Last weekend, we saw a modern adaptation of Moliere's Tartuffe, a hilariously bawdy play about a clever impostor who worms his way into a nobleman's family by acting devoutly religiously, gains the favor of the nobleman, & tricks the gullible sap into giving him the entire estate. We saw this funny play at our neighborhood theatre The Actor's Gang, which is run by actor & director Tim Robbins. It almost went bankrupt last year, but was miraculously saved (by generous donations?). The theatre sits at the corner of Washington Blvd. and Culver Blvd. in a small, beautifully renovated train station.
Yesterday, we returned to the Kirk Douglas Theatre to see Rodger Smith's Juan and John, a one-man, autobiographical story about a young boy's baseball obsession, his dealing with the 1965 violent altercation between San Francisco Giants' star pitcher Juan Marichal and Los Angeles Dodgers star catcher John Roseboro, and his childhood growing up in South Los Angeles during the Watts Riots and Vietnam War. He interviewed both baseball players and write this play using their words and his experiences. It was far more didactic that Robby would have liked. I found it too didactic in some places too, but it was very moving. Stories from the 1960s and '70s are particularly touching to me because I can't imagine the kind of turmoil Americans were going through then - civil rights movement, anti-war movement, Vietnam and napalm. That era presented many defining moments for America.
We have another play to attend at the Kirk Douglas next week. I love not knowing anything about the play before I see it. The experience of witnessing a story unfold with no knowledge of where it's going is such an exhilarating feeling.
