Scribblers and Squabblers: Alive, Alive, Oh!

Let's not beat around the bush. Denial and stupidity are on the march in the United States. The sane and sound minds of Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, and Kamala Harris (who have all suspended their Presidential campaigns) are blessed with a respect for math and science as well as facts, expertise, and the rule of law. Watching them clearly articulate their thoughts offered a frightening contrast to such aggressively ignorant and pompously pious Republicans as Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson, Mike Pence, Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, Kevin McCarthy, Stephanie Grisham, Mike Pompeo, Louie Gohmert, and their cretinous capo, Donald Trump (I think we're gonna need a bigger clown car).

To explain how an idiot like Donald Trump, Jr. can redefine the concept of vanity publishing, one need only harken back to the early 1980s, when the dumbing down of America's educational system began to spread across the nation like a slowly-metastasizing cancer. Several years ago, when someone asked me why I kept reading such blatantly liberal rags as The New York Times, I replied that I really enjoyed some of the writers whose work they publish (see Ben Smith's timely article entitled "Why the Success of The New York Times May Be Bad News for Journalism"). The look of confusion on the man's face led to an easy confirmation that he got all of his information from the teevee.

Having greatly enjoyed Christopher Moore's bawdy send-up of King Lear (Fool) I recently finished reading The Two Gentlemen of Altona (the first book in the Playing The Fool series by Lisa Henry and J.A. Rock) and am looking forward to following the misadventures of Detective Ryan McGuinness and Henry Page (a Shakespeare-quoting grifter) in The Merchant of Death and Tempest.

In the past week I've been fortunate enough to attend four plays which allowed audiences to see the world through a woman's eyes (two were written by women, one by a gay man, and one by a transman). The curious alignment of these four performances climaxed (most appropriately) on International Women's Day. So without further ado, let's take a look at the two world premieres in the lineup.

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As part of the first annual Bay Area Women’s Theatre Festival, San Francisco's
Custom Made Theatre and Those Women Productions are co-producing the world premiere of The Lady Scribblers, a delightful farce that has been gleefully directed by Tracy Ward on a low-budget unit set designed by Heather Kenyon (with costumes by Rachael Heiman and Brittany Mellerson in charge of lighting and sound design).

Written by Michaela Goldhaber (a playwright-director who returned to the Bay area more than a decade ago after suffering a stroke), The Lady Scribblers seems tailor-made for university theatre departments and community theater companies. With a cast of nine, it's a ribald romp and frolic based on real figures in 17th-century London's theatre scene, whose challenges mirror much of the misogyny rampant in today's society.

J. J. Van Name (Mary Pix) and Oluchi Nwokocha (Delarivier Manly)
in a scene from The Lady Scribblers (Photo by: Jay Yamada)

If one were to search for a label that might describe Goldhaber, the word “iconoclast” would be a logical choice. Currently serving as the Artistic Director for the Wry Crips Disabled Women’s Theatre Group, she is the Lead Instigator of the Bay Area Women's Theatre Festival as well as a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. Her partner (Chris Hall) is the leader of Godless Perverts (a social justice activist group devoted to fostering positive views of sexuality without religion).

Having spent more than two decades researching and directing works by women playwrights of the Restoration, Goldhaber has put her knowledge of the period to good use in The Lady Scribblers. “So often, everything we learn in history is always about the men of the times,” she notes. “But for me, a world of theatre where women’s stories are as important as men's stories is a world of parity. Our ground rules for the Women’s Theatre Festival are that every production has to be written and directed by a woman or non-binary artist and the cast and design team have to have gender parity. I want to see more stories that highlight women’s achievements and women in history. My particular interest involves digging into an era’s history and asking what the women were doing then.”

J. J. Van Name (Mary Pix), Emma Curtin (Catherine Trotter),
and Oluchi Nwokocha (Delarivier Manly) in a scene from
The Lady Scribblers (Photo by: Jay Yamada)

Two years after the 1658 death of the puritanical Oliver Cromwell, England's Parliament agreed to invite King Charles II back from his exile in The Netherlands. Shortly after the King's 30th birthday, Cromwell (along with several others) was posthumously decapitated and the Restoration began in earnest. As noted on Wikipedia:

"Restoration literature celebrated or reacted to the restored court.
Theatres reopened after having been closed during the protectorship of Oliver Cromwell, and bawdy 'Restoration comedy' became a recognizable genre. Theatre licenses granted by Charles required that female parts be played by 'their natural performers' rather than by boys (as was often the practice before)."

Dave Sikula (George Pix), Valerie Fachman (Elizabeth Barry),
and Emily Stone (Anne Bracegirdle) in a scene from
The Lady Scribblers (Photo by: Jay Yamada)

Set in London in 1689, The Lady Scribblers begins when a fight breaks out during the funeral for Aphra Behn, the first woman ever to earn her living as a playwright. Along with some friends, Mary Pix (J.J. Van Name) -- an aspiring playwright who writes comedies in her kitchen while waiting for her bread to rise -- is trying to find a way to get plays written by women produced. Her biggest obstacle is the pompous and greedy Christopher Rich (Ted Zoldan), a theatrical entrepreneur who runs the only royally sanctioned theatre in London and refuses to produce any more plays written by women.

Michael Houston (Lord Hammington) and Ted Zoldan
(Christopher Rich) in a scene from The Lady Scribblers
(Photo by: Jay Yamada)

Among Mary's colleagues are fellow playwrights Delarivier Manly (Oluchi Nwokocha) and Catherine Trotter (Emma Curtin); the great tragedienne, Elizabeth Barry (Valerie Fachman); as well as a popular actress named Anne Bracegirdle (Emily Stone). In addition to the conniving Mr. Rich, the women must also appeal to actor-theater manager Thomas Patrick Betterton (Dave Sikula) and Mary's husband, George Pix (also played by Sikula) for financial and emotional support. Indeed, there are only two fictional characters in the play: the horny, foppish Lord Hammington (Michael Houston) and a scheming actress named Lucinda Fairweather (Annika Bergman), who masterfully manipulates the clueless Lord Hammington.

