May 17, 2008

Glaser has much to get off chest

By John Angell Grant / Theater Reviewer

The real revolution will take place when men listen to women. So observes Chicano homeboy Miguel in solo performer Sherry Glaser's amusing one-woman show "The Breast of Sherry Glaser," running at the very cool Marsh, San Francisco's fun and funky Mission District solo performance venue.

Glaser is an experienced writer and producer of one-woman shows who has won awards in New York and Los Angeles, where her previous shows have played recurring runs. In her new piece, "The Breast of Sherry Glaser," she performs three short solo plays, each one built around a different character.

The first, featuring homeboy Miguel, is the best. Slouching rhythmically around the stage, dressed in black pants and a black shirt, with a blue gang bandana tied around her head, Glaser sells this character rather well.

Miguel is a street boy from the 'hood who has been radicalized by the poverty of those around him. Channeled by Glaser, his long, rambling rap is a revolutionary political pep talk of sorts, with unexpected meditative twists on the social paradoxes of 2008 America.

Miguel recounts a long adventure of learning to love and respect his wife, after agreeing to be trained like their dog. There are humorous insights on the complicated relationship among anger, sex and love.

Where the piece falters momentarily is when it strays from the personal story of Miguel, and thins out into a mere political rant, such as one segment on war in Africa. Here the play loses the power of a personal drama and becomes a more abstracted sociological rant.
In fact, that's the key problem with the two remaining segments in Glaser's show. Her other characters are mouthpieces for political rants, more than they are distinctive humans.

The first is an African-American preacher giving a sermon. Mostly this segment feels like sitting in a church and getting a lecture. The sense of the preacher as a person loses out to the didactic political content of her speech.

The same is true of the third character, a lesbian mom superhero from Mendocino. After sending her kid off to school, she changes into her cape and tights, and sets out to save the world. This adventure consists, amusingly, of loading up a basket of demonstration supplies, and going to look for a cause to picket. The device has potential, but it's not realized.

The most compelling moments are super lesbian mom's visit to her therapist, her bouts of depression, and her heart-to-heart talk with her daughter. When she goes into generic political rants, the show loses its emotional color.

Super lesbian mom refers to Glaser's work with Breasts Not Bombs, an actual nudist peace organization that the playwright founded. She makes some intriguing sociological observations about this work, which lights up the segment momentarily, but don't overcome its lack of story and lack of deeper investigation into the potentially interesting character of super lesbian mom.

My advice: develop the segments for the characters' personal lives, and don't worry about the explicit political message. That message will find its way into the story on its own and take care of itself.

Rating: Two and a half stars

E-mail John Angell Grant at jagplays@yahoo.com.