This is Drama Masks, a Bay Area performing arts column from a born San Franciscan and longtime theatre artist in an N95 mask. I talk venue safety and dramatic substance, or the lack thereof.
Sqream at Oasis
There’s a lot about Sqream (through November 7 at Oasis, SF) that works in its favor: the production design is amazing; the subject matter is ripe for lampooning; and the cast are committed 110%. Yet, the one major thing working against this drag horror musical parody of the ‘90s slasher is that it doesn’t seem all that interested in its subject so much as the era in which it premiered.
It starts out an absolute high note, with Oasis’ lobby crudely-yet-intricately transformed into the home of bobcut-blonde ingenue Drew Buriedmore (Evian) just as she’s ready to make it a Blockbuster night. That’s when she gets a call on her large, clunky phone from some mouth-breathing masked killer who quizzes her on mid-‘90s pop music before he shows her the wrong end of his butcher knife. It’s a hilarious kick-off that not only has Ghostface dancers prancing around audience members, but also has a firm grasp on the genre being spoofed.
But playwright Michael Phillis doesn’t show much interest in satirizing the slasher in the following scenes. Instead, Sqream is an extended parody of TGIF sitcoms that’s less Scream and more Saved by the Bell. yet the show is preceded by a montage of gruesome horror footage from genre staples like Waxwork and the Hellraiser flicks. Why Phillis doesn’t go all-in on the cliche-ridden genre is anyone’s guess.
Granted, there are several points where characters acknowledge they’re in a play riffing on a movie that riffed on several other movies. Perhaps he thought there was nowhere else to take the material, but that just raises the question of why to pick Scream in the first place? After all, it didn’t stop the Scary Movie folks.
Still, the cast go all-in on their parody characters of the virginal Neve Sidney Campbell Prescott (Lisa Frankenstein), the obnoxious Randall Jamie Kennedy (Coco Merrell), and super-bitch reporter Courtney Love-Cocks (Evian). They take to the Clinton-era cover songs and network TV-style shenanigans with just the right over-the-top affinity to keep the audience hooked on their every word. Hell, you may be surprised at how much you actually root for them to survive the carnage.
The only thing close to a real scare was seeing how high CO² levels got at Oasis. My Aranet4 peaked around 2,314ppm before dropping down to 2,165ppm by the final bow.
Sqream is a good way to show off all the tools Oasis has at its disposal: the amazing designers, the pitch-perfect cast, and a pre-show go-go dance set to Janet Jackson’s “Black Cat.” Had the show proper stayed on subject, it would have had that going for it, too.
SQREAM runs through November 7 at Oasis, SF. Tickets and further info here.
African-American Shakespeare Company presents The Brothers Size
There’s an odd sense of comfort to be found in The Brothers Size (through November 1 at Theater 33, SF). That may seem an odd choice of words, given how its characters seem to be trapped in an almost Kafka-esque set of circumstances. Still, there’s something reassuring about the allusions playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney weaves into his script. The nods to Yoruba deities, classic Black soul, and even self-hating Blackness (via law enforcement, no less) are oddly reassuring in this Southern Gothic story.
Ogun Size (Gary Moore) owns the auto body shop that he hopes will keep his recidivist brother Oshoosi (Judge Cantrell) out of trouble for once in his life. That isn’t likely, given Oshoosi’s lack of interest in the work and the sudden appearance of his handsome, charismatic, fellow-ex-con friend Elegba (Brandon Milligan). On the surface, it’s the classic “my brother’s keeper” story with Oshoosi as Ogun’s cross to bear after the death of their mother.
Beyond that, McCraney’s script is a rebuke to the condescending idea of hard work being all one needs to overcome the hand life’s dealt them. That’s an idea born of privilege and promoted by those who either don’t know better or gain power from repeating the lie. The eponymous brothers know that the only guarantee in their life is one another, for better and for worse. That’s how the road to Hell ends up paved with the best of intentions.
I caught the show during a sparsely-attended matinee, so CO² levels were noticeably lower than what they likely would have been. They peaked around 686ppm during the 90-min. show, dropping down to 660ppm by the final bow.
Under the guidance Af-Am Shakes’ own James Mercer II (who also directed last year’s fantastic production of Les Blancs for OTP), The Brothers Size takes on a dreamlike quality that never loses its sense of grounding. It’s almost as if the characters themselves are unable to wake up from the dark fantasy in which they find themselves, and it’s almost perverse how easily we leave them there when the show is over. Dealing with family is often both boon and burden, but watching it makes for compelling drama.
THE BROTHERS SIZE runs through November 1 at Theater 33, SF. Tickets and further info here.
Golden Thread’s ReOrient 2026
I didn’t expect a MENA-centric collection of shorts to open with a boner joke, but here we are. Golden Thread’s 2026 ReOrient Festival (through November 1 at the Potrero Stage, SF) takes its characters through many irreverent and unconventional directions, most of them overtly comedic (a teenage girl has her first real crush, a cab driver laments the slim-pickin’s on Tinder in Gaza, a Palestinian actor ponders the gift and curse of working regularly in Israeli film and television).
Yet the humor is often gallows-oriented before shirking any laughs at all. Death waits in every story like a shark waiting to strike. Whether it comes from the totalitarian government of Iran or the genocidal government of Israel, the characters of the eight short plays find themselves in a constant state of alert that things can take a turn at any moment. It’s as enlightening a look into the lives of MENA characters as it is heart-breaking.
All of the plays in this year’s two-hour collection are astounding in how they all weave comedy and tragedy as intricately as threads in a quilt. It’s as entertaining as it is humanizing, and a fine example as to why Golden Thread existence has become all the more necessary over its 30-year lifespan. (Co-founder Torange Yeghiazarian attended the opening performance.) Given how most folks’ idea of the Middle East comes from skewed headlines—often the result of violence paid for with US tax dollars—supporting a genuinely great show like ReOrient serves as a great alternative.
The opening-night near-full house came with rather “normal” CO² levels (or maybe my expectations have skewed after six years?), with my Aranet4 peaking 1,608ppm in the second act.
REORIENT 2026 runs through November 1 at the Potrero Stage, SF. Tickets and further info here.
