KPFA - Bay Area Theater

KPFA
  • 4.5 (2)
  • POLITICS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Bay Area theatre reviews with KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky,.Older posts include theatre interviews recorded pre-pandemic. LINK TO ASSORTED LOCAL THEATER & BOOK VENUES

  1. 6D AGO

    Review: “The Monsters” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “The Monsters” by Ngozi Anyanwu at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre through May 3, 2026. West Coast Premiere.           TEXT OF REVIEW: (minor differences between the text and the recorded review). Putting aside solo performances, the heart of the theatrical experience usually lies in the interaction between two characters, no matter the size of the cast. Obviously, several characters in plays can interact with each other at once, but the most intense scenes are usually one on on. When these interchanges work well, we talk about the chemistry between actors. When they don’t, it becomes obvious. One actor is listening and responding, the other pretending, and the audience knows it. Here’s the thing, though. None of it quite works the same way in film or TV. There are multiple takes, cross-cutting. Confrontations might even be recorded separately and put together in post-production. It feels real, but too often it isn’t. Only in live theatre, happening in real time, can we see the the meeting in real time, in front of us. And that’s the key to why The Monsters by Ngozi Anyanwu, now at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre through May 3rd works so well. Big is a fighter in the world of Mixed Martial Arts, which has grown into a major sports competition and combines various disciplines which can, at times, seem almost balletic. Lil, whose real name is Josephine, shows up after one of his bouts, and after some back and forth, reveals she’s the younger half-sister he abandoned in his late teens to go out in the world and find himself. It’s awkward. They’d been close when she was at the start of her middle childhood, and then he was gone. Gradually, he will now feel the pull of family, as will she. But it will take time, and effort on both their parts. This is a play about siblings, about the restrictions inherent upon black people growing up in mixed and broken families, with the physicality of the competition serving as metaphor for their growing relationship, as attitudes and situations shift between the two. The playwright herself, Ngozi Anyanwu plays Lil, spunky, irreverent, and Sullivan Jones more than matches her as Big, in both his physicality and his emotional truthfulness. Their interplay, their moments of quiet, of fun, of anger, and of confrontation, can only reach its apex in live theatre. The playwright notes that quote here are big political things happening in the world, I think the way to engage politically is by humanizing people, and that starts at home. I’m always trying to make sure people feel seen. In The Monsters, both through the play’s script, through the direction of Tamilla Woodward, and through the often raw and honest acting, these characters and their need for connection is clearly and satisfyingly seen. The Monsters by Ngozi Anyanwu plays at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre through May 3rd. For more information you can go to Berkeley.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “The Monsters” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre appeared first on KPFA.

    3 min

  2. APR 8

    Review: “Flex” at San Francisco Playhouse

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Flex” by Candice Jones, at San Francisco Playhouse through May 2, 2026.           TEXT OF REVIEW: Film and TV audiences love sports stories, groups of disparate people thrown together striving to work as one to achieve their goal, usually to win the big game. From Major League to Ted Lasso to The Sandlot, we are entranced by how the characters grow and mature, and hopefully, in the end, they will become heroes. Sports stories in live theatre are few and far between, most likely because you can’t really show the games. And sports stories about girls, black girls in particular? They’re nowhere to be found, except in the play Flex by Candice Jones, having its West Coast premiere at San Francisco Playhouse through May 2nd. Flex tries the impossible: to actually show the game, or at least some facsimile. The stage has basketball hoops at both ends, the one stage right in a playground, and stage left at a gym. We’re in a small town in Arkansas in 1998, a team of five high school girls, all black, as is their coach, are just good enough to win a regional championship. We zero in on Starra Jones, played with hip-hop swagger by Santeon Brown, the best athlete on the stage. In the opening sequence, all five are pregnant, only they’re not. It’s a test to see how they would play with big bellies because small town girls always become pregnant and are forced to leave the team. But we soon learn one of them, April, actually is pregnant. She wants to play, but the coach says no. The championship is important because scouts will be there, there will be scholarships available and who knows, maybe the newly founded WNBA could be in someone’s future, and Starra, willing to stretch ethics to get ahead, wants to be the one they see. But maybe it’s Sidney who’s the best on the team, and maybe Starra needs to figure out a way to take the spotlight. April, for her part, isn’t sure she wants to keep the baby. The religious Cherisse meanwhile, is uncomfortable with her sexuality. Each girl has her own secrets. Flex – named after the team’s signature five-person shoot around play – is set on basketball courts, and much of the play occurs on the court. This works in conception, but not always in practice. The bouncing ball muffles the dialogue, and the road to the championship becomes a McGuffin only the girls care about. It’s in the non-basketball scenes that the play really comes alive, and where the actors really shine, and its those scenes that makes Flex worth seeing. Flex by Candrice Jones, directed by Margo Hall, plays at San Francisco Playhouse through May 2nd. For more information, you can go to SFPlayhouse.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “Flex” at San Francisco Playhouse appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  3. MAR 31

