Bay Area Limelight

Once upon a time there was a little theater that put on a play weaving together six obscure fairy tales in a delightfully, loose way. The tales, taken from Grimm’s and Andersen’s collections, describe the usual stories of courtship and family ties. Following Theatre Lunatico’s October tradition of productions like Tales from Behind the Basement Door and The Moors , this creative company brings Mary Zimmerman’s playful production, The Secret in the Wings , a performance sprinkled with puns and witticism. Austrian-born American psychologist Bruno Bettleheim theorized that the fantastical nature of these stories is an important device to communicate problems that do not represent a literal or external world, but rather an inner process taking place in a child’s mind. Zimmerman’s version of classic fairy tales is designed to lift your spirits instead of drag you down. A pair of daffy parents are leaving their terrified little girl with a baby sitter. Miss Perry, the ogre. In fact, she’s an...

Written in 1948, Death of a Salesman describing the post-War era pursuit of the American Dream, continues to be produced. Ron Krempetz’s minimalist set design echoes Joe Mielziner's original 1949 set design for Death of a Salesman which revolutionized American theatre through its pioneering use of "selective realism" called "selective minimalism" by Krempetz. Willy Loman, a once successful traveling salesman, has aged and is showing signs of dementia. His previous formula for success – personality, a smile and a shoe shine, it’s not what you know, but who you know – no longer cuts it. He can’t accept that things have changed in the business world. His customers in New England may have loved him, but nobody there knows him anymore. Charles Queary’s Willy is at moments confused, fatigued, angry, and dejected. His delusions and his dreams for his sons stir up a storm in the Loman household, particularly his relationship with his older son Biff (excellent Brennan Pi...