“It’s all a little complicated,” says the Old Man (James Carpenter) to the Student (Carl Holvick-Thomas) in the first of three scenes that compose August Strindberg’s 1907 “The Ghost Sonata,” now at Cutting Ball Theater.
The Old Man is alluding to the interwoven and torturous relationships among the inhabitants of a mansion whose facade stretches across the shallow stage in designer Michael Locher’s effective, moveable set.
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The clipped, repetitive banalities exchanged by the middle-aged couple in the first half of Scottish playwright Linda McLean’s “Any Given Day” recall, in some ways, the dialogue in the mid-20th-century plays of Eugene Ionesco or Harold Pinter. “Jackie wouldn’t come in the dark,” says Bill.“No no,” says Sadie. “She couldn’t come in the dark.”“Don’t worry.”“We couldn’t open the door in the dark.”“No.”“Not once it’s dark.”
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It’s the superb acting, Leslie Martinson’s lively direction and the highly polished production values that stand out in TheatreWorks’ West Coast premiere of “The Pitmen Painters.” In the cast of eight, every role is played to perfection, but how can you go wrong with such established local actors as Dan Hiatt, James Carpenter, Paul Whitworth, Marcia Pizzo and others?
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In “Titus Andronicus,” revenge doesn’t just mean an eye for an eye. Tongues, hands, heads and lives are sacrificed in Shakespeare’s grisly tragedy set during the final days of the Roman Empire.
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“The Dresser” requires nothing less than two outstanding actors, and the new San Jose Repertory Theatre production has two of the Bay Area’s finest.James Carpenter and Ken Ruta are featured in Rick Lombardo’s faithful revival of Ronald Harwood’s backstage drama about an aging Shakespearean actor and the dresser who’s spent 16 years serving him.Gloom pervades Lombardo’s production, set in 1942 in a theater near London.
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Themes in Henrik Ibsen’s 1896 drama “John Gabriel Borkman” are wildly relevant today. The title character’s grandiose thinking and illegal financial schemes resulted in lost fortunes, not just for business investors but for family members, who, years later, continue to reel in the wake of the devastation.
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