Back to the Theatre

So far this season, I have seen more live theater than in 2020 and 2021 combined. My husband and I are trying to see all of the August Wilson Pittsburgh Cycle, and we added the Marin Theater production of Two Trains Running to our list. The only one we have not seen yet is King Hedley ii. Marin Theater deserves a shout out for mounting many of the local productions of Wilson’s works—maybe they will get to Hedley. A Wilson play is always a whole meal, not a snack—comedy, tragedy, and above all, wonderful language. He is the black Shakespeare.

We also saw Berkeley Repertory Theater’s production of Clyde, by Lynn Nottage, and Paradise Blue at Aurora Theater by Dominique Morisseau. Imagine, two plays by black women in the last few months! Paradise Blue, set in Detroit in in 1949, is part of a trilogy of Detroit plays and the homage to Wilson seemed clear. But there was more emphasis on women characters than in a Wilson play, a welcome change.

Unfortunately, the night we visited Aurora theatre they shut down the production after intermission because of technical issues with sound and lights—it was not a full-scale blackout. We were all disappointed and grumbling, but one audience member asked that the actors come back on stage so that we could applaud them . I was so impressed at her presence of mind, to think of others, when the rest of us were feeling sorry for ourselves. The actors came out and we gave them a standing ovation for the first half.

The actors seemed surprised and delighted at the unexpected curtain call. It changed the mood in the room, to acknowledge that we were all frustrated by the turn of events but we still appreciated each other. Thanks to the technology innovations of the pandemic we were able to stream the second act at home, so we learned what happened. But the experience only underlined how special the experience of live theater remains.