Looking and Lear, embrace laughter and tears!

Last week I gave you a “heads up” about a Norm Foster comedy at Onstage Theatre in Pleasant Hill entitled “Looking” that a Rossmoor resident called me about and I have to tell you it is absolutely terrific! In addition, we went to California Shakespeare Theatre in Orinda to see William Shakespeare’s King Lear, which was an equally superb production.

Looking for light-hearted comedy to lighten your psychological load? "Looking" in Pleasant Hill is the real deal!

I will start with the Onstage Theatre’s production of “Looking”, which is a delightfully upbeat, lighthearted comedy about a middle aged Canadian man and woman, both seeking love and companionship.

Andy (Mark Hinds) decides it may be time to try using the personal ads in the local paper, because the bar scene has not provided him with any prospects he wishes to pursue as a meaningful relationship. Andy is not exactly what you would call your greatest prospect either, as he is middle aged, somewhat insecure, lazy and cheap and his business is not very successful.

His best friend, Matt (Bill Schneider), is the local “cool jazz” radio station disk jockey. Matt is basically a nice guy, and definitely not looking for a significant other. He appears to be a confirmed bachelor (on the surface only interested in one-night stands), and he has never really found anyone who stirred a great interest (in his vocabulary), at least nothing that stimulated anything higher than his jock strap. Matt suggest that Andy look into “Singles” cruises that he describes as “floating orgies”, suggesting that many such cruises take in the “topless” beaches, which stops Andy cold.

Andy strongly responds telling Matt that he is not interested in “that kind of relationship”. He explains that he perceives advertising in the “personals” as less threatening and more anonymous, something with perhaps a greater propensity to help him find what he is really looking for, a friend and loving relationship in his life. Together, they tentatively word the “personal” ad, arguing over the validity of its contents.

On the other side of town, Val (Babette Bilger) is an operating room nurse with a very responsible and pressure filled job, but little personal life outside the work scene. One day while Val is working out at her fitness center, her friend Nina (June McCue), drops by and while discussing life’s little personal issues, Val complains that she is fed up with the jerks and characters she constantly runs into while searching for a significant “romantic” other in the local bar scenes. Nina apparently has her sights set only towards the next “quickie” as she cannot imagine finding someone, at her age, who would fit with her already established likes and dislikes.

As she and Nina talk about the alternatives available to women in their search for “Mr. Right”, Nina pulls out the day’s newspaper personal ads and they laugh about the content of the various fishing expeditions from men trolling for dates therein. One such ad does catch Val’s attention, and guess whose ad she finds interesting? You got it!

Of course neither searching party, Val nor Andy, is willing to go on a blind date alone, so they enlist their friends to go along, a "buffer", of sorts, on that first meeting at “The Private Dick”, a local pub.

Of course Andy and Val don’t exactly hit it off on that first date, but Matt and Nina do and before the night is over, the buffers end up in the buff, “buffing” each other like hell hath no fury! Feeling guilty over their immediate “unwanted” success, they decide to get Andy and Val back together for another date. This time, the tables turn and both relationships get crazy and all mixed up.

The show is one laugh after another as Norm Foster is a very perceptive and clever writer, calling a spade a spade and digging up a lot of very realistic and typical dirt for the characters to dig their way through before the evening’s laughter is over.

This is a very funny comedy and the acting is really superb. Each actor brings a special depth to their character. You laugh at them, you laugh with them, and you find that you really care about and eventually embrace each of them and their unique personalities whole heartedly!

The set designed by Diane Mc Rice works very well and contributes to the fast moving flow of the play. Director Helen Means has pulled together a terrific cast who deliver an excellent evening of entertainment.

Call 944-9006 for ticket and reservation information and visit their website www.onstagetheatre.org for more information. Tonight is your only chance to see “Looking” as it closes this evening. Call (925) 944-9006 for tickets and reservations. The theatre is located in the School House Culture Center at 2050 Oak Park Boulevard (at the corner of Pleasant Hill Road and Oak Park Blvd.) in Pleasant Hill. You can purchase tickets at the door.

King Lear is one of Shakespeares most often produced tragedies and an excellent, dynamic production is rocking the Orinda hills!

California Shakespeare Theatre has become a very highly regarded professional theatre company over its many years in the Bay Area, producing a broad diversity of classic Shakespearean plays as well as other classic theatrical works. Artistic Director Jonathan Moscone is continuing to expand the opportunities even further. The new Season will begin in 2008 with Pericles by William Shakespeare in May, continuing with The Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde in July, adding Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov in August, and concluding with Twelfth Night by Shakespeare in September.

