Theater Reviews
Including Corpus Christi and Marat/Sade
THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI As the title character, Jamil Chokachi turns in a tremendous performance in Tiger Reel’s new adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s play about fascism. Set in Chicago, the drama follows the ascendancy of gangster Ui from small-time criminal to demagogue. When a crooked City Councilman (Dan Cole) greenlights a scheme benefiting the corrupt Cauliflower Trust, Ui and his gang step in to provide protection — and the result is arson, murder and chaos. The gangsters crush dissent, manipulate the courts and silence the press. As the slide projections make clear, Hitler’s rise to power underpins Brecht’s play, and Reel, who also directs, slips in several allusions to George W. Bush. Chokachi is impressive as a swaggering gangster who quickly absorbs lessons in public deportment, and Nikitas Menotiades, Amanda Karr and Edwin Garcia II provide strong support. Unfortunately, the production is somewhat uneven. The vivid commedia-style makeup is in tune with Brecht’s Theater of Alienation, but the same cannot be said of Vicki Conrad’s costumes and Mike Schadel’s music. Although individual performances are noteworthy, the crowd scenes don’t really capture the tidal wave of popular sentiment that propels Ui to power. KNIGHTSBRIDGE THEATRE, 1944 Riverside Dr., Silver Lake; Sat., 5 p.m.; Sun., 6 p.m.; indef. (323) 667-0955. (Sandra Ross)
SEX & WORK It makes perfect sense that playwright Rick Pagano directs his own work here, because only he would have any idea what this evening of foolishness is supposed to be about. On paper, it’s a buddy comedy involving two men who jet around the world (or, at least, around Joel Daavid’s set for Caesar and Cleopatra) making shady deals to dump toxic waste in other countries’ backyards. But, quite apart from the fact that there’s nowhere near enough technical detail to believably re-create this commercial milieu onstage, nearly all our time is spent watching characters swill drinks as the horndog Rico (Steven Schub) chases every skirt in sight, and pal Lee (McCaleb Burnett) swoons over Jennifer (Jennifer Siebel), a kind of blonde superwoman who’s always a step ahead of our guys selling submarines and buying governments. We get the feeling, from time to time, that this is supposed to be a farce with a moral, but that gets lost among all the national stereotypes that are peeled off from comic books. Perhaps most inexplicable is why this is a buddy story at all — there’s absolutely no business reason why Rico needs Lee, much less why he would insist on Lee’s presence on his quest to amass a fortune. We’re told the two were in high school together, as if that should explain everything. LILLIAN THEATRE, 1076 Lillian Way, Hlywd.; Wed.-Thurs., 8 p.m.; thru Sept. 28. (866) 811-4111. (Steven Mikulan)
SHAKESPEARE’S VENUS AND ADONIS Sitting in Zombie Joe’s North Hollywood storefront theater is like wandering into a diorama made by the happiest kid you know. The walls of Jeri Batzdorff’s set are painted to resemble an enchanted forest, complete with winding vines and tumbling waterfalls. Here, Shakespeare’s epic poem about the goddess of love and her male muse comes to life. In director Zombie Joe’s staging, six women, clothed in black, recite the poem while weaving around the stage in a sensual, interpretive dance. Between the zany lights, innovative musical accompaniment (Christopher Reiner) and striking movements, this production makes Shakespeare feel anything but antiquated. Unfortunately, because the movements are so central here, the poem itself sometimes feels like a mere soundtrack. Still, the production really works; flashy lights aside, the six actors’ devotion makes it soar. None of them display tentativeness, even when the staging calls for them to gyrate in “trembling ecstasy” or “die with beads of hot desire.” They are so invested in the piece that the audience can’t help but get excited too. Sure, there’s a slow patch or two, but this kind of fearless experimentation and devotion to it reminds us why we go to the theater. ZOMBIE JOE’S UNDERGROUND, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hlywd.; Sat., 8:30 p.m.; Sun., 7:30 p.m.; thru Sept. 17. (818) 202-4120. (Stephanie Lysaght)
YOU NEVER CAN TELL Crabby Crampton (William Dennis Hunt) is so steeped in British mettle that he refuses the nitrous oxide in the dentist’s chair. Pain toughens the soul, he insists, and he needs that strength when his estranged family surprises him at lunch. After their 18-year separation, his feminist wife (Ellen Geer) now goes by the surname Clandon, as do their three nearly grown children, Gloria, Dolly and Phillip (Willow Geer, Jamie Snow and Michael James Thatcher), whom she’s raised in Madeira as libertines. These delightful brats treat their father with less respect than they give their sage butler (Steve Matt), which infuriates the old stuffed shirt and allows George Bernard Shaw’s turn-of-the-20th-century social comedy (and Heidi Helen Davis’ fine staging of it) to play with the generation gap of an era when tradition, reverence and the romantics locked horns with scientific empiricism and the suffragettes. Though clearly Shaw’s sympathies lie with the rebels, a romantic subplot between hardheaded Gloria and Valentine (Jeff Wiesen, as a ne’er-do-well who claims he’s “learned how to circumvent the women’s-rights woman”) concedes that as soon as a new movement gains traction, opportunists figure out how to make it trip over its own ideals. WILL GEER THEATRICUM BOTANICUM, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga; schedule varies, call for info; thru Oct. 1. (310) 455-3723. (Amy Nicholson)
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