| It's a poignantly funny show,
told in numerous short, sharp scenes and enlivened by Gurney's keen ear
for brittle and telling dialogue. Pianist John Crebbin-Coates provides a
continuous musical strand of appropriate tunes on which to string these
reflective baubles of life among the highfalutin.
Chrome-plated by an assumed birthright superiority, the members of
this old-style, establishment-oriented group are oblivious and often
hilarious in smug self-absorption to their moral and ethical dents and
dings.
Director Louis Flynn has assembled a cast of actors, all of whom
have worked on this stage before - a sort of old-home-week reunion for
many, fittingly all together again as a stage family.
With Jennifer Antonacci, Cathy Bucher, Lou Capeluto, Dory Ehrlich,
Louis Flynn, Maria Fraser, Elaina Jannell, Bob Knop, David Lee, Todd
Miller, Simon Patton, Annie Perlin, Phil Reed, Jack Tucker, Eleanor
Weigand and Gail Wetherbee.
"Scenes From American Life" plays at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
and 2 p.m. Sundays through June 16. Tickets are $8. Please no children
under five years, the theater requests. Call 510-524-9132. For group
sales, 510-524-6654.
SHAW'S CRYSTAL-BALL 'APPLE': Listening to George Bernard Shaw's
"The Apple Cart," a Women in Time production playing through June 29 at
the Berkeley City Club, is an eerie experience.
No surprise in the Shavian wit of this political satire. We expect
that of Shaw. We also expect and must excuse - after all he wrote in a
different time for different audiences - a goodly dollop of
long-windedness.
He was also, as this three-act play makes clear, frighteningly
prophetic.
"The Apple Cart" was written in 1926, copyrighted in 1931, and
intended to be set 20 years into the future from whenever it was produced.
WIT's version is a 1950 copyright, set in 1970. For its current
production, the company made few changes to thrust the action into the
year 2022.
Monetary figures were updated to allow for inflation. "League of
Nations" was changed to "United Nations." But the rest is just an eerie
reflection of Shaw's genius. There are references to the Channel Tube, an
energy crisis, Enron-like corporate scandals, world trade and
labor-related ethical debates, shady electioneering and media coercion.
In a splendid directorial debut, Jennifer Wagner directs a fine
cast in this satire of democracy in crisis. In the midst of a
step-down-or-else ultimatum to the King of England from his prime minister
and cabinet, a representative from the United States arrives and announces
plans to renounce the Declaration of Independence and merge with the
United Kingdom.
"The Apple Cart" plays at 7 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and
Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays through June 29 at the Berkeley City Club,
2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. Tickets are $20 in advance, $22 at the door
and two-for-one on Thursdays and Sundays. Senior, student and TBA
discounts available. Call 925-798-1300 or visit www.womenintime.com.
IMPROV FOR FUN AND FUNDS: Here's a follow-up on last Friday's
column about the Albany High School Theater Ensemble's fund-raising
efforts to save its goose from being cooked by budget cuts.
The students and their parents have enlisted the help of a popular
local improv group, "East Bay Improv," to do a
benefit show. Time and place are 7:30 p.m., June 15, at the Albany High
Little Theatre, 603 Key Route Blvd., Albany. Tickets are $10 at the box
office.
Four members of the improv group - Carole Honeychurch, Dave
Patterson, Zackary Quinn Patterson and Dave Dyson - are the "cast." And
they haven't the faintest idea what they are going to do! Somebody tosses
out an idea, a line, a word or some tiny seed of inspiration as a takeoff
point - and, WHAM-O - this nimble-witted quartet makes up stories and
songs on the spot based on the suggestions. More improv inside stuff next
week.
Jack Tucker's column runs Fridays in the West County Weekly. Send
items of interest to him c/o the West County Times, 4301 Lakeside Drive,
Richmond, CA 94806; fax to 5l0-262-2776; e-mail to jtucker@cctimes.com, or
call 510-262-2768. Include a contact name and number.
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