Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 5:00 – 8:00 PM

[NOTE: For those unfamiliar with Frida Kahlo’s life, this review may contain plot spoilers.]

If Howard Zinn penned “People’s Histories” and Oliver Stone filmed “Untold Histories,” Latinx playwright Odalys Nanin’s modus operandi is to write (or rewrite?) allegedly biographical plays about famous women revealing their same sex affairs. I previously saw Nanin’s stage exposes purporting that Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe indulged in Sappho hanky-panky. Some may regard this as a breakthrough, disclosing the hitherto concealed, unvarnished lesbian truth. Some may react with puritanical disbelief and outrage that their beloved sex goddess has been thusly tarred and defamed. Still others could respond with a collective yawn, musing “that’s so 20th century” and “so what? Who Cares?” Take your pick.

Monday, February 17, 2020, 6:00 – 9:00 PM

Rogue Machine’s West Coast premiere of award winning British playwright Mike Bartlett’s Earthquakes in London is, according to Rogue’s artistic director and the drama’s co-director John Perrin Flynn, “quite simply, the best play I have read about global warming.” This three hour-ish, UK-set tour-de-force takes a deep dive into the pressing subject of climate - as well as family - crisis. It is an epic play that goes back and forth in time and is mainly for more daring theatergoers and environmentalists who take their drama and politics seriously.

With the caveat that said ticket buyers have slept well the night before and hence can be very alert and pay close attention to the complex characters and storylines that shift on theatrical tectonic plates. For example, the pivotal role of the climate scientist father, Robert, is played by Paul Stanko as a young man and then in his maturity by Ron Bottitta. Robert is being wooed by energy companies, so we see him

before and after - but this might confuse some viewers.

Alfred Molina renders a devastating depiction of dementia in Florian Zeller’s award winning The Father. Ably directed by Jessica Kubzansky, this one-act Alzheimer-palooza is staged in what is usually described as a “cinematic” way, with intercutting and perhaps even montage used to indicate Andre’s (Molina) increasingly fragmented, confused perception of reality. The lighting and sound designers, respectively Elizabeth Harper and John Zalewski, adroitly enhance the loss of his bearings, with David Meyer’s shape shifting sets adding to Andre’s sense of mental mayhem.

At one point race is effectively used for shock value - not in a cultural, ethnic sense but in a visual way that jolts the senses. Andre is also always looking for his watch, which he accuses caregivers (as a convenient ruse to sack them, so he can maintain his ephemeral sense of independence) and others of stealing. But in contrast to, say, Rolexes, Andre’s watches are more akin to Salvador Dali’s melting timepieces, symbolizing the distortion of the passage of time.