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San Francisco Chronicle
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Review: It's empathy coach vs. dudebros in workplace satire ‘Do You Feel Anger?'
An empathy coach walks into a debt collection agency, and the punch line that unfolds over the course of Marin Theatre's latest play is even funnier, more in-your-face and surprising than its setup lets on. In playwright Mara Nelson-Greenberg's workplace satire 'Do You Feel Anger?,' abrasively crude but resonant humor is interwoven with a nuanced critique of gendered power dynamics in male-dominated environments — from men's unilateral right to feel anger (one of their three accessible feelings alongside hunger and 'horn') to the unspoken coalition that shields them from accountability. Also covered in the play, which opened Tuesday, June 17, are the ways in which this hostility pushes women, cornered into self-preservation, to turn on each other. It all begins when Sofia (Sam Jackson), self-assured but newly encumbered with the baggage of familial betrayal, is tasked with conducting empathy trainings at a lawsuit-ridden agency led by Jon (Joseph O'Malley), the slimy boss who wants her gone as quickly as possible but savors her mandatory presence. Here, Sofia meets the anxious Eva (Linda Maria Girón), who has long endured harassment from male co-workers Howie (Max Forman-Mullin), who has the emotional intelligence of a toddler and acts like one, and Jordan (Phil Wong), who thinks himself a refined, proficient poet and believes that empathy is a type of bird. Throwaway comments hint at the existence of a missing, unseen fourth co-worker who has ominously been in the women's restroom for days. The trio of Girón, Forman-Mullin and Wong are especially delightful to watch — Girón's performance as Eva effectively conveys both resilience and the unshakable effects of a traumatic past. She impressively portrays the tense internal conflict between the desire to not offend one's co-workers (a concern often felt by many women) with the growing inability to comply with their abuse any longer. Forman-Mullin and Wong make a despicable dynamic duo that you just love to hate. Though Howie and Jordan are some of the most exaggerated caricatures in the play, they're embodied so completely and seamlessly by their actors that they feel like real, awful people — enhancing their effectiveness for real-world critique. Wong's comedic timing in particular is nearly perfect in each beat, and his talent for physical comedy shines in this role. The character of Sofia, despite a strong portrayal by Jackson, leaves a bit more to be desired. The parallel setup between the troubles in her personal life and her issues with the toxic men at work remains unclear by the play's climax, so burning questions about her relationship with her father lack satisfying closure. This confusing narrative moment feels like a missed opportunity to explore the difficulty of reckoning with gendered hostility in a more emotionally complicated, familial dynamic. Despite this, 'Do You Feel Anger?' soars due to its shameless humor and its commitment to absurdism. You will hear characters repeatedly profess their love for 'blow jobs without reciprocation,' see a grown man throw a tantrum while screaming 'Baby says no!' and leave the theater wondering whether you should Google what a 'piss chart' is. The play's humor is crass and aggressive, but this gratuitousness smartly evokes a nuanced discomfort that develops its more serious themes. 'Do You Feel Anger?' is a tonal roller coaster with twists, drops, critical commentary and an ultimately cathartic ending. It's productively shocking, painfully cringey and so much fun (but probably leave the kids at home for this one). Joy Diamond is a freelance writer.
San Francisco Chronicle
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Yes, COVID is still affecting theater in 2025. Here's the latest postponement
COVID is still delaying theatrical productions, even in 2025. Marin Theatre was scheduled to open 'Do You Feel Anger?' on Tuesday, June 10. But five hours before the curtain was supposed to rise on Mara Nelson-Greenberg's office satire, the theater announced the night's show was canceled. Publicist Carla Befera told the Chronicle that the show's star tested positive for COVID. The earliest the theater would resume performances is Sunday, June 15, she added; opening night is rescheduled for Tuesday, June 17. The Mill Valley theater isn't alone. In April, Carlos Santana postponed tour dates following a COVID diagnosis. Current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for respiratory viruses state that the sick can resume normal activities once their symptoms are improving and they've been fever-free without medical aid for at least 24 hours. Confusingly, those same guidelines go on to say that even with normal activities, staying away from other people (the distance is unspecified) is 'encouraged.' While some Bay Area theaters including Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater and San Francisco Playhouse employ understudies for main stage shows, the practice is not universal. It's particularly rare in an era of ongoing retrenchment, with many companies producing fewer or smaller-cast shows and many others closing or suspending production. Marin Theatre's move suggests that even if some of the theater world's pandemic-era norms are fading, one consequence is lasting: the scrutiny of the industry's famous 'show must go on' ethos. Canceling performances was all but unheard of in 2019. Five years after the shelter-in-place order, audiences, theater artists and administrators still don't believe that an actor must force an ailing body to work at all costs.
San Francisco Chronicle
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Win tickets to Marin Theatre's wildly funny play!
