Randy Reyes and Kim Kivens in The Guthrie presentation of a Mu Performing Arts production of Yellow Face, by David Henry Hwang.  Photo by Michal Daniel.

David Henry Hwang calls the question very early in Yellow Face (produced by the always worthwhile Theatre Mu in the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio, through Feb 21, guthrietheater.org): "Is race a meaningless construct?" Who, the play asks, is more authentically Chinese? The successful American whose Chinese ancestry is impeccable or the white man who travels to China and spends months in a small village, surrounding himself with the rich language and culture? Indeed, what is ethnicity? The way we look? Allegiance to a country? Politics? Does it come down to, simply, what we believe about ourselves? But what about the beliefs of the people who look at us? 

This is a complicated and hugely important question here in the age of Obama and without providing us with easy answers (an impossibility), Hwang asks it often and in many ways. This fascinating play struts and frets, sometimes a comedy, sometimes a radical melodrama, sometimes proceeding with Living Newspaper theatricality. The major character is David Henry Hwang (called DHH). Initially, the play deals with the Miss Saigon controversy (in which the producer chose to cast a white actor as a Vietnamese) and then with DHH’s unwitting (or is it?) use of a white actor as the lead in his Face Value. His reaction to the disturbing implication of this becomes increasingly hysterical. Rather less successfully, the play deals with the Wen Ho Lee controversy (the Chinese scientist falsely, as it turned out, accused of espionage), with cynical GOP politicians questioning the provenance of political donations. A rich, sprawling play. Self-referential (obviously) but also smart and passionate and probing. Hwang’s dramaturgical instincts are excellent and the piece moves forward with assurance.

Luckily for us, the play has a gorgeous emotional center: the relationship between DHH and his father, the successful California banker Henry Yuan Hwang. HYH anchors his often excitable son, providing him (and us) with a comic foil and wonderful emotional richness. At the end, when HYH tells his son that he’s dying, David reacts by placing a quiet hand on his father’s shoulder. Understated and intense, this is terrific acting and writing. Very moving. Both actors, Randy Reyes as DHH and Kurt Kwan as HYH are wonderful, amiable, understated yet fiercely intelligent. They make the play work. 

For this reviewer, though, the revelation was Matt Rein as Marcus G, the white actor who recasts himself as Asian, playing leads, first in DHH’s spectacular flop Face Value and, later, in The King And I. Rein is marvelously effective, never cynical or self-centered, the purest artist in the play. Great stuff.

All the performers in the ensemble (Wade Vaughn, Rose Le Tran, Allen Malicsi, Erika Danielle Crane, Kim Kivens, Don Eitel) are top notch. Rick Shiomi directs with a sure hand and with an excellent group of designers: Joseph Stanley (sets), Wu Chen Khoo (lights), Forest Godfrey (sound) and Cana Potter (costumes). His plays always display delicate but undeniable power. 

So check this one out. It will be a fascinating contrast to Hwang’s glitzy M. Butterfly, to be produced in April on the G’s big Wurtele Stage. The latter play is more commercial, more successful; but this, I will bet, is the one that will stay with you.   

Michelle O’Neill (Lady Macbeth) and Erik Heger (Macbeth) start in Shakespeare’s MACBETH.  Photo by Michal Daniel.

As my companion pointed out, one of the enduring pleasures of Macbeth (on the Guthrie’s Wurtele Stage, through April 3, guthrietheater.org) is that it’s so much fun. A tragedy to be sure, and stern academicians will parse the deep meaning of the blood imagery, the rich broken iambic of the language, the complex clashing ambitions of the principals. All valid, but let’s not forget that Shakespeare was, essentially, devising an entertainment. The play features gore-fouled daggers, exuberant sword-fights, the weïrd (the umlaut is the Guthrie’s) witches and, of course, the homicidal bedroom murmurings of Mr. and Mrs. Macbeth (Erik Heger and Michelle O’Neill), arguably the creepiest couple in the canon. 

Director Joe Dowling does fun beautifully. The G’s website warns us of "graphic violence" and here the production doesn’t stint, with a wild opening combat, the bizarre witches, fun-loving assassins (they enjoy slicing throats a bit too much), a gorgeously staged final fight. The play moves quickly, at a bladder-busting intermissionless two hours. Set/costumes designer Monica Frawley creates a dusty broken down ballroom, filled with concrete junk, and everything takes place in this backdrop. With the able assistance of lighting designer Frances Aronson, composer Adam Wernick and sound designer Scott W. Edwards, she creates a perfect environment for this gorgeously bloody show.  

