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1st appeared 05 April 2000 NINA'S ARTS NOTES Baskets of Beauty It will be a while before the beloved old de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park is replaced by a bigger, quake-safe, glassy new structure. The adjoining Asian Art Museum will move much sooner to its new home in Civic Center. So do enjoy the museums while they are still only a hop, skip and a springtime lunchtime jump from the Parnassus campus -- or include them on a weekend jaunt. From now until May 7th, the Asian has a fabulous exhibition of Japanese bamboo baskets. They come from the collection of Lloyd Cotsen, a former CEO of Neutrogena, and they are superb examples of form and function becoming art.
Basket-making is a familiar craft in many parts of the world: in ancient Egypt, papyrus reed baskets were built large enough to become seagoing boats. Centuries later, Thor Heyerdahl built one, called Kon Tiki, and attempted to cross the Atlantic. Bamboo, the exclusive food of giant pandas, is also an extraordinarily versatile building material, light yet strong. In certain parts of Japan the shoots are carefully cultivated and grow into tall forests. The master basketmaker's work begins when he selects a tree to be cut and seasoned before he splits and scrapes and skillfully weaves the bamboo into a wonderful variety of sizes and shapes. Such masters often inherit their craft, and a few are given the highest recognition as Living National Treasures. Baskets in the Asian show, which range in color from pale straw to caramel and mahogany, were made mainly for practical purposes such as holding charcoal or flower arrangements -- another famous Japanese artform -- or as creels or crab traps. Some are sturdily woven of bamboo roots and finger-thick stems, and others, such as the one entitled The Shimmering of Heated Air, are as delicate as angel hair. Several are abstract sculptures, fashioned of many hundreds of thin bamboo strips coiled on themselves, like the one called My UFO. There's a video showing how baskets are made and a display of the tools used. A fascinating show, and in adjoining rooms there's another one devoted to contemporary Korean art. The Asian Art Museum in Golden Gate Park is open Tuesday through Sunday 9.30 to 5. The first Wednesday of the month is free and open to 8.45 pm. Information is available at 415/379-8801 and www.asianart.org. * * * * * House of Mirth Built by A.C.T Edith Wharton's novels have
come back into favor and reached wide audiences with the recent TV dramatization
of Ethan Frome and the opulent film of her Pulitzer-prize winning
A new adaptation of Wharton's 1905 best seller, The House of Mirth by Giles Havergal was commissioned by San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater and had its world premiere March 24 at the Geary Theater. Directed by Havergal, this very good play takes a few central characters from one of Wharton's longest and most complex novels and follows their interaction with the ambitious young Lily Bart. Lily was born into upper-crust New York society, as was Edith Jones Wharton herself, but she doesn't really belong. She has been brought up to consider marrying well the chief goal of her life but she is still unmarried at 29 and she has no money, that is, no standing with "the group of idle and dull people that exists in any big and wealthy social body." as Wharton described it. Lily denies her love for a penniless young lawyer, Lawrence Selden, and tries to become independent but finds herself at the mercy of rich and cynical older men as her life slides downward into tragedy. Many women today no longer believe that a good marriage is their be-all and end-all, but some still do. The dresses and coiffures have changed, but Wharton's depictions of hypocrisy and the pressures of convention and materialism are just as true and have just as profound an impact as they had almost a hundred years ago. Once more, Havergal has successfully taken an important literary work from the page to the stage, as he did with Graham Greene's Travels with My Aunt for A.C.T. in 1997. His staging of the Sean O'Casey classic Juno and the Paycock won plaudits here last season. To move in and out of the many scenes and stories in The House of Mirth, Havergal and designer Kate Edmunds use an open stage on two levels, a frame of light curtains, a few chairs and tables brought on as needed, and a single potted palm as symbol of the Gay Nineties opulence embodied in Anna Oliver's elegant period costumes. As Lawrence Selden, J. Paul Boehmer is sincere though restrained until his outburst at the end, an alteration by Havergal since Wharton's characters almost never permit themselves emotional displays. The older men who try to exploit Lily in various ways are well acted by Charles Dean and Charles Lanyer, with Simon West as a pompous arriviste who wants to use her to climb into society. Lorrie Holt is fine as social worker Gerty Farish who tries to help and comfort her cousin Lily; the three society women in double roles who patronize her, known as The Furies, are Dominique Lozano, Maureen McVerry, and Julie Eccles. The part of Lily Bart must be one of the longest on record: she is onstage for almost the entire play and must convey a lifetime of emotions, from frivolity to despair. In casting Roxanne Raja as Lily, A.C.T. has given a big break to a young actress who looks lovely but does not yet have the experience and skill to command her pacing while giving Lily full emotional range. The House of Mirth runs at the Geary Theater until April 23. Charge by phone at 415/749-2250 or contact the box office via email at tickets@act-sfbay.org.