The current season concludes with the current production of Shakespeare’s great tragedy, King Lear. I have to say that if there were ever a great play that demonstrated a case for anger management in people’s lives, it would be this classic work by William Shakespeare. I don’t believe I have ever seen a more “angry” King Lear than in this production. Lear, as played by Jeffrey DeMunn, is the epitome of a prideful and easily stirred to anger father. I am amazed that DeMunn was able to maintain his voice through the entirety of this three hour show. He certainly is the most vocal Lear that I ever remember, and certainly one of the strongest and most diverse actors I have seen play this role.

The story line basically involves a King who is long in the tooth, and who has three daughters to whom he proposes turning over his kingdom while he goes about the country entertaining and carousing with his buddies, an entourage of about 100 knights.

At the ceremony in which he calls his two older married daughters, Goneril and Regan and one unmarried younger daughter, Cordelia, together, he encourages each daughters, to tell him what he wants to hear, which is their praise and undying love and loyalty. The two older, street-wise daughters, know that what he really wants is a pledge of love and loyalty before he turns over his power and physical assets to them. They are smart and devious enough to play his game.

The younger daughter, for whom he has professed the greatest love for many years, is not willing to express an exaggerated or false sense of love or loyalty to him in order to gain special favor. Cordelia (played by Sarah Nealis) asks herself, why should I? After all, she has already professed that love and loyalty again and again, and has consistently proven her love for him over the years. She states quite honestly that when she marries, at least half of her love should be given her husband and the remaining love granted her father. She cannot comprehend why her sisters express such an exaggerated love for their father, saying nothing about their love for their husbands.

When she fails to respond to her fathers’ outrageous demands for loyalty and love, he flies into a rage and bans her from his kingdom and offers her in marriage to any man who would take her. Then, adding insult to injury, he even refuses to provide a dowry, in essence, saying that she’s not worth it! The Earl of Kent (Andy Murray) encourages the king to re-think his brash decision and is himself banished from the kingdom.

When the Duke of Burgundy (Arthur Keng) learns that there will be no dowry or lands given along with the beautiful younger daughter, he cancels his courtship and walks away. The young unwed King of France (Liam Vincent) however, expresses his feelings that she is a dowry in her own right, and he takes her home with him, weds her, and provides for her quite graciously.

The kingdom is then split between Goneril (Delia McCougall) and Regan (Julie Eccles) and they are then given complete control of the kingdom. Before very long, the king begins to discover the folly of his decision, as the false love begins to show itself.

There are (as is typical with Shakespeare), several subplots, one of which is that the Earl of Gloucester (James Carpenter) has two sons, Edgar (Erik Lochtefeld) and an illegitimate son, Edmund (Ravi Kapoor), with Edmund plotting to steal his brother’s inheritance by falsehood and deception. Then we have wives cheating on husbands, invading armies, property rights being contested, people hearing what they want to hear, sisters turning on sisters, etc., etc., much like a modern soap opera!

The highly convoluted plot evolves through the excellent direction of Lisa Peterson and the play moves along quite well, for a play so laden with drama layered upon sub-layer, upon sub-layer. The acting is absolutely superb and the impressive but minimalist set, by Rachel Hauck, works well, as does the lighting design by Alexander V. Nichols.

King Lear plays Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., with productions on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m.. There are matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and afternoon performances at 4 p.m. on Sundays, now through Sunday, October 14th. Call the Box Office at (510) 548-9666 or visit their web-site at www.calshakes.org for more detailed information. The Cal Shakes Theatre is located in the Bruns Amphitheater at 100 Gateway Blvd., in Orinda. There is plenty of parking at the entrance to the theater which is at the last exit east of the Caldecot Tunnel, at 100 Gateway Blvd, in Orinda. There is a hill to climb to the Bruns Amphitheater seating area, but if you prefer, the company has a free shuttle up the hill from the entrance, and from the Orinda BART station as well. Tickets start at $15 and generally range between $37 and $60 depending on accommodations and date.

Remember to dress warmly as it can be very chilly, in-fact, down-right cold if the fog comes in over the Orinda hills into the theater area. Bring a picnic dinner or lunch or buy a dinner from the food booth adjacent to the theater seating area and dine before the performance in the wonderful picnic ground also adjacent to the theater. The afternoon performances provide a great excuse to come early and wander around the beautiful grounds and see the lovely pieces of statuary and art work. Cal Shakespeare, as I have stated previously, is “more than a theatrical experience - - it is a walk in the park, and it is an educational opportunity, a rich and rewarding experience.”