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 | Intention to Fail Celebrated film and video artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila is a master at depicting the kinds of oppressive horror and despair that can only be unearthed from domestic matters. Ahtila depicts women who are imbricated in a web of phobias, fears, and dysfunctions. In a series of cinematic episodes entitled Intention to Fail, currently on display through September 5 at the Berkeley Art Museum, Ahtila reimagines conventions of film and video by removing her characters from traditional narrative and exploring insanity through multiple perspectives.More |  | Margaret Jenkins Dance Company It's 7pm in the East Gardens of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The fog is ineluctably rolling in, and the cluster of people all around are wrapping their coats more tightly around their bodies, impatiently awaiting the spectacle promised by a mélange of synthesizers deftly mimicking nature's aural arrangements. Finally, a procession of 15 dancers robed in shades of sand and silver stroll slowly to center stage, taking their positions around individual plots of grass and cement. Vivid tableaux of leisurely movement follow -- ones that vaguely resemble tai chi, yoga, and other ancient salutations to the elements.More |  | A Different Form of Pampering It's about 1pm on a strangely balmy afternoon in the Outer Richmond, and I'm getting my first lesson in traditional Thai massage from Apple Duangpatra, the founder of Suchada Thai Massage, a cozy and commodious private studio -- and one of the only places in San Francisco that offers the real deal.More |  | The Uniqueness of Being(s) If you stop to closely consider all the elements that constitute an individual -- core beliefs, relationships, ideals, a fate largely dictated by the convergence of social and economic conditions -- then the concept of uniqueness becomes a bit far-fetched. Caryl Churchill examines all of the above to brilliant effect in her play "A Number", which dissects the archetypal father-son relationship under the heavily subdued lights of genetic engineering.More |  | Collaborative Art Makes Good Traditional gallery vestibules seem like appropriate settings for most fine art -- considering that even the most provocative works of our time have been subdued by the sterile, academic [i]raison d'etre[/i] of modern criticism. Besides the fact that the archetypal artist is a lonely malcontent, happy to showcase his or her work in compartmentalized settings that don't spur viewer interaction or much of a two-way sentiment, for that matter. Not so with "Peer Pleasure 2", an exhibition at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts that focuses on the social potential of making art.More |  | Educating Your Way to Beautiful Skin I'll admit that I'm wary of medical spas. Aside from the host of what I've always taken to be questionable, excessive and overly pricey treatments, the antiseptic environment doesn't exactly inspire the most therapeutic of thoughts. And I, like most women, would prefer pampering over procedure any day.More |  | Blowing the Dust off the American Classic Few classic plays lend themselves well to modern interpretations, no matter how true to the iconic original, and Tennessee Williams is the American exemplar of this very basic dramaturgical principle. Williams' motley cast of vituperative viragos, silver-tongued Southern cads, and slinky but invariably histrionic temptresses has made for oodles of overacted, hair shirt renditions -- histrionic poetry screamed aloud rather than whispered without the understated moodiness and tragic-comic ambivalence that Williams might have intended.More |  | A Fresh Rejoinder to Experimental Drama The stage is dark and the atonal rhythms of a mildly eerie soundscape float out to the audience before a wash of light spatters, turn by turn, four performers slumped against the walls, who each utter a phrase that's either cryptic or equivocal, before the action commences. From my personal experience with theatre, this is the kind of enigmatic kickoff that could precede either a poorly rendered performance piece, or a fresh rejoinder to experimental drama. Thankfully, Campo Santo's production of [b]Haze[/b] -- a loosely connected series of aphoristic vignettes by four contemporary authors -- went for the latter.More |  | The Forecast is Fun Russian clown Slava Polunin has all the requisite ingredients for theatrical magic: moon, wind, rainbow, and stars -- you can also throw in some cobwebs, mannequins, and a cavalcade of oddball clown friends for good measure. But be aware that Polunin's celebrated [b]Slava's Snowshow[/b] is as capricious as the tricksters who have created it. In Polunin's own words, it is "a theatre of ritual magic and festive pageantry, constructed on the basis of images and movements, games and fantasies".More |  | A Hero for Our Troubled Times When Chicano performance trio Culture Clash were approached by Berkeley Repertory Theatre artistic director Tony Taccone to collaborate on a play that would lampoon California's original masked marauder, they were hesitant at first. Zorro, a dreamy Spanish hero conceived in 1919 by Irish-American writer Johnston McCulley, may have fought for the rights of disenfranchised Mexicans in California, but the pulpy melodrama of Douglas Fairbanks-era films is now, in retrospect, gauche and offensive. All the same, Culture Clash, who are known for their biting, irreverent humor and willingness to take contemporary issues to the hilt, couldn't refuse.More |
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