Craig Eychner

When you haven’t seen a show in a while, do you sometimes wonder what attracts you to theatre? I do, regularly. I know, fundamentally, I’m happier when I persevere in getting out of my soft couch, but that’s a logical deduction from a memory. Yet, at most performances, I become amazed (again) by the magic of theatre. What’s surprising is the magnitude of the before and after feelings. It’s like forgetting what cherries taste like until this time of year. Unless you have season tickets to the Masquers, then you’ve not resolved this issue either. My job is to try to capture that great wonder into words, so that you too will get off your duff to see this performance.

This is the stuff of which nightmares are made: bad memories and worse imaginings from childhood, pretending to be funny. The Marriage of Bette and Boo is directed by DC Scarpelli and Peter Budinger. Written by Christopher Durang, the show draws close parallels to his own troubled youth. For many, parts of the story are all too true—an upbringing immersed in Catholicism, eccentric relatives, and friends with crazy families.

With Oscar Wilde’s writing style as lure, I expected to completely enjoy Lady Windermere’s Fan but my actual reaction was quite different.

In part, I had the incorrect assumption the play was a comedy, so my expectations were upset—though there are many funny aspects. More importantly, much dialogue was difficult—some nearly incomprehensible. Bay Area community theatre management (not limited to Masquers) would do well to reconsider having actors speak in accents which are not their own, as few community theatre actors perform accents well. I’ve discussed this at http://tinyurl.com/pf8vzr

The screenplay of Lady Windermere’s Fan, originally written in 1892, has been reset to the 1950s. Directed by Patricia Inabnet.

There’s one advantage to being nescient about theatre and film; I don’t know what to expect. However, considering the cast, I predicted The Petrified Forest, written by Robert E. Sherwood and directed by Marti Baer, would be a musical comedy.