Bay Area Limelight

A play about addiction described as a comedy? I was expecting something depressing but this dark comedy promises hope at the end of the tunnel. Instead of avoiding the stigma of alcoholism, writer Sean Daniels wants us to talk about it and get it out in the open. This attitude is reinforced by Director Lance Gardner, who will soon celebrate 20 years of sobriety. Gardner keeps the play running at a tight pace and the actors are up to it. Benjamin Clark, in his Marin Theatre debut, plays a successful theatre director. His character, Steven, is a high functioning alcoholic who kids himself that his coworkers perceive him as simply quirky. "You’re an artist. You’re expected to be eccentric!" We see Steven introduced to alcohol at the age of 12 and gradually starts getting into trouble. Car crashes, vomiting at the movies, misguided leaps from buildings, the usual teenage stuff. His teenage pals voted him “most likely to exceed.” After one too many car crashes Steven’s parents sen...