Calling all true crime fans! Don’t miss the first play of our season, award-winning Canadian playwright Kat Sandler’s hit Yaga. Direct from Toronto where it captured critical raves, this subversive dark comedy fairy tale begins as a classic whodunit that veers into supernatural territory when the mythic Baba Yaga enters the story.
Yaga follows a detective who finds himself in a small town, wondering what the disappearance of the young heir to a yogurt fortune has to do with random lore about an old witch. Joining forces with the local female sheriff, the pair zero in on a cast of curious characters, including a sexy, whip-smart forensic bone expert whose shadowy past includes her healthy appetite for young men. Can they unravel the truth without getting caught up in the myth of Baba Yaga? The women of the town weave a tale of folklore and foul play that will have you laughing and keep you guessing until the very end.
Yaga premiered at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre where The Globe and Mail said it “triumphantly reclaimed the evil-woman myth. Move over, Wicked and Maleficent, and welcome Yaga to the sisterhood.” The Winnipeg Free Press also declared it “Thrilling. [Forces] the audience to reconsider everything it thinks it knows about character tropes.” Noted theatre director Barbara Damashek will direct.
INFO FROM SF CHRONICLE’S DATEBOOK.
Please be advised this production contains mature language, implied violence, and witchcraft.
Previews – Thursday October 10th through Sunday October 13th
Opening Night – Tuesday October 15th
Mask-required performance – Wednesday October 23rd
Open Captions – Thursday October 31st 1:00 PM
“Yaga” starts out like a police procedural: an unfinished ambiguous encounter with weird power dynamics, a disappearance, some cop-private detective rivalry. Then Kat Sandler’s script, now in a Marin Theatre U.S. premiere, veers away from its apparent genre. “You have to talk to the witch,” Pam (Rachel Clausen) tells a private eye (Adam KuveNiemann).
The 2019 script gets its title from a figure from Slavic folklore. Yaga (Julia McNeal) introduces herself in the show’s prologue: “You say that I am lonely, that no one will love me, that no one will f— me, for my body is barren, my breasts ancient, lifeless sacks that drag through the dirt at my feet, my sex as dry as sand and twice as dusty.”
Directed by Barbara Damashek, the show refuses to take at face value societal revulsion with the aging female body, asking what other forces — including desire — it stirs up.
“Spectacular. An energizing joy, as stimulating as four shots of espresso” – New York Times
“Exquisite!” – Entertainment Weekly
“Highly entertaining!” – The Hollywood Reporter
This production runs approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes plus a 15-minute intermission.