Secret in the WIngs at Berkeley Rep

"Secret in the Wings" is everything that the "Black Rider" should have been -- but sadly wasn't.

Mary Zimmerman's beautiful and luminous play has all the surrealness of a fairytale, all the incomprehensible horror and impenetrable beauty of a world seen by a child, with the kind of clean dramatic structure that should make Robert Wilson blush.

Within a series of seven nested tales, that go from the frame of an ogre's babysitting assignment, to the story of the Princess who wouldn't laugh, to a retelling of the Chldren of Lir, to some completely new tales.

With beautiful elements like the falling leaves, floating feathers from the swans, one story intertwines with another, (although in the strictest sense, they are begun, one by one, then resolved in the reverse order form which they were introduced) addressing a wide range of human experiences from love to loyalty to hatred and revenge. Zimmerman, who also directed the production, has a sure hand with the dramatic aspects, and the nine member cast obviously implicitly trusts her judgement.

Whereas Black Rider seemed to be all about hip posturing in dark clothes, "Secret in the WIngs" is lush and old fashioned-- a little corny, but unafraid of being so, as long as it can tell the story it needs to tell. Some moments are exquisitely beautiful too. On actor holds up a frame while another "sails" a model ship in the middle of the empty square space. It sounds almost ridiculous, but as it turned out in the moment, was exquisitely beautiful.