Nina's Not-to-Miss List A personal selection of upcoming San Francisco events:
Love Letters, April 12-23. Film & TV stars Joan Collins and George Hamilton in A.R. Gurney's delightful play about a 50-year relationship, told entirely through letters. Eves & matinees at Marines Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter at Mason. Tickets & Information: tollfree 877-771-6900, BASS outlets, or www.tickets.com. Revealing Bodies, through September 4. At the Exploratorium, one of SF's greatest treasures, a show of particular interest to UCSF faculty and staff. From artists, doctor/artists, photographers, medical anthropologists, and biologists, the Exploratorium's young geniuses have collected and created exhibits and hands-on experiments to provoke new thoughts about our bodies. Exploratorium is under the Palace of Fine Arts Dome at Marina Blvd. & Lyon St. Ample parking. The Exploratorium is open Tues-Sun 10-5, Wed. until 9 pm. Special rates for children; first Wed of month free. Information 415/561-0630 or check the website. The Scarlet Pimpernel, April 5 through 16. Broadway's swashbuckling musical comedy in lavish staging starring Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, a graduate of SF's A.C.T. Eves & Matinees, Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St. at Hyde. Information is available at 415/512-7770 or website. Tickets at box office or Ticketmaster outlets. Legendary Jazz Pianist Marian McPartland, April 15. With veteran Chicago improviser Willie Pickens, the great McPartland concludes SF Performances Jazz series at Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness at Civic Center. Tickets: 415/392-4400 or sfperformances.org. Evelyn Glennie. First Lady of Solo Percussion, April 22. A fabulous performer playing music of many cultures on a vast array of drums & other percussion instruments. SF Performances offers halfprice tickets to students & seniors, subject to availability. Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness at Civic Center. Information 415/392-4400 or sfperformances.org. Playwrights in Danger, April 21-30. Magic Theatre stages readings of controversial plays by eight writers from many lands who endured censorship, imprisonment, torture, even death for their ideas and works. Building D, Fort Mason Center, Marina Blvd. at Buchanan St., 415/441-8822 or www.magictheatre. org. Behind the Veil; The Islamic World in Art and Literature, April 28 & 29, Humanities West two-day program of illustrated lectures about artists who found inspiration in the world of Islam. Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness, Civic Center, Information: 415/391-9700. SF MOMA -- Four current exhibitions at our spectacular Museum of Modern Art: Fact/Fiction: Contemporary Art that Walks the Line, to April 16. Works from the permanent collection explore the fascinating question: What happens when things are not what they appear to be? High-Minded: Conceptual Art in Moving-image Media, to April 25. Photographs of William Gedney, to May 16: In eloquent black & white, 88 memorable, very powerful photographs of urban and rural people in US & elsewhere, including SF's l960s hippie scene. Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective, to May 30. Surveying four decades of work by the pioneer of conceptual art. SF MOMA is at 151 Third St., between Market & Mission; Open every day but Wed. 11-6, Thurs. to 9 PM Nice cafe & one of country's best museum stores. Information: 415/357-4000 or www.sfmoma.org.
Fosse, April 26 - May 27. Exciting dances by famed choreographer Bob Fosse featuring highlights from his Broadway and Hollywood career. Show won three 1999 Tony Awards. Orpheum Theatre, Market at Hyde Street. Eves & Matinees. Information 415/551-2000 or http://bestofbroadwaysf.com. Ticketmaster 415/512-7770. Wit, May 3-28. Play about people living with critical illness won Pulitzer Prize for first-time playwright Margaret Edson and raves from critics and audiences. Emmy-awarded Judith Light gives a poignant, galvanizing performance. Curran Theater, 445 Geary. Eves & Matinees; Information and Tickets as above. STOMP, May 2 through May 31. International percussion sensation which has toured over 100 cities hits SF with its eight young performers who "make a rhythm out of anything we can get our hands on that makes a sound." Marines Memorial Theatre. 609 Sutter at Mason. Information toll-free 877/771-6900. Tickets through BASS or www.tickets.com. The Art of Making Art - A Celebration of Stephen Sondheim, until June 30. Exhibition honoring composer/lyricist Sondheim's 70th birthday year at PALM, SF Performing Arts LIbrary & Museum, 401 Van Ness Avenue, Civic Center, until June 30, 2000. Free. Tues-Sat 11-5, Wed until 7 pm. Information: 415/255-4800. A San Francisco resident for 20 years, Nina Beckwith is a longtime arts writer and music critic and a former Time magazine overseas correspondent. She was founding editor of the UC Berkeley Library newsletter Bene Legere and worked for six years with the late Dr. Peter Ostwald, Director of the UCSF Health Program for Performing Artists. |
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The
Age of Innocence, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jeremy Irons. But Wharton's
witty and penetrating portraits of American society in the years around
1900 have always retained their loyal admirers, one of whom, Gore Vidal,
called her the greatest American woman writer.
Bach's
St. John Passion by the Philharmonia Baroque. April 14 in
SF (April 8-15 in other Bay Area locations.) Bach's glorious and powerful
Passion oratorio conducted by Nicholas McGegan with firstrate soloists,
including father-and-son duo Gary and John Relyea, and the Philharmonia
Chorale. Information available at 