Theatre

When I think of landmark 20th Century theater, the works of Arthur Miller, Edward Albee and Tennessee Williams come immediately to mind. Their work is simply timeless and has attracted some of the finest actors of the time to create extraordinary performances that generations of theater-goers hold in fond memory. So it was with great anticipation that my family and I returned to the Mark Taper Forum Saturday night to see the latest LA production of Williams' "The Glass Menagerie". Put simply, it was a magical night.

What I like best about fine dramatic theater, like that invariably found at the Mark Taper Forum, is it's ability to challenge our most fundamental assumptions about our world. I was not disappointed by this evenings production of "Palestine, New Mexico", the latest vision from that iconoclastic theatrical powerhouse known as Culture Clash. Their third premiere production at MTF since 2003, "Palestine" perfectly concludes one of the most compelling seasons there in recent memory.

The title, itself, hints at an intersection of cultures, histories and beliefs that, on the surface, seem worlds apart. But as the play unfolds, we are gradually drawn to realize the powerful threads common to all human experience.

The Mark Taper Forum in Downtown LA is known for it's ground-breaking theatrical productions. It's the primary reason my family has been season ticket holders for many years. So it was with delight that we experienced the Taper's production of Lydia this past Saturday night. Set in El Paso, Texas in the 1970's, Lydia is the complex story of an immigrant family wrestling with shifting societal realities around them and secrets long buried within. Written by Octavio Solis and first produced in Denver in 2008, I believe this is the play's first production in Los Angeles, with much of the original cast intact. It is, in all respects, a gripping piece of work.

It's a beautiful summer afternoon in south central Oregon. The sun shines high through thin cirrus. The air is pleasantly warm and scented with a myriad of wildflowers. My family and I are relaxing after a few hours hiking in the forested mountains south of Ashland. It is, quite simply, another idyllic experience at one of our favorite destinations. This is our fourth annual visit to the Shakespeare festival at Ashland, but each time feels just as fresh and delightful as the first.

Listening to KCRW a few days ago, I discovered this week the Nuart Theatre in West LA would be presenting the return of the 1964 classic, Becket. While I still remember my mother raving about it decades ago, I'd never seen it myself. So I was keen to experience it on the big screen, if at all possible. A little online research uncovered an LA Times review by Kenneth Turan, in which he spoke glowingly of the classic performances of Peter O'Toole as Henry II and Richard Burton as Thomas Becket. My son, beginning an acting career of his own, would do well to witness two of cinema's greatest actors at their best, I thought. But how to make it happen, with only weeknight showings remaining in the short run?

The latest production at The Mark Taper Forum is Anton Chekhov's classic "The Cherry Orchard". As a portrait of late-nineteenth-century Russia, the play captures the contradictory comedy and tragedy of that chaotic period. Unlike most Taper productions, this one included two well-known actors in its unusually large cast. Annette Bening plays a believable Ranyeskaya, the matriarch of an aristocratic family facing financial ruin. Opposite her, Alfred Molina's Lopakhin has emerged from peasant ancestry to become a successful businessman who, in a delightful twist of irony, winds up purchasing Ranyeskaya's estate at auction - the same estate on which his father and grandfather worked their entire lives as serf slaves. The owned becomes the owner, and vice versa.