Tattoos, Photos Bare East-West Split; Brecht’s Baby: S.F. Stage

March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Making the 19th century look sexy might seem an odd strategy for a 21st-century theater. Yet California’s Berkeley Rep has come up with another clever show about Victorian obsessions.

Like last year’s “In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play” by Sarah Ruhl, Berkeley’s latest world premiere, “Concerning Strange Devices From the Distant West,” probes how technology changed life back then in unexpected ways, in this case through the introduction of photography into Japan.

Naomi Iizuka’s play is set in Yokohama in both the late 1800s and the present, with characters who at first appear to be strangers and eventually reveal their intimate connections. Much of the action takes place in the studio of Andrew Farsari, who photographs rich Western tourists dressed up in Japanese outfits for souvenirs.

The blowhard businessman Edmund Hewlett, a weapons dealer, sends his wife to Farsari for such a portrait. At the studio, Isabel is fascinated with another subject, a young Japanese rickshaw driver whose body is covered by sensuous-looking tattoos.

“I had never seen a near-naked man before,” she exclaims.

Along with this culture-clash comedy there’s much high- minded discussion about the nature of photography, appearances and reality, Japan and the West. Secrets are disclosed, complications ensue and Isabel mysteriously disappears.

Photos of Geishas

The action shifts to the present, where art historian Dmitri Mendelssohn -- played by Bruce McKenzie, the same actor who portrays Farsari -- is chatting up Kiku, a pretty young translator, in the bar of a modern hotel. He collects antique Japanese photographs of geisha girls and needs her help in negotiating the purchase of a collection that includes works by none other than Farsari.

Mendelssohn has his own sexual demons, and Kiku turns out to be not so innocent a flirt after all. The story moves forward in a series of oblique, stylized scenes, expertly staged by Les Waters, who also directed the Ruhl play, though leaving many questions unanswered.

Through April 11 at 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. Information: +1-510-647-2949; http://www.berkeleyrep.org. Rating: **1/2

‘Circle’ to Nowhere

War, revolution, class conflict and the fate of an abandoned baby boy are the subjects of Bertolt Brecht’s 1944 drama “The Caucasian Chalk Circle,” getting an ambitious new staging at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

Hotshot director John Doyle, who revived “Sweeney Todd” in 2007 with cast members playing their own musical instruments, here successfully evokes the chaos of war and revolution. The overall production, however, is about as lively as the baby, which is portrayed by a limp feather pillow.

Brecht’s story is simple. When the governor of Grusinia is overthrown in a coup, Grusche the servant girl and Simon the soldier agree to marry as soon as he gets back from the unfolding civil war. With panic in the streets, the governor’s wife abandons their baby son, who’s rescued by Grusche.

To survive, she flees the city to live with her brother in the sticks, where she’s forced to marry an older man for the sake of appearances. After six months of war, she returns to Simon and the city, where the governor’s wife tries to reclaim the baby. Grusche appeals for justice and ends up in a trial before a corrupt judge.

“You want justice but you can’t pay for it?” he asks her mockingly.

The judge rules that the fate of the baby will be decided inside a chalk circle, where the drama is resolved.

Unreal Staging

Part of the problem here is Brecht, whose idea that drama should transcend mere realism is here pursued with a vengeance. No need for real characters when you can have stereotypes. No need for believable action when the cast can stand in a straight line and declaim.

A talented cast sometimes succeeds in breathing life into the show -- particularly Rene Augesen as the governor’s wife, played as a tacky New Jersey diva, and Jack Willis as the judge, who carries a microphone through the theater to banter with the audience like a Las Vegas lounge act.

Through March 14 at 415 Geary St., San Francisco. Information: +1-415-749-2228; http://www.act-sf.org. Rating: *

What the Stars Mean:
****       Do Not Miss
***        Excellent
**         Good
*          Poor
(No stars) Worthless

(Stephen West is an editor for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this story: Stephen West in San Francisco at smwest@bloomberg.net.