ADICTIVE THRILLER. AARON LOEB'S BRILLIANT 'IDEATION'

IDEATION

SF PLAYHOUSE  
Brings a Great Performance
It's Acting Heaven!  
 
IDEATION is an entrepreneur journey where four people "Ben Euphrat, Jason Kapoor, Carrie Paff*, Mark Anderson Phillips* and Michael Ray Wisely* get together to do business, and make money out of it. Each person is trying to "Up" the next person. What's really interesting about "Ideation"? The men and one woman that focus on there ideas. What are they going to create? Are they creating a product, service, or what? Well, they do make quite a fuss at putting ideas on a white board. However, they continually fail at the project. One gives feed back, and another puts him down.

One tries to refine. Another feels that he has a better plan. The only woman there, thinks that none of this is going to work. The Brain Storming is like software. It doesn't get very far. But, they do try to research out numeric possibilities.

The philosophical ideas live in the mind of the creator. The others try to destroy a new recurrence. Yep, it's just blah, blah, blah -- and erase and erase, until the chalk breaks. O.K. lets get to the breakout performances. They have extraordinary intelligence and razor-edge humor. Its notably nuanced. This story is certainly one of Loeb's best works. His razor sharp writing and the Great Cast give us unimpeachable performances.

I've never seen anything like this Stage Play. Its Scope and Grandeur is amazing and magnificent. I'm still thinking about it.  Once in a decade an audience gets raw challenges. They sure do it here. The director absolutely knows how to create emotion. This cat-and-mouse -bare-knuckle play keeps you on the edge of your seat. IT'S ELECTRIFYING!
 
THE PERFORMERS OF THE YEAR ARE: Ben Eukphrat (Scooter), Jason  Kapoor (Sandeep), Carrie Paff* (Hannah), Mark Anderson Phillips* (Brock), Michael Ray Wisely* (Ted). Clive Worsley (voice over).

*****
DIRECTOR: "KEEPS SHOW CAPTIVE FROM START TO FINISH!"

SF Playhouse is using "The Tides Theatre" on Sutter Street for this show.

RATING: Five Glasses of Champagne. (highest rating) -trademarked-

(((Lee Hartgrave has contributed many articles to the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Datebook and he has also produced a long-running Arts Segment on PBS KQED -7 years)