"The Story" and a Few More Stories

Lately, Bob Hurwitt and the Great Plotnik have been disagreeing about plays. Rabbi Sam is a good example. The little man jumped off the chair in Hurwitt's review while Plot and Duck thought it was...pretty good.

But not this time. The Witt and the Plot agree about 'The Story' at SF Playhouse. It's spectacular. You can read the SF Theater Blog Review Here, or go see the little man jumping off his chair in this morning's Daily Dog Walk Bag.

But that wasn't necessarily even the best show of the weekend. The Word for Word performance in Berkeley of Tobias Wolff short stories was brilliant too. (Sadly, that run was a short one and the company is already in France.) The Julia Morgan is always a flashback for Plottie, since he lived just up the block his last year in Berkeley.

Actually, Plot had graduated from Cal by then and was doing his perfunctory year in Graduate School across the Bay at SF State, while continuing to live in his glorious cottage on Garber Street. It was one of those years when Plottie knew perfectly well life was not going to get any better than this and, if he got drafted, a whole lot worse. So, what's the hurry?

He was right and wrong. Life didn't get any more fun, that's for certain, but it did get a lot more interesting. At 22, Plot hadn't been anywhere or done anything yet (though he had gotten maced in a few demonstrations - that counts for something, and there's the "kidnapping" and pie fight, and he had been to NYC on New Years Eve the year before and seen snow for the first time. But he didn't know his world was so small yet. And he hadn't even met his family! HOW CAN THAT BE?)

Plot remembers the hot sun of 1967-68 in South Berkeley, a lazy year, filled with flowers on the table and in the hair. Plot and his room mate Rich played guitar for all the girls and Rich hasn't spoken to Plotnik since. Something happened. Plotnik has never figured it out. But it was either over a guitar solo or a girl, and Plottie thinks he knows who.

But it doesn't really make any sense, does it, after all this time? So last year, out of the blue, he called Rich, who still lives in Berkeley. Rich answered the phone and said, after 40 years: "Plotnik? I'm busy." Must have been the girl.

Plotnik never went to the Julia Morgan when he was in school, even though he passed by it every day, because theater was not in his meager budget then. And even today $40 bucks a ticket, to see 'The Story' at SF Playhouse, is still a lot of bucks. And you're not going to go alone either.

This is, of course, the number one issue with modern theater. It has priced itself just about out of popular consideration. Talk about an age gap? That's why there are more wheel chairs than I-Pods in every major subscription house in America. Live theater may go the way of the songwriter. And that's another story Plotnik has no answer for.