THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE

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The wrong director can make The Time of Your Life corny, preachy, and smug. But the right director–and Frank Farrell is one of them–can give this gem a thousand facets. Raven Theatre’s revival offers renewed cause to do and see theater–a fitting achievement for a company noted for its heartfelt productions of vintage American playwrights like Tennessee Williams, Preston Jones, Arthur Miller, and Thornton Wilder.

Set in 1939 on San Francisco’s waterfront, The Time of Your Life celebrates the denizens of Nick’s honky-tonk saloon, peopled by a Whitman-like sampler of tough hookers; unionizing longshoremen; itinerant hoofers, comics, and piano pounders; dreamers and drifters; hope hunters and hard-boiled tramps.

We may not deserve this play, but we sure can use it.