Central Works cooks up a conspiracy
Is the U.S.A. a “vast crypto-fascistic corporate autocracy?” I’m guessing few if any residents of Piedmont would nod yes, but what about residents of Berkeley? The quartet of feisty Berkeley women at the center of Michael Gene Sullivan’s feisty farce, Recipe, now at Central Works in the Berkeley City Club, would howl a vigorous assent.
And they’d do something about it, too.
Just how far-out are these aging radicals? How dedicated? The drill to pay a call on them says it all. Start by ringing the bell. They’ll shout “Power to the people!” through the door, and if you shout back “Death to the Pigs,” they’ll let you in.
In the context of Sullivan’s play, this pair of pass phrases is pretty funny, and I laughed every time they happened. I laughed many other times as well. That’s due to the play’s clever structure and wit, but it’s also due to the five smart women who perform it: Phoebe Moyer as Lillian, Lynne Softer as Helen, Jan Zvaifler as Janice, Tamar Cohen as Ruth and Velina Brown as their not-what-she-seems visitor, Diane. They look like they’re having a great time giving Sullivan’s lines funny twists and spins, and they look like they’re having a great time occupying their roles. Though the quartet of radicals are all on the same page politically, each character is distinct, with quirks of her own, from giggly, marijuana-induced goofiness, to gun-toting, jaw-clenching rage, and each plays off the others in amusing high style.
They’re members of The Morning glory Baking Circle for Revolutionary Self Defense. Each has a baking specialty, and for years they’ve been using the profits from their wares to support left-wing causes. They’re about to bring off a coup–having amassed sixty-two thousand dollars, they mean to send it secretly to Cuba–when their scheme falls apart: their assets are frozen by the Feds. Who ratted them out? Maybe it was the svelte black newswoman, Diane, who has shown up to record an interview with them. She has odd phone conversations, about chickens in boxes. Is she clowning around or is she talking in code?
Might she be a Homeland spy?
Recipe is a cross between Arsenic and Old Lace and knee-jerk leftist radicalism. That radicalism has always been good for a laugh, even for those of us who may share some of its tenets, and Michael Gene Sullivan, who is no stranger to farce (he’s the resident playwright for the SF Mime Troupe), is expert at taking potshots at all kinds of targets. Director Gary Graves shapes his farce deftly, aided by Tammy Berlin (costumes), Gregory Sharpen (sound) Robin Valerie Low (pastries), and Vanessa Ramos, Bert van Aalsburg, Debbie Shelley, Lucas Hatton, Alandra Hileman, Louel Señores. Graves himself did the lighting.
A tasty treat, Recipe plays Thursdays through Sundays until November 23rd. For tickets/information call 558-1381 or visit www.centralworks.org.
–ROBERT HALL