Bay Area Limelight

This farce could not have played at a more appropriate time. Dolly Parton’s theme song to the film Nine to Five , where the women are working for an incompetent jerk, could have been used in this play. A sharp exchange between Michelle Rabkin’s Harriet, the president’s Chief of Staff and Karla Acosta Ormond’s Jean, his jaded Press Secretary, starts things off. Jean is doing damage control. Potus, who we never see, has described the first lady’s mood with the c-word, within hearing of the press. Chief of Staff Harriet is responsible for solving all the problems like this inside the West Wing and around the world. There are no specific administrations referred to, but a little bit of this and a little bit of that let our imaginations run wild. A disjointed beginning looking like a series of black out skits opens the play. In a farce about women holding things together for the men running the show, it works better when we see more of the cast. Feisty Raven Douglas plays Chris, a White Hou...

Power and politics are evident in the hilarious ongoing argument which opens The Prince Part 2 between Machiavelli, this time played with aplomb by Mark Farrell, and Leonardo, humorous Michael Ray Wisely, regarding the mess of the water system’s trenches in Pisa. Machiavelli, ever the diplomat, tries to get Leonardo to come up with a solution and Leonardo complains that they didn’t follow his specifications so it’s not his fault. There is lots of clever banter here, one of playwright Graves’ strengths, as Leonardo negotiates for expenses for himself and his entire family.  Sound familiar? Reflections on a reflecting pool? Machiavelli’s engagement of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonorroti to create a wall-sized painting of the Battle of Cascina pits the two artists, one older, the other in his prime, in a furious competition. Brennan Pickman-Thoon’s rebellious Michelangelo won’t work on a schedule. Leonardo sees it as a recruitment tool. These two characters came alive in a w...