IN THE WAKE OF A PRIME POLITICAL PLAY 
                                              By Georgia Rowe
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area theater, music and dance 
                                                                 Week of May 26-June 3, 2010
                                                                  Vol. 12, No. 104
        BERKELEY---Anyone wondering when the 21st century’s first important play on American politics will arrive should head to Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where “In the Wake” is receiving its world premiere production.  Lisa Kron’s well-crafted contemporary drama fuses the personal and political with much of the same deft brilliance that illuminated Tony Kushner’s 20th century masterpiece, “Angels in America.”
            If Kron, the Obie-Award-winning playwright of “Well” and “2.5 Minute Ride,” hasn’t employed the broad historical scope that distinguished Kushner’s work, she does manage to probe the unique character of the American left, in all its unshaken assumptions and crippling blind spots, with remarkable precision.  Ellen (Heidi Schreck), the play’s central character, is a New York writer obsessed with politics.  A self-described expert on infrastructure, she can argue the finer points of everything from election fraud to strip malls with utter certainty.
            Her personal infrastructure isn’t quite as secure.  As the play opens – on Thanksgiving Day, 2000 – Ellen can hardly tear herself away from CNN reports of Bush’s election to focus on the holiday.  In subsequent scenes, Kron demonstrates how Ellen’s beliefs begin to imperil her closest relationships: with her devoted boyfriend, Danny (Carson Elrod); with Kayla (Andrea Frankle) and Laurie (Danielle Skraastad), the married couple who live downstairs; and with her friend Judy (Deirdre O’Connell) an aid worker who’s just returned from Africa.  Kron ups the ante with the introduction of a filmmaker (Emily Donahoe as Amy) powerfully attracted to Ellen, and Judy’s Midwestern niece (Miriam F. Glover as Tessa), whose nascent politics are diametrically opposed to Ellen’s world view.
            Director Leigh Silverman, aided by designers David Korins (sets), Meg Neville (costumes), Alexander V. Nichols (lighting) and Cricket S. Myers (sound), bring the play to vivid life in Ellen’s tenement apartment.  The scenes are punctuated by black-and-white projections of news footage from the Bush II era, and moments when Ellen steps forward to deliver monologues on the state of her own crumbling convictions.  The cast is uniformly strong.  Schreck’s Ellen is simultaneously maddening and sympathetic, with the comic warmth of Elrod’s Danny supplying excellent counterpoint. 
            But it’s O’Connell’s Judy who makes the most potent impression.  Her Act II confrontation with Ellen seems to strip away all that’s rigid and self-serving about American politics.  In that gripping scene, “In the Wake” is a play for anyone who’s ever yelled at the TV news – or found themselves unable to look away.
            “In the Wake” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison Street, Berkeley, through June 27.  Two hours, 45 minutes, with one intermission.  For info: 510-647-2949, or go online. 
        ©Georgia Rowe 2010
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            Georgia Rowe is a Bay Area arts writer. Her work has appeared in Opera News, the San Francisco Examiner, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Contra Costa Times in addition to artssf.com.     These critiques appearing several times weekly focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well. <>          
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