Oluchi Nwokocha (Delarivier Manly), Michael Houston
(Lord Hammington), Valerie Fachman (Elizabeth Barry) and
Emma Curtin (a Page) in a scene from The Lady Scribblers
(Photo by: Jay Yamada)

Among the great joys to be found in The Lady Scribblers are Goldhaber's quick wit and solid plotting. Filled with plenty of in jokes for theatre nerds, her play is a perfect vehicle for over-emoting actors and vainglorious hams whose utter lack of subtlety keeps the audience in stitches. I especially enjoyed the shameless mugging by Annika Bergman, Valerie Fachman, Michael Houston, Dave Sikula, and Ted Zoldan.

Performances of The Lady Scribblers continue through March 29 at Custom Made Theatre (click here for tickets).

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In keeping with its reputation as a cauldron for new plays, Magic Theatre is participating in the National New Play Network’s rolling world premiere of Ricardo Pérez González's intense family drama (Don’t Eat The Mangos) with the Cleveland Public Theatre and the Milagro Theatre in Portland. The play’s five volatile characters rapidly switch back and forth between speaking in English and Spanish. While the script contains lots of laughs, the dramatic core revolves around a family trapped in a culture of toxic patriarchy in which their dying father's dirty little secret involves a history of child sexual abuse.

Elena Estér (Yinoelle) and Marilet Martinez (Wicha) in a scene
from Don't Eat The Mangos (Photo by: Jennifer Reiley)

Born in a trailer park in Ames, Iowa, the playwright (who describes himself as having been a weird little gay kid with a macabre sense of humor) readily admits to growing up in a dysfunctional family. “My mother was very physically and emotionally abusive. I remember stories she would tell about the things that happened in her family, to her mami, and it always felt like we were just recycling the same abuse. There was one particular bisabuela whose story is similar to the one in the play. That story stuck with me all my life and has always been a part of my personal mythology – the landscape of my nightmares,” González says.

Marilet Martinez (Wicha) and Yetta Gottesman (Ismelda) in a
scene from Don't Eat The Mangos (Photo by: Jennifer Reiley)

“As a brown boy growing up in Nebraska and Virginia, I used to write stories based on Greek mythology. I once made my father a birthday set of poems called 'Ricky’s Poems of Absolute Death.' Mangos (which is about a marginalized, abused individual) has queer characters and a queer sensibility that isn’t just about gay characters. The fact that I feel I am Yinoelle? That is queerness personified. I’m a child of abuse, a child of trauma, and a child of a racist society that didn’t think I could read. That didn’t think I could speak English. That tried to block off educational opportunities because I’m Puerto Rican,” he explains. “I’ve been physically attacked and been beaten up three times for being queer, yet look at where I am. I am blessed to be able to tell stories with amazing collaborators. So there is always hope.”

Yetta Gottesman (Ismelda) and Elena Estér (Yinoelle) in a
scene from Don't Eat The Mangos (Photo by: Jennifer Reiley)

Fiercely directed by David Mendizábal, Don't Eat The Mangos takes place in a home outside San Juan, Puerto Rico, where three sisters take turns caring for their dying patriarch. With the weather outside ranging from bright sunlight to a tropical hurricane (and the dialogue within the house ranging from barbed zingers to bitter recriminations), it's not the least bit surprising to hear one sister growl "I don’t need a man! I’m not like you or Wicha, desperate for the affection of a flaccid piece of meat who does nothing but drain your fucking lifeblood while you cling desperately to him so you can pretend your life has meaning. It doesn’t! None of it means anything, and I don’t have to pretend it does."

Yetta Gottesman stars as Ismelda in Don't Eat The Mangos
(Photo by: Jennifer Reiley)

Whether Ismelda (Yetta Gottesman), Yinoelle (Elena Estér), and Wicha (Marilet Martinez) are sniping at each other, singing a favorite childhood song, preparing food, or trying to decide what to do with the family home after Papi (Julian López-Morillas) dies, the ferocity of their emotions rarely cools. Late in the play, when one of the sisters accidentally reveals the family secret to Mami (Wilma Bonet), their mother embarks on juicily mango-themed revenge worthy of Greek tragedy. As an actor, Bonet has always fascinated me with her ability to maintain an emotional distance through much of a performance before becoming an irate matriarch whose boiling blood sends her fury coursing throughout her body.

Yetta Gottesman (Ismelda) and Wilma Bonet (Mami) in a
scene from Don't Eat The Mangos (Photo by: Jennifer Reiley)

Magic Theatre's production benefits immensely from the handsome unit set designed by Tanya Orellana, costumes by Brynn Almli, lighting designed by Chris Lundahl, and sound designed by Sara Huddleston. Audience members who are not bilingual may feel as if they are missing out on parts of the script but, by the time the violence passes and the drama reaches its final eerie moment, they will have no trouble feeling fulfilled.

Yetta Gottesman (Ismelda) and Elena Estér (Yinoelle) in a
scene from Don't Eat The Mangos (Photo by: Jennifer Reiley)

Another play written by González which received its world premiere from the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven in October 2019 is part of a trilogy he’s writing focused on an interracial gay couple over the course of several decades. I hope to see a production of On The Grounds of Belonging in the Bay area at some time in the future.

Performances of Don't Eat The Mangos continue through March 22 at Magic Theatre (click here for tickets).