DOGUGAESHI

Basil Twist is a primary force in the art of adult puppetry in America. His “Dogugaeshi” is the closest to a refined Performance Art – like work San Diegans will see this season.

He won the Obie Award in 1998 for “Symphonie Fantastique,” a piece performed with puppets submerged in water. The show played to sold-out houses and return engagements.

Mr. Twist takes the discipline’s style to several “next” levels with a joyful conglomeration of theatrical elements. For those of us who still mourn the demise of the Golden Age of Performance Art, this show is the closest performance work that produces a rich and unexpected theatricality.

"A gorgeous..cavorting..dance...it will come to you as far as you let it in" - The New York Times

"A hypnotic and hermetic spectacle" - Newsday

"Intimate and spectacular, a haunting abstract piece about lost traditions" - The New York Sun

Dogugaeshi by Basil Twist

La Jolla Playhouse June 10 – 14, 2009

General Admission: $30; Subscribers: $25

Original Shamisen Compositions written and performed by Yukimo Tanaka
Video Projection Design by Peter Flaherty
Lighting Design by Andrew Hill
Sound Design by Greg Duffin

858-550-1010
lajollaplayhouse.org

Who is that man in the sequins?

“America is a very conservative country… Those founding Pilgrim fathers are still in charge. And so much of what is original or creative is a rebellion against that. But it is still dominated by conservative influence. Are there any people in your community who have two husbands?”
Dame Edna Everage
Gay & Lesbian Times, 2009

This statement serves as subtext to the subversive dynamic of Barry Humphries’s character Dame Edna Everage. The Lady has her plan. For the uninitiated, Dame Edna is hardly a drag queen. She drags us through political commentary and social tyranny when we become her “guests” for an evening. Edna Everage is a Melbourne housewife who aspired to super stardom, succeeded, and bestowed with the royal nod. Her royal self appears at the Civic Theatre in her “First Last Tour.”

In his native Australia during the 1950s, Mr. Humphries began perpetrating Dali-esque performance events or “guerrilla” theatre offensives in his native Australia. These unrelenting performance art strikes cut through the razor-wire protected status quo.
Barry Humphries shows no sign of lagging at age 75 as he plays the world-stage.

An account of Humphries’s charitable activities caught me off-guard at a posh financial institution’s holiday party in the 1980s. The husband of a colleague perked up when I mentioned Dame Edna. The native New Zealander beamed, “I remember him! He came to the gay bars with his act to raise money for children’s charities.” His wife admonished, “You never told me you went to gay bars!” Ah, Dame Edna’s subversion at work 25 years after the act.

His is a career of industrious cultural output. Mr. Humphries has authored 22 books (titles include “Dame Edna's Coffee Table Book: A guide to gracious living and the finer things of life by one of the first ladies of world theatre” to “Neglected Poems and Other Creatures”). He just finished the film of the picaresque novel “Moll Flanders” in the role of Madam Needham under Ken Russell’s direction. He performed Shakespeare and musical comedy in London’s West End. Film and television appearances number over 75 with the majority produced in Australia and the UK (he penned 64 of the productions with 90% of his characters in star roles). Mr. Humphries wrote the ”Barry McKenzie" comic strip for Britain’s “Private Eye” magazine. His teeming artistic endeavors spread to the canvas as an accomplished landscapist. Not shabby for a former alcoholic.

Barry Humphries has delightfully scathed audiences on two continents for five decades with his fun-house mirrored view of our lethal and benign foibles. Greater America appears ready to catch up with this court jester to the English speaking world with his sequined dress.


Barry Humphries as Dame Edna in Her
“First Last Tour”
Civic Theatre
June 2-7, 2009
http://broadwaysd.com/ednashow.php

A Grave Response

Oppressed and profoundly discouraged from my past several months witnessing half-baked shallow acting found on San Diego stages, I sought out part of an interview I recalled with an actress of Olympian emotional vérité and bullet proof technique. She is an actress who possesses deep love and respect for the Theatre.

The following is an excerpt with Vanessa Redgrave from Jill Lawless's Associated Press interview conducted during Redgrave's appearance is Joan Didion's solo play "A Year of Magical Thinking." The play is Didion's response to witnessing her husband’s sudden death during her only daughter’s final stages of a fatal illness.

Redgrave sees herself as "a conduit" for Didion's words and maintains a commitment to the Theatre's primal origins.

# # #

"My goal is to, as a solo voice and as the shadow of the writer, be a sort of freeway for whoever comes to listen and watch, to get all that she's written," she (Redgrave) says.

"I am perhaps more like that tradition that was the only way of conveying a story or a poem for thousands of years -- I'm the speaker. There are different words for that in different countries, different cultures, but that's how stories and poems were conveyed -- whether it's Euripides' Hecuba or Joan Didion's magical thinking."

Redgrave likens Didion's writing to "photographs of the mind. Very complex and very simple at the same time."

Or, she says, like sitting in the doctor's office, "and he brings up on the screen what the computer imagists have found and have taken out in order to highlight the interior of a limb. And it'll turn around and you can see it: north, south, east, west, inside, outside.

"It's a kind of a miracle when you see it, at least that's how it strikes me. And I feel exactly the same about Joan's book."

(Photo: AP/Sang Tan)

Sisterly Love Bites

Following on the heals of “Killer Joe,” San Diego has another taught potboiler, “Mauritius,” at Cygnet theatre. When two estranges sisters’ reunite to clean up their recently departed mother’s belongings, ownership of a valuable rediscovered stamp collection evolves into raging contention for the collection’s ownership. Set in an unnamed urban setting, the sisters’ fall in with a trio avaricious stamp lovers, rather, self-avowed philatelics, during their skirmishes for collection’s ownership; a mere two stamps capitalize at over two million dollars. The characters act out of a care-giver’s reward, philanthropy and serious stamp fetish. They stamp-out each other’s one-upsmanship in a steady rise from reasoned discussion to physically violent outbursts bordering on homicide. (Also satisfying is the production’s convincing fight choreography.)

This paper chase drives by at a sweeping two-hours with delicious tension thanks to playwright Theresa Rebeck ‘s sharp construction and Francis Gercke’s spot-on direction.

Like “Killer Joe,” “Mauritius” is enveloped in richly detailed acting. None of these actors need be director-proof in Mr. Gercke’s capable hands.

One might guess the collection’s fate early on, but it doesn’t matter. The production’s all-round exemplary work makes for a gratifying travel to journey’s end. (Would that other mixed contract companies strive to this production’s fastidious attention to their work.)

A percolating play, terrific acting, keen direction and design work make for a pretty darn good night out for the ticket price and gas cost. Parking is free.
Recommendations: date play, first time theatergoers, regular theatergoers

“Mauritius”
by Theresa Rebeck

Cast
Jessica John - Jackie Manny Fernandes - Sterling Sandy Campbell - MaryJohn DeCarlo - Dennis Jack Missett – Philip

Production TeamDirector: Francis Gercke, Set Designer: Sean Fanning, Lighting Designer: Eric Lotze, Sound Designer: Matt Lescault-Wood, Costume Designer: Jessica John, Properties: Bonnie L. Durben, Stage Manager: Nikki Hanzal

Performances through May 10, 2009
Wednesdays at 7:30pm
Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pmSundays at 2pm and 7pm
Cygnet’s Rolando Stage located at 6663 El Cajon Blvd.
Tickets: $22 - $38.
Discounts are available for seniors, students and military.

http://cygnettheatre.com/