I've just returned from the Victoria Theatre, where I had the great pleasure of seeing the Silent Theatre production of Lulu. (Tonight was it's San Francisco debut.) I liked it very much. The acting was terrific, the music superb. And the approach - of staging a play as a silent film, was engaging and clever and well done. Kyla Louise Webb, the young actress who played Lulu, was especially good. I plan to see this production at least once more while it is here in San Francisco.
Before things started, I took a few snapshots outside the theater. There were Lulu posters in the display cases, etc.... Also, parked out front was the theater company tour bus, which they named "Pandora's Bus." According to the play's director, who I had the pleasure of meeting before the play started, the company were touring around San Francisco earlier in the day attracting attention to their production.
I recommend that everyone who has a chance to see this production do so. You will like it. For more info on the company, also check out their MySpace account at www.myspace.com/silenttheatre It has additional pictures, music from the play, and more.
[ A footnote: this production marks a kind of homecoming for Lulu. The German author Frank Wedekind (1864 - 1918) - author of the plays which serve as the basis for this prodction as well as the G. W. Pabst film and Alban Berg opera - was actually conceived in San Francisco. For a time, Wedekind's parents lived in gold rush San Francisco. His mother was a saloon entertainer. And, while she was pregnant with the future writer, Wedekind's parents decided to make a visit to Germany. Benjamin Franklin Wedekind was born there, and the parents stayed put. ]
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