    Review: “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews :”The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” by Edward Albee at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage through April 28, 2026.                 TEXT OF REVIEW: (some wording is different in the recording) Edward Albee’s reputation beyond theatre junkies mostly rests on one play, his masterpiece, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.  While that play shows off his caustic wit to great effect, it’s perhaps one of the least absurdist of his plays. And Edward Albee, over all, is one of the greatest of absurdist playwrights, in plays ranging from his early masterpiece, The Zoo Story, to Tiny Alice and Seascape. The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? , which won the Tony Award for Best New Play in 2002, excels in both strains. Absurdist and deeply weird, it also contains some of Albee’s most cutting wit, all elements in full display in Shotgun Players current production, which runs through April 28th at the Ashby Stage. In this production, directed by Kevin Clarke, the play opens on a bare stage. Later we will learn where we are. That separation from reality, while likely guided by financial concerns, also separates us somewhat from the reality the characters are facing, in a way accentuating the strange events to follow. A happily married couple with a gay teen aged son they adore, Martin and his wife Stevie  are preparing themselves for a TV interview, conducted by Martin’s best friend.  Martin, though, is having memory issues. It’s his fiftieth birthday, and no, he doesn’t have early onset alzheimers. We will learn soon enough that he is severely distracted by something, and we will also learn, soon enough, why.  

Albee himself stated that The play is about love, and loss, the limits of our tolerance and who, indeed, we really are.”  As with so many of Albee’s plays, It’s hard to put a finger on what this play is: comedy, tragedy, an experiment in believability? Is it Albee’s response to the homophobia he experienced throughout his life? On another level, all that hardly matters in a production that is utterly riveting from start to finish. Erin Mei-Ling Stuart is pitch perfect as Stevie. Granted, she’s the one with the best lines, but she takes it to the max. It’s hard to imagine a better performance in the role, on Broadway or elsewhere. William Giammona, as Martin has a tougher task, onstage at almost every moment, he must make every comment real, every response real, and happily he’s up to the task. The two other members of the cast, Joel Ochoa as their son Billy and Kevin Singer as Martin’s friend Ross, help make every scene compelling. All in all, it’s an exhilarating night in the theatre. The Goat, or Where Is Sylvia plays at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage through April 28th . For more information you can go to shotgunplayers.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  4. MAR 25

