Arts & Events

Belle de jour Explores the Dark Side of Deneuve

By Justin DeFreitas
Monday January 30, 2012 - 10:02:00 AM
Directors Luis Buñuel directs the coachman on the proper technique for ravishing Catherine Deneuve in <i>Belle de jour</i>.

The collaborations of director Luis Buñuel and screen writer Jean-Claude Carriere examine and satirize the dark underbelly of bourgeoisie society. Their films are dark, a bit twisted and sometimes discomfiting. But Buñuel and Carriere do not judge these characters. They are presented from a certain distance; we watch them, we gain a certain understanding of them, but we are not made to either identify with them nor be repulsed by them. Buñuel and Carriere merely present them as they are and allow the audience to come to their own conclusions. -more-


AROUND AND ABOUT THEATER: Virago Stages 'A Taste of Honey'

By Ken Bullock
Tuesday January 31, 2012 - 09:54:00 PM

Virago Theatre Co—based in Alameda, and featuring a predominately East Bay cast—opens its production of Shelagh Delaney's 1959 hit comedy of asingle mother and her teenage daughter moving into a working class slum in Northern England, this weekend at the Thick House on Potrero Hill in San Francisco. -more-


Theater Review: Tom Stoppard's 'Arcadia'—Actors Ensemble of Berkeley at Live Oak Theater

By Ken Bullock
Tuesday January 31, 2012 - 09:51:00 PM
L-R Aaron Lindstrom as Valentine Coverly, Jody Christian as Hannah Jarvis, Alona Bach as Thomasina Coverly, Paul Stout as Septimus Hodge, and Rachel Ferensowicz as Chloe Coverly.

A young early 19th century girl, learning about thermodynamics, asking her tutor the meaning of "carnal embrace" ... He replies it's about hugging a side of beef ... A garden in the new "scenic" style, sublime, with a hermitage—but where's the hermit? ... And almost 200 years later, speculation, conjecture—and a costume ball—on the former inhabitants and visitors of manor and garden, which may have included Lord Byron, and their thoughts, their secret loves—maybe a fatal duel over one of those loves ...

Tom Stoppard's 'Arcadia' is on the boards at Live Oak Theater, and looks very good there, the set, props and costuming a triumph for Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. -more-


Press Release: Group Demands Mortgage Modification for Noted Author

From The Friends of Jane Powell
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 10:41:00 AM
Sunset House circa 1910

The Friends of Jane Powell, a group organized to help the noted author of home renovation books and Planet contributing writer, is demanding her mortgage servicer GMAC negotiate and memorialize a reasonable modification of her home mortgage. In support of this effort the group will be holding a fund raising event at Jane’s historic home on February 12 at 2:00 pm. -more-


New: AROUND & ABOUT MUSIC: Berkeley Symphony This Thursday: Debussy, Dutilleux, Shostakovich

By Ken Bullock
Tuesday January 24, 2012 - 12:03:00 PM

Berkeley Symphony, directed by Joana Carneiro, will perform another engaging program of modern orchestral music, featuring works of Debussy, Henry Dutilleux and Shostakovich, this Thursday at 8, preceded by a talk at 7:10, at Zellerbach Hall on the UC campus, near Bancroft and Telegraph. -more-


AROUND AND ABOUT THEATER

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday January 25, 2012 - 05:22:00 PM

Tom Stoppard's 'Arcadia' at Actors Ensemble; John O'Keefe at Theatre of Yugen, free, on Sunday Only; Ragged Wing Ensemble performs 'A Fool's Errand' -more-


Don't Miss This

By Dorothy Snodgrass
Tuesday January 24, 2012 - 11:31:00 AM

Hooray and Hallelujah! The New York Times recently rated Oakland as one of the world's top tourist destinations in 2012 because of its stellar restaurants and bars. We knew that. For a year Bay Area Photographers have been documenting First Friday's diverse and eclectic audiences in a show, "Portraits from Oakland." This show can be seen through Feb. 18 at PHOTO, 473 25th Street, Oakland. (510) 847-2416. -more-