word for Word's "HOME"

Z-BelowTheater

470 Florida Street, San Francisco

Through April 29

$45-$60

★★★

"Clue" ★ ★ ★ BANG!

It's silly, wacky, ditzy, impossible and choreographed. "Clue" reminds us of what it was like in the good old days, before atmospheric rivers and the ocean of depression we call the morning newspaper. Susi Damilano directs a cast of familiar actors paying even more familiar roles, for those of us who remember playing the Parker Brothers' board game when we were children - and then again with our own children. Surely, our house could not have been the only one where "Colonel Mustard in the billiard room with a wrench" became a standard excuse for "Who stole the cookies?"

No, it's not a world-class drama, and there is only one gender issue (and it's a brilliant one), thank you very much. The ensemble cast remains in character even as they trail en masse through imaginary doors, walking like Egyptians and bumping into walls, as they head into room sets that the backstage crew is desperately making ready as we all watch.

Every character is guilty. Of them all, Greg Ayers is the standout, as Mr. Green the, uh, FBI agent. as are Renee Rogoff as the treacherous Mrs. White, Stacy Ross as the spacey Mrs. Peacock and Michael Gene Sullivan as the pipe-smoking Professor Plum, though on Opening Night the role was voiced by Mr Sullivan but played on stage by Albert Hodge. Now, there's a trick.

We cannot forget Dorian Lockett's role as Wadsworth the butler, though since his part did not exist in the original game we tend to dismiss him as a Newbie. Courtney Walsh plays a fetching Miss Scarlett and Michael Ray Wisely the officiously daft Colonel Mustard. Special mention to the smaller but equally enjoyable roles of Margherita Ventura and Eiko Yamamoto as Yvette the maid and the especially ominous Cook with a cleaver. The ending is a tour de force of writing and performance, leaving us with the understanding that everyone is guilty and no one is guilty and life goes on in the English mansion of all our memories, with all the secrets as well as secret passages.

RATINGS: ★ ★ ★ BANG!

The San Francisco Theater Blog Sherlock Holmes Division for Whodunits awards "Clue" Three Stars with a Bangle of Praise for the delightful conclusion. See, people, this is what we all long for. A problem: an answer. More or less.

"CLUE"

San Francisco Playhouse

450 Post St., San Francisco

Second Floor of Kensington Park Hotel

Through April 22

$15-$100

"Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer" ★ ★ ★ BANG!

Greta Oglesby's performance is the highlight of Cheryl L. West's "Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer." This is essentially a one-woman show, with a three-piece backup band (keyboards, guitar/bass, drums). It is labeled a musical, but although Ms. Oglesby plays the part of Ms. Hamer and sings the protest songs of the era with grace and energy, the songs themselves, which were important to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, are so simple and so familiar by now that at times the show feels bogged down by them. 

However, Ms Hamer's life and the times in which she lived, wherein Jim Crow made the laws of our country into such a hypocrisy that the Soviets could use our tv news broadcasts as examples of why our government was failing its people, should never be forgotten. Ms. West and Ms. Oglesby, along with Director Tim Bond, have done right to bring this history onto the stage. As Fannie says to us: "We've got a lot to be proud of and a lot to be ashamed of." 

Preach, Ms. Hamer. 

We love the way Ms. Oglesby mixes music with history. We believe her and feel for Ms. Hamer's personal trials. But the show still feels smaller than the stage. Perhaps these are kinks that will be worked out during this run.

RATINGS: ★★★ BANG!

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants Three Stars with a Bangle of Praise to "Fannie: The Life and Times of Fannie Lou Hamer." The Bangle is, of course, for Greta Oglesby.

While we feel the show itself is a bit simplistic, Ms. Oglesby's performance is anything but. We would like to see the rest of the production, starting with the band, match her energy. This should not be a hootenanny with a camp director leading the audience in group sing. It is a powerful story that deserves more fire.

Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer

Lucie Stern Theatre

1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto

Through April 2, 2023

$30 and up