Marin Theatre closes its 24/25 season with 'Do You Feel Anger?', a hilarious workplace play that The New York Times called 'Flat-out hilarious. Ingenious and inspired.' An outrageous comedy that highlights the absurdity and danger of a world where some people's feelings are prioritized over others, Sofia is hired as an empathy coach at a debt collection agency—where she finds her work cut out for her. The employees can barely identify what an emotion is, much less practice deep, radical compassion for others. As they stumble towards enlightenment, hidden tensions of this carefree workplace bubble to the surface, leading to uproarious and eye-opening revelations. The New Yorker lauded it as 'Disquieting as it is funny. A rare throwback to classic absurdism.' Award-winning theatre and film director Becca Wolff will helm Marin Theatre's production. WHEN Wednesday, June 11 Check-in Time: 07:00 PM Show Start Time: 07:30 PM WHERE Marin Theatre 397 Miller Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941 Raffle winners will pick up tickets via Will Call. Only active San Francisco Chronicle members are eligible to win. To enter, please fill out all the fields in the form before noon on June 4. Multiple entries will not be considered. Winners will be drawn randomly and notified via email by 3:00 p.m. on June 4. Note: You will need to know the account number of your subscription to enter this raffle. If you do not have it, please contact customer service at 800-310-2455, by email, or go to the Subscriber Services site.
San Francisco Chronicle
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
This Bay Area theater sparked protests. Now it's revisiting the same topic
In 2017, the company now called Marin Theatre produced a show so controversial that Black women and their allies staged peaceful protests outside the venue, passing out flyers urging patrons not to support the show. Some of those protesters created a website demanding accountability from the theater. That show, penned by Black playwright Thomas Bradshaw, was called 'Thomas and Sally,' about Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman who bore Thomas Jefferson six children. Now, less than a decade later, the company plans to mount 'Sally & Tom,' which seems to speak directly to those difficult events. 'I don't know what it was, a devil or an angel on my shoulder,' Artistic Director Lance Gardner told the Chronicle. 'It started out like a whisper: 'Hey, hear me out: What if we did 'Sally & Tom'? '' Gardner, who took the helm of the theater in 2023, was rehearsing a separate Marin Theatre play at the time of the 'Thomas and Sally' debate and recalled, 'It was really an all-consuming conversation and one that it seemed the theater was not equipped to have.' That conversation still feels 'unresolved,' he added, hoping that 'Sally & Tom' — written by Suzan-Lori Parks, a Black woman — might help it move forward. Parks' piece, he explained, 'is not a play about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. It is a play about an up-and-coming theater wrestling with trying to produce a play about it.' That fictional group's struggles remind him of Marin Theatre's experience. 'It centers a Black female playwright who is also the lead actor,' he added. He confirmed with the Chronicle he has not yet spoken with any of the 'Thomas and Sally' protesters about his plans, preferring to wait till after revealing his season, which was announced Thursday, May 8. Gardner is directing the West Coast premiere — the longtime actor and new producer's first time in that role at a major theater. 'Because of this material,' he said, 'I did not want to put this into anyone else's hands.' The lineup's opener, 'Eureka Day' (Aug. 28-Sept. 21), is just as exciting. Oakland playwright Jonathan Spector just nabbed a Tony Award nomination for his script, about a mumps outbreak at an uber-liberal, ultra-affluent Berkeley private school. This production reunites almost all of the original cast from the show's world premiere at Berkeley's Aurora Theatre, along with director Josh Costello. (Aurora is a partner on the production.) Gardner, who attended elementary school in Berkeley and Oakland, praised the way Spector combines audacity with economy. 'It's not this big, sweeping thing, but it contains big, sweeping ideas for our time,' he said. Spector, he went on, 'complicates people's arguments without waving a finger.' After 'Sally & Tom,' the company presents Anton Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard' (Jan. 29-Feb. 22). Carey Perloff, who recently directed the hit 'Waste' for the company, returns to helm the 1904 classic about Russian aristocrats reluctant to part with their debt-ridden estate. As a selector of plays, Gardner admitted a general preference for aesthetics and ideas over story. In 'The Cherry Orchard,' characters stagnate rather than move forward along an event-packed narrative. But he believes it provides 'a bridge to modern times,' with characters 'not so far away' that contemporary audiences can't relate to them. 'This idea of holding on to something in spite of the fact that letting it go might be the better idea — that's something that we all wrestle with,' he explained. The season concludes with the West Coast premiere of 'Pictures From Home' (May 7-31), directed by Jonathan Moscone. Sharr White's play, set partly in the Marin community of Greenbrae, is inspired by the eponymous photo memoir by the Bay Area's own Larry Sultan, a photographer who taught at San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of the Arts. In delving into Sultan's parents' lives, the show is grounded in what Gardner called sons' 'life-defining' quest for approval and respect from their fathers. It also prominently features Sultan's stunning images of his parents at home in the San Fernando Valley, with carpets as lush and thick as lawns, with makeup as garish as the wallpaper, with golf balls and swimsuits always at arm's length and the sun an omnipresent oppressor.