    Review: “Assassins” at Oakland Theatre Project

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Assassins” by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, at Oakland Theatre Project extended to April 12, 2026.         TEXT OF REVIEW: When Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Assassins first opened in 1990, the show focused on the relationship between America’s gun culture and the need to be seen. Looking at presidential assassins and would-be assassins, we see desperate people finding all kinds of excuses to rationalize their actions. Today, mass shooters don’t care about being seen, and obviously neither do the masked thugs of ICE. But Assassins still speaks to us in different ways, as is evident in the production now at Oakland Theatre Project through April 5th. As Oakland Theatre Project’s Executive Artistic Director Michael Socrates Moran says , Assassins was always a work of experimental theatre, so why not experiment further and turn a show, which usually features eight actors, into a one-person tour de force, signifying modern day loneliness and desperation. He notes that we’ve all become separated from the community experience, constantly checking our phones, watching films at home, shopping without going to a shop. Those solo experiences breed the same disconnection that gave rise to these would be and actual assassins. In addition, there’s a line in the show, about returning America to what it was, which resonates deeply with Trump’s entire movement, as if MAGA itself is now a single-focused assassin. A concept musical, Assassins takes place in an imaginary early 20th Century fair midway, filled with games, rides and hawkers. Each assassin is there, together and alone. Taking us from John Wilkes Booth past the Reagan and Ford would-be killers, and then back to Lee Harvey Oswald. In this production, that all rests on the shoulders of Adam Kuve Niemann, who plays all the assassins and all the minor characters. He sings the choral songs and the duets, switching back and forth, and he’s phenomenal. The operative mood of the country as performed here though, isn’t loneliness, it’s anger, an anger that explodes in the songs, emphasizing the atonality of the music, which matches the madness and despair of the characters. It is the seething and explosive anger of today’s America, and it turns Assassins into something very contemporary. Where this Assassins is less successful is during the scenes between the songs. Some work well enough, others, with overlapping dialogue, stop the show dead in its tracks, as do the long pauses that give the actor time to breathe and regroup. But when Assassins does work, which is most of the time, the results are revelatory and why ultimately, this Assassins is unforgettable. Assassins plays at Flax Art and Design through April 5th. For more information you can go to oaklandtheatreproject.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA.   The post Review: “Assassins” at Oakland Theatre Project appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  5. MAR 2

    Review: “All My Sons” at Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “All My Sons” by Arthur Miller, at Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre through March 22, 2026.               TEXT OF REVIEW Great plays stay relevant, no matter the time or setting, or even subject matter. It could be a castle in Denmark in medieval times, a diner in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in the 1960s, a cramped Chicago apartment in the 1950s, a shabby dacha in Tsarist Russia, or even Central Park during the AIDS crisis. Or it could be 1947, Just after World War II, in the backyard of a house in an Ohio town, as is the case with “All My Sons” by Arthur Miller, the classic play that gave the playwright his first success in the theatre, and is now seen in a brilliant and unforgettable production at Berkeley Rep through March 22nd. Joe Keller is the successful owner of an appliance company, having made his money on government contracts during the war years, it’s the American dream come true. Joe’s wife Kate refuses to believe their son Larry died three years ago after being reporting missing in action. Their other son Chris came back from the war changed, along with a sense of ethics that is heartening and sometimes terrifying. Into their lives and the lives of their neighbors returns their former neighbor Annie Deever, who had been Larry’s girlfriend but now has changed her focus to Chris, who wants to marry her. All My Sons touches on so many relevant issues today. The horror of war, the immorality of capitalism, government pressure on business, and the emptiness of the American dream. The play delves into father-son relationships, the nature of grief, the personal effect of war, of ambition, and most emphatically  the places where ethics and love run up against each other as if enemies. Though the plot’s outlines are based on a real news story, the play’s stance toward capitalism and corruption brought Miller to the attention of HUAC. Corruption and Republican politics have a long and sordid history. Leading the cast are Jimmy Smits and his real life partner Wanda de Jesus as Joe and Kate, their chemistry visible and dynamic in every scene they’re together, two top performers at the peak of their powers. One can single out every other actor in the cast as well and It’s a dream ensemble. Director David MendizAbal has styled this as the story of a Puerto Rican family, leading to a cast largely consisting of people of color. Puerto Ricans were a visible group in Ohio at the time, also seeking the American Dream. It adds a new wrinkle, and it works. This memorable production of All My Sons only runs through March 22nd.  It is must-see theatre. For more information you can go to berkeleyrep.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA.   The post Review: “All My Sons” at Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  6. FEB 27

