I figure I’ve seen about 700 plays since I started reviewing theater for Creative Loafing. Some of them became instant favorites, and a few were already favorites before I saw them staged. But after 18 years, I’m still waiting for a few masterpieces that never manage to turn up. So here is my “dream season”: the autumn-to-summer lineup of the plays I’d most like to see.
Sept.-Oct.: Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov
What could be more appropriate for fall than this most autumnal of plays, about a group of mostly sympathetic people whose dreams have fallen from their branches, and whose many regrets loom larger than their hopes. Vanya feels he threw away his life in order to support Serebryakov, who wasn’t worth it; Sonya loves Astrov, who hardly even notices her, but who instead loves Yelena, caught in a passionless but faithful marriage. And through it all, the Chekhov style: indirection, half-finished sentences, misunderstood small talk, strange non sequiturs. The play may at first appear directionless, but in fact is brilliantly structured. Wisely staged, its beauty is consolation for its sorrow.
Nov.-Dec.: Speed-the-Plow, by David Mamet
As the holiday season encourages our generosity, along comes a play all about the difficulty of altruism in a society that consecrates greed. Bobby and Charlie are film producers; and Karen is a temp secretary after whom Bobby lusts. When Karen persuades Bobby to give the green light to a film that might actually heal its audience, he has to face the disbelief and then the rage of his partner, who’s committed instead to an exploitative, sensationalistic script that promises to bring the two men great riches. The real subject here isn’t Hollywood; it’s Anytown that runs on the raw energy of dollar signs. And Mamet’s language is rough, real, and often hilarious.
Jan.-Feb.: Measure for Measure, by William Shakespeare
A man is condemned to die for fornication; his sister, about to enter a convent, is enlisted to plead for his life; the man to whom she pleads develops such lust for the would-be nun that he finds himself offering her brother’s life in exchange for her virginity; and through it all, the real ruler of the city, disguised as a monk, is watching and judging everything. What’s this an allegory for? God testing human virtue? The superego and the id battling for the attention of the ego? The two scenes in which Isabella tries to cajole Angelo to commute Claudio’s sentence are magnificent enough; and Shakespeare follows them with dialogue as penetrating as anything in Hamlet. When, oh when, will some Bay area theater produce this too-long-ignored treasure?
March-April: The Flick, by Annie Baker
As spring brings new life to the earth, a nearly-new play, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Avery and Sam are ushers at a rundown movie theater in Worcester, Massachusetts. Rose operates the projector and may or may not be a lesbian, depending on whom you ask. For three hours these semi-articulate, mostly aimless souls try to make the passing of time somehow rewarding; and little by little the play’s vision creeps up on you until you find yourself in a world of gentle yearning, anxiety and pathos. In a field crowded with pretenders, Baker may have a unique vision.
May-June: Marat/Sade, by Peter Weiss
This is the big one, the spectacle that, if it works, will stay with its audience forever. Employing a roomful of lunatics, the Marquis de Sade stages the murder of the French Revolutionist Marat. But through its wild choreography and pulsing, violent poetry, playwright Weiss is really asking, how possible is political progress when the human beings on whom it depends are wracked with psychic disorders? Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty, his vision of theater as a sort of plague infecting actors and spectators, here finds its perfect expression.
July-August: Seminar, by Theresa Rebeck
Maybe you have to be some sort of artist to truly enjoy this play, but there’s so much good satire and carefully deployed dialogue, it just may work on laypersons also. It’s about the writing seminar offered by Leonard, an obnoxious and famous author, and about the four competitive young men and women who hope to leverage it (and their acquaintance with Leonard) to literary Elysium. Rebeck knows all the clichés and jargon of the writing workshop, not to mention the clash of ambitions and the sexual politics. And the play has a surprisingly hopeful ending.
As does my dream season. Dream on!
This article appears in Aug 25 – Sep 1, 2016.
