Earthquakes in London

Selling out is a recurring theme in this play and best embodied by the beautiful Anna Khaja as the biblically-named Sarah, who is a UK government minister (I believe a member of the Liberal Democrats) confronted with the option of selling out the public sector for a more lucrative job with the private sector – as well as committing infidelity with the corporate Carter (Jonathan P. Sims), who tries to make Sarah offers she can’t refuse. How Sarah resolves this spiritual conundrum is anything but humdrum and a dramatic highlight of Rogue Machine's Earthquakes in London... [Her husband] Colin (Jeff Lorch)... stirs her when he tells Sarah he preferred her when she was a radical rock thrower instead of a paper shuffler.

The play’s problematic in some ways, and certainly dour, so it’s incredible that directors John Perrin Flynn and Hollace Starr manage to create a smooth flow, finding character richness and humor along the way (choreographer Marwa Bernstein’s dance breaks are truly inspired). Somehow, though, the scene changes seem more polite than they should; I would have preferred them overlapping and crashing into each other like tectonic plates causing an earthquake in London.

The talented cast give their all to this tale of potential death and destruction – with a little bit of hope thrown in at the end.

One can admire the play’s ambition and appreciate Rogue Machine’s desire to attempt mounting it, but the sheer structure and size of Bartlett’s creation is overwhelming. It might fare better in a larger venue, with a budget to match, and some American adjustments.

The members of this dysfunctional family become increasingly sympathetic as layers of self-protection peel away to expose their traumas and very human weaknesses. Their stories artfully play out against the bigger issues that the playwright frames with formidable clarity.

Co-directors Hollace Starr and John Perrin Flynn deliver the play’s messages with urgency leavened with sly humor...

The award winning British playwright, Mike Bartlett (Cock, Bull, King Charles III), won an Olivier prize for his play, Earthquakes in London, in 2010. This prescient play is more meaningful now than when it was first produced. With the climate running rampant due to evermore vigorous human activity that shows no sign of slowing down, Earthquakes in London is entertaining and scary, funny and tragic. It is a pastiche, a potpourri, a potent mix of styles and themes.

Hats off to Rogue Machine for taking on such an ambitious and costly project—and for succeeding so impressively with it...

Bartlett uses every weapon in his theatrical arsenal to dramatize his story: agit-prop, bawdy humor, satire, realism, fanciful touches, snatches of song, etc. The result is a work of boldness and originality, a one-of-a-kind drama that challenges us to rethink the way we live.

Directors Hollace Starr and John Perrin Flynn do expert work with their 17-person cast, staging the action dynamically and pacing it so swiftly that this two hour and 40 minute play never feels as long as it is. Starr and Flynn keep a myriad of plotlines distinct and add impressive visual flair to unexpected musical sequences, which are well-choreographed by Marwa Bernstein. Matt Richter’s lighting and Michelle Hanzelova’s projections brilliantly combine to create the many different settings of the story. - RECOMMENDED

Written ten years ago yet seemingly so current today, Bartlett wisely reminds us that even though we inherited the Earth from our ancestors, mistakes and all, we are now borrowing it from our children. And just how do we want to leave it for them? Will climate change due to humanity's lack of regard for poisoning the environment get so bad that the Earth as we know it will not survive? And what caused such a grave reality in the first place? Directed by Hollace Starr, an associate professor of theatre at Pepperdine University, a designated Linklater Voice teacher, and a lifetime member of The Actors Studio, with an innate understanding of feminine emotional turmoil, and John Perrin Flynn's keen eye for multimedia effects, EARTHQUAKES IN LONDON tackles our chronic inability to act in the interest of our future generations.

Epic in its scope and timeframe, intimate in its intersecting family dramas, bleak in its depiction of a world doomed by climate change, and as thrillingly theatrical as stage storytelling gets, Rogue Machine’s West Coast Premiere of Mike Bartlett’s Earthquakes In London is sure to be one of the season’s most talked-about productions.