It surprised few last week when La Jolla Playhouse announced the second leaving of Artistic Director Des McAnuff, who helmed the revival of the dormant theatre company in 1983, departed in 1994, and then returned in 1999 following the departure of Michael Greif and short-time Artistic Director Anne Hamburger (1994-1995), who served a year and left for Mickey’s Magic Kingdom. Her name is not mentioned in Playhouse historical accounts.
McAnuff, who leaves to pursue other interests ” no doubt film and Broadway, as well as the Stratford Festival in Canada ” will not extend his current contract when it runs out next spring. A search is under way. For readers unaware, McAnuff is a two-time Tony Award winner, for “Big River” in 1985 and “The Who’s Tommy” in 1993. He also helmed the current Broadway hit “Jersey Boys,” which originated at the Playhouse and copped the 2005 Tony for Best Musical.
Prior to leaving, he stages a re-envisioned version of “The Wiz” Sept. 26 to Nov. 12, and the Page to Stage production of Aaron Sorkin’s “The Farnsworth Invention” Feb. 20 to March 25, 2007.

A culture pocket near Petco
Two houses in fair downtown, back-to-back on 9th and 10th just below Broadway, make a mini theater district. Not at war, their purposes are similar, to bring the avant-garde to audiences thirsty for such theatrical fare. Their presence calls attention to the plight of smaller theater companies, displaced by commercial interests.
On Wednesday, June 14, in the New World Stage on 9th Avenue, Ion Theatre unveiled two of three absurdist plays: Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” and “Not I.” Thursday, Sledgehammer Theatre, now a core tenant of the 10th Avenue Theatre, opened Charles L. Mee’s ritualistic “Chiang Kai Chek.” Friday, audiences returned to Ion for the opening of Eugene Ionesco’s “The Chairs.”
Performed by Ion Theatre Executive Artistic Director Claudio Raygoza and directed by Ion’s Producing Artistic Director Glenn Paris, the Beckett evening begins with “Not I.” Only the actor’s mouth is seen, suspended eerily in an arched doorway stage left. At stage right is a black-clad apparition, the Woman addressed by Mouth as it speaks repetitively and poetically of turning 70. Occasionally the Woman raises her arms.
The evening’s acme is Raygoza’s performance as Krapp, an aged, self-absorbed man, alone and in bad health. Raygoza’s extraordinary makeup and physical habitation of the character are masterful, his acting riveting, touching, macabre and exquisitely timed. He embodies stillness of expression and emotive physicality and is master of the minute gesture. Truly, no one has ever seen, smelled or savored a banana like Raygoza’s Krapp.
Nor has anyone ever lamented life quite so poignantly and understatedly as Beckett. It is truly devastating theatre.
Hurry! Ionesco joins Beckett on 9th Ave.
Eugene Ionesco’s far-from-normal farce, “The Chairs,” is staged by Raygoza and stars DeAnne Driscoll and Paris. The absurdist piece plays in alternating repertory with the Beckett double bill through July 9.
Of necessity kinetic and more than a bit frantic, Paris and Driscoll portray an aged couple married 75 years, as they play what’s apparently a nightly game designed to entertain each other. This evening’s game, which has a surprising denouement, involves a horde of unseen guests, for whom the wife fetches seen chairs; the husband’s brilliant social/scientific report, which we never hear; and an orator (Jonathan Sachs) who in this production “” a brilliant concept “” “signs” the speech.
Different in style, though equally enigmatic, “The Chairs” is a fine contrast to the more contemplative Beckett works. The repertory provides poetic, masterful thought and evocative physicality, to be pondered and savored for a long time. Jeannie Galieto’s costumes for both are spot on, Raygoza’s set accommodates all, and Rachel Levin’s sound design is particularly apt in “The Chairs,” although one would have wished for a moment more of the crowd noise before blackout.
Support non-mainstream theatre in San Diego by attending these rich, 20th century avant-garde works. They are alt-“Jersey Boys.”
New World Stage is located at 917 9th Ave., downtown. Inexpensive ($5) parking is available (even on Padres game nights) at the lot bounded by C and B between 8th and 9th. For information, visit www.iontheatre.com or call (619) 374-6894.
Remaining performances:8 p.m. tonight, June 29 “Chairs”8 p.m. Friday, June 30, “Krapp”/”Not I”
4 p.m. Saturday, July 1 “Chairs”
7 p.m. Sunday, July 2 “Chairs”
8 p.m. Wednesday, July 5 “Krapp”/”Not I”
8 p.m. Thursday, July 6 “Chairs”
8 p.m. Friday, July 7 “Krapp”/”Not I”
8 p.m. Saturday, July 8 “Chairs”
2 p.m. Sunday, July 9 “Krapp”/”Not I”
7 p.m. Sunday, July 9 “Chairs”