‘Headlands’ is a valentine for locals
Christopher Chen hosts his hometown, sprinkling in clues with expert timing of symphony conductor in ACT premiere of mystery play
When you leave the streets of San Francisco behind to enter the Toni Rembe Theater for “The Headlands,” the city is staring back at you again when you get inside, as if you’re in a house of mirrors. Alexander V. Nichols’ set design depicts the San Francisco not of tourists or Hollywood, but of locals: a boxy, midcentury Sunset District facade the color of the neighborhood’s fog.
Christopher Chen’s play, whose American Conservatory Theater West Coast premiere opened Wednesday, Feb. 15,
offers many such valentines. Nichols’ projection design celebrates a particular sandwich at Lucca Delicatessen, immersion in eucalyptus groves, the romance of Lands End, Coit Tower and the Marin Headlands. To breathe all this in amid your neighbors is to become a united audience for a moment, all of us falling in love with our surroundings again.
Our narrator, Henry (Phil Wong), likewise inspires affection. Bumbling in an adorable, self-effacing manner, he introduces us to his girlfriend, Jess (Sam Jackson); his childhood home in the Sunset; and his fondness for true crime, which leads him to a decadesold cold case involving his parents, George (Johnny M. Wu) and Leena (Erin Mei-Ling Stuart).
As Henry starts knocking on doors, riffling through old case files and spinning theories,
Chen sprinkles in clues and red herrings with the expert timing of a symphony conductor and consummate host, anticipating just what your own amateur gumshoe brain needs and when it needs it. Here, he’ll let audience members think they’re smart for a moment; there, he’ll keep us guessing again, but not before pulling a tension-release valve to let us break for laughs, reminding us we’re on his, Henry’s and each other’s sides.
“The Headlands” capitalizes on the way that all parents, even those who weren’t murdered, are mysteries to their