Documents from Gilberto Gil's Private Archive

theater Wallace fever A monthlong fest showcases Mr. Shawn the playwright. By Brad Rosenstein ost people only know Wal- lace Shawn as an actor, the delightful gnome who first bubbled into consciousness as the "homunculus" in Manhattan. But Shawn is also a dedi- cated playwright, creating works so challenging they have gone largely unappreciated. Even Shawn and Andre Gregory's provocative My Dinner with André bears little resem- blance to Shawn's uncompromising plays. In them the primary relation- ship is not between characters but be- tween the play and the audience, with the play operating less as a sparkling symposium than as a loaded gun. It's astonishing, then, that Berke- ley's Last Planet Theatre should be mounting a four-play, monthlong Wallace Shawn Theatre Festival. Two plays a night are presented in rep, all staged by artistic director John Wilkins and produced by Kimball Wilkins. Last Planet began its life in January, and only a company this young would have the chutzpah to undertake such a noble, demented en- terprise. Marie and Bruce, Shawn's most produced play, is also one of his best. At the start of this day in the life of a New York couple, Marie plans to leave her husband, whom she showers with a barrage of vicious epithets. The cou- ple agree to meet later at a friend's cocktail party, a nightmarish function that not only reveals Bruce's selfish, icy heart but also that of the society in which the couple moves. Their static purgatory, just this side of hopeless- ness, is Shawn country, which for all its cruelty and uncertainty has flashes of absurd, redemptive wit. Marie and Bruce is paired with Our Late Night, seen here in only the sec. ond production since its 1975 pre- miere. The two plays are surprisingly similar, both focusing on sophisticat ed parties that take surreal turns. Here the revelers forgo polite chitchat for open admissions of their desires, which are crudely sexual and violent. But there's a clear moral purpose un- derneath all this brutality: a palpable nausea (vomiting and weeping are Shawn's most common stage direc- tions) runs throughout these plays, a shame and sickness at how twisted modern life has become. Shawn's social critique becomes more pointed in the festival's second evening. The protagonist of Aunt Dan and Lemon is an anorexic Eng. lishwoman called Lemon who spends her childhood under the in- fluence of a family friend. Aunt Dan's bracing iconoclasm discloses a soul bereft of compassion, one that rationalizes and even enjoys murder. Her tutelage deforms Lemon into a woman capable of admiring the Nazis for their lack of hypocrisy. No one in the play ever counters Dan's and Lemon's glib, monstrous argu- ments, and Shawn leaves us to con- coct our own rebuttals. The final play, The Fever, is a solo that details its privileged narrator's mounting awareness of worldwide suffering and his consequent guilt. It repre- sents Shawn's most direct statement about the need for human connec- tion, for radical changes in things as they are. Despite his clear-sighted gifts, ments. The solo limits of The Fever have a salutary effect; Wilkins devises subtle physical rhythms and lets the words do the work. The rest is up to actor Richard Reinholdt, without whom this festival would be unthink- able. Reinholdt is superb in all four plays, but his sensitive performance in The Fever is an absolute knockout. He's also terrific as the emotionally stunted Bruce, matched by Tiffany Hoover in her exquisite work as Marie. Tori Hinkle's Lemon is the other standout, a bone-chilling por- trait of a warped, heartless child. I'd pick The Fever as Shawn's best work here by far-fierce, immedi- ate, and touching. My vote for second best would be Marie and Bruce, an underrated play that here finds its Joycean soul in rich performances. Despite the uneven nature of these productions, I give Last Planet a standing ovation for making the at- tempt. The company's energy and en- thusiasm throughout these marathon The Shawn must go on: Tony (Stig Kreps) and Samantha (Sarah Neal) forgo polite chitchat and let the demons loose in Our Late Night Shawn can be a maddening drama- tist. These plays often consist of monologues disguised as dialogue, locomotives of language whose deliv- ery constitutes the only action. Al- though John Wilkins clearly under- stands the plays, his staging is loaded with freshman-director excesses: wildly overchoreographed moments, too many sound cues, and some downright loopy, unjustified con cepts - such as a Noh-masked cho rus in Marie and Bruce. But when he sticks to the script Wilkins creates some sublime mo- evenings is tireless, frequently cover- ing shortfalls in professionalism and polish. Its single-minded dedication to helping these difficult, important plays become better known reflects the best kind of theatrical impulse. That Last Planet succeeds as much as it does promises wonderful things for the company's future. Wallace Shawn Theatre Festival. Through Oct. 3. Wed., 7p.m., Thurs.- Sat., 7 and 9p.m.; Sun., 4:30 p... Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College, Berk $12-$55. (510) 841-7649. See for yourself. PHOENIX OPTICAL Largest selection of unused vintage eyeware in the United States 2340 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94704 510.841.4177 RASPUTIN MUSIC! SINCE 1971 THE BAY AREA'S BIGGEST & BEST INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE GILBERTO GIL $123, $128 Quanta See Brazilian Master Gilberto Gil LIVE at Masonic Hall, SF Friday, September 10! 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