Maggie Greenwald’s Sophie and the Rising Sun is an unconventional period piece about race, public and private spaces, and romance. Set in 1941 in the South, the mysterious arrival of a badly beaten Japanese man disrupts small town life.
Adaptation
Kurzel’s Macbeth emphasizes tone over text
Kurzel takes his cues from the text, but he expresses his ideas about the text through images and sounds — the whistling wind, the clashing swords, and the ghostly hooded figures — rather than through the dialogue. The verse, in Kurzel’s hands, is barely even identifiable as poetry. But what is Shakespeare without the unforgettable language?
Warchus’ ‘Matilda: The Musical’ at SHNSF is a miracle without peer
“My mummy says I’m a miracle! My daddy says I’m his special little guy! I am a princess And I am a prince. Mum says I’m an angel sent down from the sky My daddy says I’m his special little soldier, No one is as handsome, strong as me. It’s true he indulges my tendency […]
Far From the Madding Crowd is a modern romance
Thomas Vinterberg’s film adaptation of Far From The Madding Crowd opens on a long shot of Bathsheba Everdene (a terrific Carey Mulligan) opening the door to a dark barn. Illuminated by just a glimmer of light, she’s dressed sensibly in a leather coat and trousers, readying her horse. In voiceover, she explains that some say she’s […]
Terrific production of ‘Stupid F##king Bird’ proves SF Playhouse has arrived
With its wonderful and often hilarious new production, “Stupid F##king Bird,” Aaron Posner’s modernization of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” directed by Susi Damilano, the San Francisco Playhouse has earned its place as one of the best, major theater companies in the Bay Area. What started as a company that put on amazing productions — with terrific […]
Don’t be fooled by the title, Fifty Shades of Grey is Anastasia’s film
Fifty Shades of Grey is far more interested in Anastasia’s thoughts and conscious decisions than in giving Christian even a semblance of a personality.