    Review: “Paranormal Activity” at ACT Toni Rembe Theatre

    Photo: Teresa Castracane KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Paranormal Activity” at ACT Toni Rembe (Geary) Theatre through March 22, 2026.             TEXT OF REVIEW In real life, we hate being scared, but in a theatre or on TV, there’s nothing quite like it.  The slow burn of suspense, the shock of horror. Ghosts, demons, and the old cliché, things that go bump in the night. On television and film, there’s Amityville, The Exorcist, Stranger Things, a long list of Stephen King adaptations, and they date back to the earliest days of the silents.  And CGI makes everything real. It’s a bit different live on a stage. We suspend our disbelief, but we’re in a community with the actors, we’re seeing effects live as they happen, all with the question, How exactly did they do THAT? Which is a question asked multiple times in the entertaining if often incoherent and vapid play, Paranormal Activity, now at ACT’s Toni Rembe Theatre through March 22nd. The curtain rises on a two-tiered set. Downstairs, the kitchen, dining and living room areas, with a staircase that takes us to a bedroom on one side, a bathroom on the other, and a third door to an unseen room. We’re in England, near London perhaps, A young couple, Louise and James, have recently moved overseas from Chicago.  He has a tight relationship with his mother, with whom his closeness is revealed in the opening moments via a phone call. Mom is religious, he’s now an atheist. Lou seems okay, now that she’s on anti-depressants. She does believe in ghosts, though and we will shortly find out why. Horror has a long history in theatre, the modern era peaking with The Cat and the Canary in 1927 and Dracula shortly after. Then there’s the old days, Hamlet’s ghost,  and MacBeth’s three witches. More recently, we have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Conor McPherson’s Shining City. Paranormal Activity exploits all that, switching gears from laughter to horror, from sudden shocks to dawning awareness, augmented by a sound design that soothes, relaxes and suddenly startles. There’s also the chemistry between the very good Cher Alvarez and Travis A. Knight as the young couple, we fear for them, and us. If one isn’t drawn into the couple’s issues, the slow build can become too slow, and the shocks too infrequent.. But should you buy into it, and can handle the sound and lighting, not to mention the story’s senselessness or massive plot holes. Paranormal Activity is a fun night in the theatre, certainly more fun than the real horrors going on in Washington, Gaza, and elsewhere. Paranormal Activity plays at ACT’s Toni Rembe Theatre through March 22nd. For more information you can go to act-sf.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA.               The post Review: “Paranormal Activity” at ACT Toni Rembe Theatre appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  7. FEB 18

