Glorious Sunset and Concerning Strange Devices form the Distant West, two very unique and intriguing shows that almost defy description!

This week’s reviews take us to the Onstage Theater Company’s newest production, “Glorious Sunset”, at Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek and the Berkeley Repertory Company’s latest production, entitled “Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West” in the Berkeley theater.

The first is a community theatre production of a play written by local Lafayette playwright, David E. Harris, entitled “Glorious Sunset” just opening for the first time in Walnut Creek. I am not sure how to classify this play as it almost defies description! “Glorious Sunset” is a comedy, a murder mystery, an outrageous spoof and a play that is definitely not in your typical format, but yet a very fun and entertaining and enjoyable piece of theater. When the lights went down and the theme music from the James Bond thriller, “You Only Live Twice” and the theme music from “Dragnet” filled the theater as the lights came up on the courtroom scene, I knew we were in for a bit of outrageous theatrical spoof!

The opening scenario is totally absurd, in a courtroom with a judge, lawyers and defendants that defy any sense of modern judicial decorum! Even if the scene were set in Hicksville USA, I would have found the whole opening scene totally silly and just plain weird. As several items are handled in quick succession by the judge, the craziness of the story starts to unfold. In short order, we are introduced to a rain-coat attired artist, Michael Upton (Barry Hunau), who is about to be tried for indecent exposure, primarily due to the fact that he was discovered painting in the nude and using part of his manhood as his paint applicator!

It takes a little while for the play to get down to the real purpose of the story, which is to re-enact a murder trial and to solve a murder mystery in which there is nothing really mysterious or suspenseful. It is about the murder of local merchant, Wilson Dean, the victim of a love triangle that occurred 140 years earlier in this same community, a bit of community folklore that is still on everyone’s lips.

A country judge by the name of Susan Felton (Roberta Tibbetts) has joined with her friends and associates in jurisprudence in this community to turn their little courtroom into an enterprising theatrical opportunity for the little town of Amberhill. Someone, perhaps the judge herself, has come up with an idea that they hope will draw media attention to their backward little town, and entice tourists to come and bring about a surge in their wilted economy. They, as a courtroom group, have agreed to set up a mock trial in an attempt to solve the 140 year old murder (that was never really considered a mystery to anyone in this town). Now there is no “real explanation” as to why reporters and photographers would flock from far and wide to cover such “old news”, but then again, maybe this story was set before the advent of the internet, Yahoo and Google, which has cut newspaper’s incomes and photography budgets to the bone. The group finally rises to the occasion and puts on the trial and the newspaper reporters and photographers do come from all over to cover it. The courtroom group even entices Sam Witte, one of their previous local boys, but now settled in the big city (a bright, up and coming defense attorney), to play the role of the defense attorney for the accused and long-since-deceased murderer.

Local attorney Dawn Kennedy (Melissa Vargas), really doesn’t want anything to do with this mock trial, especially once she learns that her former boyfriend, Sam Witte, is coming back to town to participate in the fun and games. Dawn has agreed to play the prosecution’s attorney. Court bailiff, Lyle (played by Tim Biglow), has the “hots” for court clerk, Maureen (Siobhan O’Brien), which creates a lot of totally inappropriate courtroom antics, that is, I guess, unless you reside in Amberhill. Attorney Sam Witte (Matthew Shotwell), is accompanied by his legal clerk, Fred Cody (Matt Bucci), whose only significant purpose (in the plot) is apparently to put the make on Sam’s old girlfriend, continuously. Two other attorneys, John Sanders (Neil McChesney) and Charles Andrews (Mark Barry) are really written into the script so that they can come back in the mock trial as other characters. Sal Russo portrays the nearly deaf court recorder as his principal character.

Another key element in this plot is that the audience becomes the jury and as such, you are asked to participate in the fun. It should be noted that yours truly was accused of chewing gum (which I don’t) and was ordered by the bailiff to shape up! Before the evening’s entertainment is over, you will be asked to find the defendant “guilty” or “innocent”!
If you think this is a convoluted and silly plot, you are absolutely right, but strange as it seems, it is just silly enough to be outrageously entertaining. It is so bad, that it turns out to be quite funny. When the mock trial actually comes to fruition, the actors each come to trial in period costume. Some of the costume pieces (especially the hair pieces and mustaches) are so ridiculous that you find yourself laughing at the pure absurdity of it all. The acting is really quite good, over the top certainly, but perfect for the characters as written. Director Helen Means has turned what I thought would be a sow’s ear into a silly silky purse! If you ever enjoyed vaudeville, community theater or melodramas, then this wacko comedy is bound to grow on you. The audience loved it and the applause at the end was very strong! Just plain dumb fun!

