Local playwright Christopher Chen’s West Coast premiere of “The Hundred Flowers Project,” co-presented by Crowded Fire Theater and Playwrights Foundation, appears to be already under way when the house opens: A small theater company is assembled, kibbutzing, on Maya Linke’s backstage set, which is realistically cluttered with ladders, flats and scaffolding. Read More

“I have to understand why a genius becomes obsessed with mediocrity!” exclaims New York music scholar Katherine Brandt, herself rather obsessive. She is the central figure in Moisés Kaufman’s “33 Variations,” now in a West Coast premiere at TheatreWorks. The title refers to Beethoven’s variations on a simple melody composed by his contemporary, the music publisher Diabelli. Some of that lovely music accompanies the play thanks to musical director William Liberatore on an upstage piano. Read More

As Sharr White’s intense, compact new play, “The Other Place,” proceeds, mysteries deepen. Why is Juliana, a middle-aged research scientist, consulting a doctor; is it true, as she is convinced, that she’s inherited the brain cancer that runs in her family? Who is the woman in the yellow bikini incongruously seated among the doctors attending a medical conference at which Juliana is giving a promotional speech about a new drug — and what exactly is this new drug about anyway? Read More

Just when you think you’ve figured out who the characters are, and what’s going on in Tunisian-Swedish playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s 2011 Obie Award winner “Invasion!” you’re thrown for a loop.The satirical comedy, which premiered in Sweden in 2006, is receiving a buoyant production by Crowded Fire Theater Company under director Evren Odcikin.Woven throughout is the mystery of a quasi-mythological figure called Abulkasem. He’s first referred to by a high school kid who savors the sound of the name, and the word becomes joking, multipurpose slang at his school. Read More

Local playwright Patricia Milton draws from an array of sources — neurological, environmental, literary, pharmaceutical, philosophical — in “Believers,” her new post-apocalyptic comedy. It’s an ambitious choice for Wily West, given that four actors (plus a guitarist on an overhead platform) must squeeze onto a tiny set that encompasses a science lab and a receptionist’s office (Quinn J. Whitaker, lead designer). But director Sara Staley manages the physical logistics well enough. Read More

Here’s the thing about an intense, unrelenting drama that focuses on a power struggle between two people: If the actors are not equally strong, equally adept at dredging up their truest, darkest emotions, equally committed to playing off each other moment by moment, then the dynamic just doesn’t work.Unfortunately, such is the case with Actors Theatre of San Francisco’s production of August Strindberg’s 1888 one-act “Miss Julie.” Read More