Go See Bright River

"The Bright River" is one answer -- there are going to be a lot of answers -- to the question that Plot and Duck ask themselves all the time, as they're sitting in their cushy, complimentary theater seats on Opening Night, watching the audience file in and realizing that they, aging Plotnik and young-but-not-getting-any-younger Ducknik, are perhaps the youngest people in this crowd.

"What will it take to get young people to realize what they're missing with live theater?" is the question. The answer is plays like "The Bright River," an innovative amalgam of concert and performance. Not that it's a perfect show, but it is exciting. Tim Barsky plays five different parts and each one is spellbinding; don't look for an orchestra of violins but instead a beat boxer who plays the microphone.

And this time Plot and Duck were the oldest people there by -- oh, twenty five years? The Brava Theater was packed with people with hair and boots.

And who knew you still have to pay rent, even after you die? Go read the SF Theater Blog review of "The Bright River" here -- pay no attention to the reviewer's personal niggles -- and if you're hanging around the Mission looking for an inexpensive evening that will make you remember that Rodgers and Hammerstein are perhaps not dead but just waiting at the bus station between life and death -- go down to the Brava on 24th and York before February 20. Plottie has spoken.

Plus, you might run into The Great Shutter-nik there. Plot and Duck did.