“Glorious Sunset” plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8:15 p.m., with a Thursday performance on March 25th at 8:15 p.m., and on Sunday, March 21st and 28th, at 2:15 pm and closing on March 28th. Call the Lesher box office for tickets and reservations at 837-3276. The performances are in the Knights Stage III Theater on the ground floor of the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, which is located at 1601 Civic Drive in downtown Walnut Creek. Tickets are $18 for general admission and $15 for seniors.


Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West is a "mind-warping", multi-dimensional visual experience!

Berkeley Repertory Theatre has just delivered a multidimensional theatrical tale, a story that encompasses “something old and something new” as it explores early Japanese photography, and body tattoo imagery, and has brought this tale into the 21st century, with a modern twist.

Playwright Naomi Iizuka has created a very complex story that overlaps and drifts between current time and the 1880’s in Japan with two overlapping stories of love, sexual intrigue, prejudice and passion, in her new play, “Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West”. This techno-modernist production is a powerhouse of mind-warping imagery, rapidly converging and re-emerging set plasticity, near-blinding lighting transitions that set the synapses on a collision course with information dissemination overload. The production is impressively unique and yet almost too much, paced too fast for me and my aging mind to fully absorb the wonder of it all.

The story begins with a wealthy American woman arriving in Yokohama in 1885, seeking a sensual side of the "real" Japan, pursuing a dark curiosity that was stimulated by a photographic image she had seen many years earlier. The image was of a nearly naked Japanese man, his entire body emblazoned in ritualistic artistic tattoo. She seeks out a well known American photographer living in Yokohama who has made his living taking photographs of rickshaw drivers, geishas, and monks which he sells to Western tourists hungry for images of Old Japan. The photographer quickly recognizes that her professed desire to see and explore the ancient art of Japanese tattoo is in fact, a hidden desire to experience a personal erotic adventure, a reality that he finds quite irritating to him. He unmasks her outwardly expressed desire to simply assuage a long standing artistic curiosity.

Her wealthy husband has visited Japan many times furthering his gun-selling trade, and while he outwardly expresses great disdain for the Japanese people as a whole, he has been secretly keeping a Japanese woman for his sexual pleasure and companionship.

A century later, an American tourist harboring dark secrets of his own, comes to Japan ostensibly to purchase rare Meiji era photographs. His subliminal sexual agenda overshadows his professed search for valuable photography to add to his collection.

Author Iizuka artfully explores how the medium of photography captures not only historical moments and acts as a persuasive art, but captures the imagination and stimulates the senses. She illustrates how photography serves as an interpretive language of its own, crossing language barriers to form a communicative bridge to other lands, emotions and desires, not entirely dissimilar from our own.

The actors play dual roles and deliver a very powerful experience. The cast includes Kate Eastwood Norris, Johnny Wu, Bruce McKenzie, Teresa Avia Lim and Danny Wolohan. Director Les Waters brings his powerful insights to the development and delivery of the play. Further, the production team contributes immeasurably to the success of this production, and the design efforts of Mimi Lien (scenic design), Annie Smart (costume design), Leah Gelpe (projection and video design) and Alexander V. Nichols (lighting design), probably deliver the most, significantly. The lighting design, particularly the overpowering flash-bulb-like lighting effects, used to facilitate scene changes, was almost too, too much. That aspect needs to be toned down as it was somewhat uncomfortable physically, blinding, at least momentarily.
While I loved the concept, I came away somewhat uncomfortable, as though I had overstuffed myself at a marvelous dinner, thinking less would have been more satisfactory, more fulfilling. There was so much packed into this story that I have no idea of how one would do that, short of a major re-write.

“Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West” continues Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Wednesday and Sunday evening performances at 7 p.m. and matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, now through April 11th. Call (510) 647-2949 or (888) BRT-Tix (toll free) for additional information and reservations. You may also wish to visit their website at www.berkeleyrep.org for more information and photographs of the production to assist in your decision making process. Ticket range between $33 and $71 each, depending on seating and performance times. This production is in the Berkeley Repertory Roda Theater located at 2015 Addison Street in Berkeley.