The production slights somewhat the trembling and potent eroticism of the initial interplay between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Dowling does this perhaps in the interest of moving things briskly. However, as a result, the murder of Duncan isn’t quite as powerful, or as much fun, as it might otherwise be. Still, it plays reasonably well and once Duncan is dispatche the play takes off. Heger’s brittle, hallucinating Macbeth works – his descent into madness is simultaneously frightening and comic. The banquet scene, with Banquo’s ghost (how did they sneak him in?) is great. Ditto O’Neill’s "Out, damn spot" speech; I’ve never seen this done better. 

The famous "Burnam Wood" scene is given a masterful staging, with demonic children rising up out the smoking earth, the three witches bunched together in the throes of bizarre visions, Macbeth writhing with the power of it all. Yum. 

As is always the case at the Guthrie, the acting is first rate. Space limitations keep me from waxing enthusiastic about everyone; still, I have to single out for praise Bill McCallum’s lovely understated Banquo. And, of course, the sisters (Barbara Byrne, Isabell Monk O’Connor and Suzanne Warmenen) are terrific. 

It’s a great play, one of Shakespeare’s most accessible, and this staging, if not absolutely perfect, is very good. 

Photo courtesy of James Sewell Ballet

The Twin Cities premier Ballet Institution, The James Sewell Ballet Company, presented its newest season performance this past weekend, The Ballet Works Project. The new endeavor is a collection of forward-thinking pieces by local choreographers Hijack and Nicholas Lincoln (who is also a JSB dancer) as well as company founder Sewell himself. 

The first work, “At Best and at Best, Relationships are Marginal,” an avant garde piece that draws inspiration from the writing methods of poet Richard Hugo as well as the painter Mark Tansey’s “obsessive” creative process.   The performance is painstakingly stitched together by Hijack’s creative duo Kristin Van Loon & Arwen Wilder, and each dancer’s movement has been carefully discussed and pored over.   The result is somewhat disjointed, with each mover’s individual acts never really seeming to gain any sort of cohesiveness with each other. Perhaps this was the point though, since the title of the piece does in fact seem to imply that relationships are marginal. The original score is mostly lifted from the History Channel’s documentation of the moving of the historic Shubert Theater, which presents an interesting if somewhat dry accompaniment. 

“Dance Forms” is a slightly more orthodox work, and features a two part dance, a piece structured on musical forms set to the jazz of Henri Mancini, as well as a “pedestrian movement” set to Air’s “How Does it Make You Feel.” Perhaps more than any other piece, “Dance Forms” takes advantage of the dancer’s natural fluidity and grace – whether their movements are derived from the musical structure’s of Mancini’s compositions or the more everyday life aspects of the latter piece. 

Shannon Cristie’s “Embodied Movement” is next, a work that Cristie (a movement therapist) developed as an integrated therapeutic/performance piece. While the word “chakra” is never mentioned (perhaps to avoid negative connotation with new age medicine) “Embodied Movement” definitely embodies the root, heart, and crown chakras. Cristie’s depiction of the body’s “energy centers” begins with a fast paced movement denoting the body’s spiritual potential, while the heart chakra piece slows down to a more sensual, deliberate rhythm. Finally, the dancers all become one fluid group – demonstrating the crown chakra, the attainment of enlightenment or “pure consciousness.” 

Lastly, JSB dancer Nicholas Lincoln’s premiere “Unraveling What Binds” finished the evening out with a stylized piece that involved the intercommunication of several suited dancers, first hassling and bumping into each other, then slowly sanding off their interactions’ rough edges (as well as removing the dancers’ clothes) until at the end they are rebirthed as a less antagonistic group.   In some ways Lincoln’s piece was very similar to Cristie’s, however with less focus on the spiritual than the physical.

As they have proved time and again, the James Sewell Ballet is a reliable producer of creative and boundary pushing talent. The material of Ballet Works is yet another entry in that tradition of excellence.           

Adam Svec at the Kitty Cat Klub – Photo by Pamela Pamela Goetzke Diedrich

I’ve begun countless reviews over the years by celebrating the fact that the Twin Cities music scene can support multiple rock shows on the same night and still pack all the venues. Even on the coldest nights of the year. Minnesota rocks. Even in January. 

One of Friday’s most sought after tickets was 89.3 The Current’s five year birthday bash at First Avenue. P.O.S, The Twilight Hours, Mason Jennings and other staples of the Twin Cities music scene graced the stage of the downtown club in a show which sold out soon after tickets became available.  Adam Svec made note of this in an email reminders about his own CD release show. “If you didn’t get tickets to The Current B-Day party, come on down to the Kitty Cat Klub.”

Also sold out Friday night was the Glitter Ball at the Music Box Theater which included, among other things, White Light Riot performing as the band Spinal Tap. One moment in that show gets my vote for one of the funniest things to happen in Twin Cities rock in January as a miniature Styrofoam Stonehenge being lowered onto the stage to mimic a visual joke in the original film slipped and actually hit lead singer Mike Schwandt in the head, knocking off his wig. (Check out the video here.) Could there possibly me a more Spinal Tap moment in a rock show?