    Review: “M. Butterfly” at San Francisco Playhouse

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “M. Butterfly” at San Francisco Playhouse through March 14, 2026.               TEXT OF REVIEW (minor changes were made during recording and editing): M. Butterfly Back in 1964, a French Diplomat in China became infatuated with a singer from the Beijing Opera. When they met, the singer, now wearing men’s clothing, said she was a woman presenting as a man. They embarked on an affair that began in China and ended several years later in Paris, where it turned out the diplomat was passing secret information to his lover. He later said he never knew that the singer was really a man. That story caught the public’s eye, and not long afterward, first time playwright David Henry Hwang used that story to create a play,which launched the career of B.D. Wong and later became a film with Jeremy Irons. And now a production of M. Butterfly is at San Francisco Playhouse through March 14th. Of course, times change. When first produced on Broadway in 1988, gender roles outside of the gay community were rigid, and the East was still somehow viewed as exotic in the United States. But change was already happening. Ten years earlier, Edward Said had redefined the term “orientalism” to describe, now quoting from Google, a Western system of representation that depicts the “East as static, exotic, and inferior to justify Western imperialism and domination.” On top of that, gender fluidity hit the zeitgeist. While David Henry Hwang did update the play in 2017, it turns out there was no need, as we see and hear in the original 1988 version. The show opens. We are in a prison cell where Rene, a former French diplomat, is serving out a sentence of treason. Mocked and reviled, he tries to explain exactly what happened and why, and how his uncontrollable obsession with the opera singer Song led to his ruin. The prison is real, and metaphorical. Rene is trapped in his fantasy and in his understandings, most of which are wrong and foolhardy. Unfolding as a subtext is an examination of gender roles, of myths about the east, and of sexuality in general, as well as of the lies we tell ourselves, the lies we tell others, and the strictures society and governments put on all of us. The production’s secret weapon are its two leads. Dean Lillard as Rene and Edric Young as Song are both brilliant, with a palpable connection, and repulsion. They are assisted by a superb cast in other roles, and mention must also be made of the gorgeous set design, lighting and costumes. This M. Butterfly is a sumptuous feast of theatre, for both the eyes, the intellect and the emotion. M Butterfly plays at San Francisco Playhouse through March 14th. For more information you can go to sfplayhouse.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “M. Butterfly” at San Francisco Playhouse appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  8. FEB 17

    Review: “The Notebook, the Musical” at the Orpheum

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews the national touring company of “The Notebook, the Musical” at ATG Orpheum Theatre through March 1, 2025.       TEXT OF REVIEW Towards the end of the twentieth century, as the corporate world eyed the record-breaking receipts of shows like Cats and Les Miz, it became clear that if you could turn any IP, intellectual property, into a musical, a new stream of profits would come a-calling. Its also true that producers have always been searching for properties that might sing, and often it’s a labor of love. So is “The Notebook: The Musical”, now in a national tour at the Orpheum theatre through March 1st  a labor of love, or just another brand name for Broadway’s corporate class to exploit for profit? Based on the weepy best-seller by Nicholas Sparks and the 2004 film with Ryan Gosling and Gena Rowlands, among others, The Notebook on Broadway presented theatregoers with a free box of tissues at each performance. The show received mixed reviews and closed after nine months, in December, 2024, before embarking on this tour, hoping to make back its investment. Noah Calhoun, an older man, is in a nursing home visiting his wife, Allie, whose memory has been ripped out of her by Alzneimers. The only way to get her to remember is by reading his notebook diary of their life together. She had promised him, at the time of her diagnosis, that if he does that, she’ll come back to him. So we embark on their love story, as two couples play Noah and Allie at seventeen and again at twenty seven, while old Noah reads to old Allie. But back to the weepie business. Much of  the show is saccharine and manipulative, particularly in the flashbacks focusing on parental meddling and class distinctions. And if Allie only focused on the songs, she’d never get her memory back. But there is much more going on here, and inside The Notebook: The Musical is a much better show than the producers were able to promote. It’s a show about loss, loss of memory, loss of mobility, loss of health. In that sense, the creators have focused on musical theatre as metaphor, with body movement and dance and snippets of dialogue and song representing the swirl going on in Allie’s mind as she attempts to find meaning inside the chaos. Along that path, the strongest elements are the performances of Beau Gravitte and Sharon Catherine Brown, who shine in their scenes, and take the show into places other musicals haven’t attempted, and why ultimately, The Notebook works far better than it should. The Notebook: The Musical plays at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre through March 1st. For more information you can go to broadwaysf.com, which takes you to an agttickets site. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “The Notebook, the Musical” at the Orpheum appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min
See All (25)

Ratings & Reviews

4.5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Bay Area theatre reviews with KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky,.Older posts include theatre interviews recorded pre-pandemic. LINK TO ASSORTED LOCAL THEATER & BOOK VENUES

Information

  • Creator
    KPFA
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026KPFA 312700
  • Show Website
    KPFA - Bay Area Theater

You Might Also Like