Reviewed by Judy Richter
After four years in development,
the ambitious "The Tosca Project" has received its world premiere from American
Conservatory Theater.
Created and staged by ACT artistic director Carey Perloff and San Francisco Ballet choreographer Val Caniparoli, it's set in a legendary night
spot in San Francisco's North Beach. Running about 90 minutes without
intermission, it traces the history of the Tosca Cafe, which was a favorite
hangout of celebrities and others from all walks of life.
It
opens shortly after the end of World War I and touches upon intervening eras
until the catastrophic Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. Actors and dancers trace
this history in a virtually wordless story told through music and dance from
each period. Aided by Robert de La Rose's costumes, the performers portray an array of
characters and enact short vignettes from the flapper era, Depression, World
War II, the Beatniks, hippies and the disco era. Music from Puccini's "Tosca" is used throughout the
show, mainly to convey the Bartender's feelings about his former lover.
Three
actors anchor the production with Jack Willis portraying the lovelorn
Bartender, Gregory Wallace as an on-the-lam Musician who gets a job there, and Rachel
Ticotin as the
Immigrant who eventually buys the bar. She's based on two actual women. One of
them is the late Armen Baliantz, an Armenian who found her way to San Francisco and
opened the popular Bali's restaurant in North Beach. Known as Madam Bali, she
and many of her customers also patronized Tosca Cafe. The other is Baliantz's
daughter, Jeannette Etheredge, who bought the cafe in 1981 and remains its owner
today.
The
seven-member ensemble features Sabina Allemann, retired SFB dancer and dance
captain for this show; Peter Anderson, playwright and actor; Lorena Feijoo and Pascal Molat, SFB principal dancers. Sara
Hogrefe and Kyle
Schaefer, actors
who trained at ACT; and Nol Simonse, a dancer with several San Francisco companies.
Understudy Jud Williford serves as fight captain.
Although
each historical era is easily recognizable through costumes, music (sound by Darron
L West) and
dance, some of the real-life characters portrayed might be harder to identify
for someone who isn't familiar with San Francisco lore. I thought I caught
sight of a young Herb Caen, the late San Francisco Chronicle columnist who often
wrote about the cafe and who coined the term "Beatnik". Another
possible spotting was Carol Doda, known for topless dancing at the nearby Condor Club.
Others who were more recognizable to me are Russian dancers Natalia Makarova and Rudolf Nureyev. Beat poet Lawrence
Ferlinghetti,
founder of the neighboring City Lights Bookstore, is shown reading one of his
poems.
Complemented
by Robert Wierzel's
lighting, Douglas W. Schmidt's set evokes the cafe with its long wooden bar on one
side and a jukebox on the other. The cast is excellent, with each performer
creating individualized characters throughout the show. The ensemble does most
of the dancing, but the three actors also do some dancing.
People
going to "The Tosca Project" expecting to see a work with a strong
narrative line are likely to be disappointed, especially if they don't read the
scenario in the program beforehand. The first few scenes might find them trying
to figure out what's happening in the overall scheme of things even though the
passage of time is clearly delineated. Then after a while, they might just sit
back and enjoy the terrific dancing along with the little stories within the
story.
Because
this show is so specific to San Francisco, it's hard to imagine it going
elsewhere. In the meantime, there's much to enjoy, especially for longtime San
Franciscans.