But back to the show I’m here to tell you about, Adam Svec’s CD Release Party at the Kitty Cat Klub. With all that was going on elsewhere, what do you think might happen at there? Well, we were treated to a world-class evening of fabulous music that didn’t leave anyone feeling jealous even as we read tweets about Prince briefly showing up at First Avenue, and it wasn’t long before the Kitty Cat joined the ranks of Friday’s sold out venues as well.

Caroline Smith duo – Photo Diedrich

The club was busy even before openers Caroline Smith and the Goodnight Sleeps took the stage. Tonight’s incarnation of Smith’s band was just the duo of her and stand up bass player, Jesse “Juice” Schuster. It was my first time seeing them play in this stripped-down format, and I was impressed with how well the songs came through, clear, confident, engaging. Smith held the crowd rapt for the duration of her set. Though she’s been a critics darling for some time already, I expect even more great things from her in 2010, not withstanding her recent release of a live CD recorded at the Cedar and her selection as one of the five acts playing Voltage Fashion Amplified in April.

Following Caroline Smith was the man of the evening, Adam Svec, on hand with an abbreviated version of his own band to celebrate the release of his sophomore disc Rarefaction, out this month on Draw Fire Records. The disc is a follow-up to 2008’s Enemy Swimmer, and tonight’s set would draw almost exclusively from the new disc, even if Svec would include a couple songs from the first release.

I’ve been following Adam Svec’s career since 2002 when he moved up to the Twin Cities from Iowa with his band Boy with Stick, who shortly thereafter rebranded themselves as The Glad Version. In early reviews of these two bands, I often spoke of their tremendous potential, noting how young they were at the time (just out of college). I am happy these days to talk about Svec coming into himself as an artist. I’ll tell you exactly what I told him Friday at the show, that where I used to listen to his music aware (and respectful) of what he was trying to do, with his recent work the music has begun to speak to me directly on an emotional level.” I think Svec has gotten out of his own way, and that’s a big artistic jump.

The subdued quality of many of the songs on the new album led to an informal, seated stage set-up tonight, Svec on a stool with Chris Salter to his left on second guitar and Salter’s wife Karen on background vocals and occasional tambourine on his right. It should be noted that the artists who play on Rarefaction are basically the same lineup as the Glad Version.   Even Svec admitted himself, “To say it was a solo effort is not very accurate, considering Tor Johnson, Chris Salter, Karen Salter, Ben Rengstorf, and Travis Welk all made pretty substantial contributions.”

No Bird Sing – Photo Diedrich

Svec opened with a brand new song listed on the set list as “Is California” that to my knowledge has yet to appear on any of his recordings. He followed it with “Only a Spirit” from Enemy Swimmer, and he didn’t get to “Resolution,” the opening track of Rarefaction until the 3^rd song. The disc’s opener starts with a simple rhythmic electric guitar riff over which Svec sings “Couldn’t keep my resolution, so I guess I’ll start a new one.” The song seems to ask questions (and provide answers) about whether there’s a point to creating art if no one will ever hear it. Less than a minute into the song Svec sings, “Maybe I’m only here as long as you notice when I’m gone,” and with that heartbreaking line, careful listeners should find themselves emotionally hooked. (The song’s answer to the theoretically posed art question might be, “Maybe these falling trees have been making noises all along.”)

Though the disc includes drums (by the aforementioned Tor Johnson) the drum-free Kitty Cat Klub laid these songs bare in all their moody glory. Their moodiness, however, retains the somewhat uplifting spirit of Kid Dakota’s slowest songs. The crowd chatted away during the quiet “Crocodiles,” but this neither fazed Svec nor took much away from the enjoyment of the music. “Calmer Man” references South Minneapolis in January, making it a nice song to have in one’s iPod in South Minneapolis in January, but it was the ballad “Minnesota Pride” which rose to the top of the heap for me from this record, and was the track I selected for the January HWTS podcast. This song’s sweeping chorus was subtly interpreted live with Karen Salter singing the lyrical riffs that Svec sings himself on the record. The references in this song (about being in New York but thinking about Minneapolis) make me wonder if some of this song was conceived whilst the band was in New York City for a Draw Fire Records showcase back in October of 2008.

Svec’s set was rounded out by “Wolves in Milwaukee” which saw him joined by Ben Rengstorf on accordion and “Breaking Strings,” in which he metaphorically laments a relationship that went awry.

As No Bird Sing took the stage to bring things home, there was finally enough room for rapper Joe Horton to leave the stage and engage the audience from the floor of the Kitty Cat which had been wall to wall people for the entire night. More than a consolation prize for those without tickets to the Current show or the Glitter Ball, the Kitty Cat Friday was a great place to be, a diverse bill that demonstrated once again not just what great music the Twin Cities has to offer, but that the fans themselves aren’t too shabby either.