Chen Disturbs the Personal, Loves the Political by Barry David Horwitz On the way to an art show, you may stumble across great drama. How long is it since an art work or a play caught you, confounded you, contradicted itself, and confessed to not knowing? These are some of the forbidden territories that…
Cal Shakes Shakes Up Shaw by Barry David Horwitz Director Lisa Peterson has unfurled an early, hilarious Shaw comedy that forecasts the 20th Century and beyond. “You Never Can Tell” (1896) already displays the racial, colonial, gender, and feminist questions that inspire and confound us still. To put all that into such an early…
‘The Fire Next Time’ in New Thriller by Barry David Horwitz “The Thrush and the Woodpecker” at Custom Made Theater features three gripping performances by three superb actors. For that reason alone, you ought to see it. Brenda Hendriks (the crystalline, elegant Stacy Ross) is a tightly wound and moody mother, who rules her…
Waiting for Gentrification in the Tenderloin by Barry David Horwitz Plays about housing, gentrification, and exploitation of poor people are beginning to populate local stages. The Bernie Revolution is coming home and the arts are reflecting our discontent with “business as usual.” At the Exit Theater, the exhilarating “Campo Maldito” is set in the…