Stage production of "Fanny" by French Playwright Marcel Pagnol Permiers April 16, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO - March 25, 2015 - PRLog -- Generation Theatre ushers its audience forward in the continuing saga of a charming portside community in Marseilles, France.  This premier of a new production of Fanny, written by famous French playwright, Marcel Pagnol, transforms the subtle patina, with which the small cadre of friends was painted in Marius, to the vibrant colors of an eclectic coterie in Fanny.  This production runs April 16 through 26 with curtain times on Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:30pm at the Southside Theater, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco.  Generation Theatre’s production of Fanny benefits from the support of the French Consulate, the Alliance Française of Berkeley, the French-American International School of San Francisco, and Chez Panisse.

Fanny takes us back to the quaint Bar de la Marine where a reunion brings tender emotions to the surface while, at the same time, the bohemian atmosphere that permeates Marseilles facilitates a unique blend of humor and drama.  Pagnol developed complex, three dimensional personalities which allow the characters to bring us into their hearts and minds.  We profoundly experience struggles with the ageless quandaries that communities have faced, over the millennia.   At the same time, we are lifted by whiffs of humor that carry us over chasms of melancholy and regrets.  The trials, tribulations and joys that the characters experience, will germinate existential feelings within the members of the audience.  Those in the autumn of their lives have a chance to relive haunting moments of the past, those in the summer of their days will see how they are not alone in facing monumental decisions while those just embarking on their journeys, in the springtime of their youth, will get a glimpse of what they can expect to face as their lives unfold.

Fanny could very well have been scripted in San Francisco.  Just as Marseilles is a doorway to the farms and vineyards of Provence, San Francisco is a gateway to the wineries of Napa and Sonoma and the orchards and pastures of California’s central valley.  Just as Marseilles is an exotic microcosm distanced from Lyon and Paris, San Francisco is an enchanted world divorced from the base realities of Chicago and New York.  Marcel Pagnol’s genius is his ability to draw us into a state of introspection where his characters lead us through pathways of perplexing challenges drawn from universal experiences.  The fertile, creative atmosphere of San Francisco mirrors that of Marseilles, where life is vibrant and artists and inventors thrive and traditional habits and norms are freely challenged.  The audience experiences a collective roller coaster ride of elation, humor and dejection, compressed into an hour and a half of condensed entertainment.

Fanny, translated from its original French by Roland David Valayre, features Alan Badger, Fabien Ferhani, Benoit Monin, Nicolas Poler, Andrea Satin, Karen Sellinger, Puneet, R. David Valayre, Ket Watters and Genevieve Wilton.  Experience Fanny at the Southside Theater, Fort Mason Center, Bldg. D, San Francisco from April 16 through 26.  For information and tickets: http://generationtheatre.com - Ticket Prices:  $35 - $20; school/group rates upon request.  GenerationTheatre: info@generationtheatre.com Tel: (415) 644-8676  Press contact: Bill Berdux, Email: bill@generationtheatre.com

Generation Theatre, an ensemble theater company, is a California Non-profit Corporation.