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.
The Monkey King world premiere at SF Opera
It’s hard to imagine any part of the world where cultural allusions are more hegemonized than in the West. Everything is a naked Judeo-Christian reference. There have been plenty of great stories told with Western tropes, but it doesn’t take too long before everyone in the entire world feels they’ve heard the same story ad nauseum. It says something that few noticed how California just become the first to make Diwali an official state holiday—and of course the entire US economy revolves around a Christian holiday at the end of December.
One of the benefits of growing up in California is being exposed to diversity on a regular basis, yet my first exposure to the Chinese Buddhist folktale of the Monkey King was probably through Gene Luen Yang’s book American Born Chinese. It’s an intriguing myth that finds its way into countless Chinese and Chinese-American stories (and one of arts editor Marke B.’s favorite ’70s kid action-adven showsture).
So, when it came time to tell it as epic opera The Monkey King (world premiere through November 30 at the War Memorial Opera House, SF), SF Opera pulled no less than multi-Pulitzer-nominee David Henry Hwang to write the libretto, with music by Huang Ruo.
The story of the eponymous king (Chinese tenor Kang Wang) is a tale of understandable hubris and inevitable come-uppance. After being born from a stone, he heads his fellow monkeys to safety from the world’s many predators, leading them to make him “The Handsome Monkey King.” (“I added the ‘handsome’ part myself.”) Now both hero and monarch, he’s as narcissistic as he is powerful, challenging enemies great and small. It’ll take nothing less than Buddha himself (South Korean baritone Jusung Gabriel Park) to teach the Monkey King a lesson that may take centuries to learn.
No expense was spared for this production. It’s lavish, even by SF Opera standards. With intricate set design by legendary puppeteer Basil Twist, creative projections by Hana S. Kim, and athletic choreography by Ann Yee, the show is nothing if not a spectacle. Yet, it’s not Wagner, which is to say that it isn’t trying to drown you in sounds and fury. Despite all the accusations of the company pandering to Chinese money, there’s a legitimate artistic drive behind this show. The greatest strength of The Monkey King is that it insists the audience do the same as its title character: Stop and ponder what place you have amongst all around you.
As I was watching the show via livestream, there were no CO² readings to take, though I will say I only noticed a handful of masked faces during the pre-show lobby footage. Still, the Opera House tends to have top-notch HVAC.
Whether The Monkey King opera is new to you or a story you’ve grown up with, SF Opera pulled out all the stops to present it with the epic scale it deserves. At two and a half hours, it doesn’t overstay its welcome either. If anything, it ends with an encouraging message of why looking within is more valuable than anything without.
THE MONKEY KING’s world premiere runs through November 30 at the War Memorial Opera House, SF. Tickets and further info here.
Mother of Exiles world premiere at Berkeley Rep
I utterly despise corporate turns-of-phrase, but I find myself unable to describe Jessica Huang’s Mother of Exiles (world premiere through December 21 at Berkeley Rep) without using the cringe-inducing term “compliment sandwich.” Huang’s three-act play is actually two heart-breaking dramas about the immigrant experience with a god-awful sitcom smooshed in-between.
The first act finds us on Angel Island circa 1898. Pregnant Chinese immigrant “Eddie” (Michele Selene Ang) travelled across the world in male drag in order to find work in this supposed “land of plenty.” She’s being quarantined before she’s shipped back to mainland China, so she leaves her new child in the land that she hopes will offer better opportunities. By 1999, her half-Latine descendant Braulio (Ricardo Vázquez) makes his living as, of all things, a border agent on the Miami Coast. When the story jumps ahead to 2063, Braulio’s own descendants are forced to flee what’s left of Florida due to climate devastation.
The juxtaposition of the Angel Island experience with a speculative “climate refugee” story is as gripping as it is inspired. The play’s third act takes an apocalyptic tone that reveals how trivial and hypocritical map lines really are. Even using supernatural elements (characters hold literal conversations with the spiritual ancestors), it’s grounded in an unsettling realism that makes you want to pull for the characters.
Except in Act II. The play’s midsection is inexplicably played as a slapstick comedy, complete with characters hiding behind objects to make over-the-top expressions. Perhaps there’s a context where this could actually work, but sandwiched between two dramatic acts isn’t it. Without the emphasized lineage, you’d never know this was part of the same show. It should be swept away like the coastline in her final act.
There were very few masks on opening night, but Berkeley Rep’s ever-impressive HVAC made sure my Aranet4 never picked up CO² levels above 1,009ppm. The production’s final mask-required show will be on November 30.
MOTHER OF EXILES’ world premiere runs through December 21 at Berkeley Rep. Tickets and further info here.
Shotgun Players present Sunday in the Park with George
Shakespeare isn’t the only one to write “problem plays.” As much as any artist can appreciate the representation in Sunday in the Park with George (through January 25 at the Ashby Stage, Berkeley), it’s the Sondheim show that overstays its welcome.
One is tempted to think that it’s part of the artistic representation, with an artist believing every word is precious, but the reality is that Sondheim and librettist James Lapine just didn’t know when to stop in their dramatization of pointillist painter Georges Seurat. There are some well-aged comments about the intersection of art and commerce, and the cast is game, but the musical’s progenitors start to become as self-congratulatory as the characters they lampoon. The two are giants in the world of musical theatre, but this is not their masterpiece.
CO² levels peaked around 3,775ppm by the end of the two-act show. The production’s only mask-required performance will be on Sunday, December 14th. Unlike previous Shotgun productions, there’s no On-Demand stream scheduled.
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE runs through January 25, 2026 at the Ashby Stage, Berkeley. Tickets and further info here.
Oakland Theater Project presents Cabaret
OTP’s production of Cabaret (through December 14 at FLAX art & design, Oakland) may be—and I never thought I’d ever say this—too punk for its own good. That may be odd, considering how it remixes Kander & Ebb’s soundtrack through an EDM lens. But the leather-heavy, super-queer aesthetic leaves little doubt as to what genre inspired it.
Unfortunately, it’s also punk in that it’s more concerned with shouting than having a clear message. Not all punk can be Dead Kennedys, but there’s an hypocrisy to your show excoriating Nazis only to incorporate music by Nazi-lover Kanye West.
Working in the show’s favor is Sarah Phykitt’s angled set, the seamless transplanting into modern day while retaining the original dialogue, the jaw-dropping pipes of Sharon Shao as Sally Bowles, and the cold flexibility of Megan Trout as antagonist Ernst. Even incorporating audience members has a natural flow to it. Yet, the “funhouse mirror” aspect begins to work against the message of the original text.
The curtain speech mentioned that an undescribed cast illness eliminated previews, making opening night the ensemble’s first proper performance. There were a small-but-noticeable number of masked audience members, and CO² levels peaked around 2,070ppm. The only masked performance will be on Friday, November 28.
It’s impossible to watch this show without thinking of OTP’s last show to cover similar material. Where that show was quiet, this one is loud to a fault. There are a great many times when one wants to scream with it, but the show is weighed down by its own noise.
CABARET runs through December 14 at FLAX art & design, Oakland. Tickets and further info here.
