Berkeley theater company Central Works continued its 35th season June 28 with its opening of “The Last Goat.” Written by Gary Graves, who co-directs the troupe with Jan Avaifler, the original, world-premiere production is showing through July 27 and features actors Zvaifler, Andre Amarotico and Liris Robles.
In several ways, “The Last Goat” is an archipelago representing a series of interrelated islands in a theatrical ocean. Not only is the play’s location the isolated Greek island of Kasos, its two inhabitants are a young woman and her grandmother whose lives have them circling like separate planets with opposing magnetism. When an unknown young man staggers onto the island claiming to have survived a shipwreck, mistrust and doubt about his motivations leave him to become a third island in their midst.
Extending the metaphor to the location of Central Works’ home theater on the first floor of the palatial Berkeley City Club building designed by Julia Morgan, the tiny vestibule is about 20 by 30 feet. A high ceiling, elongated, leaded windows looking out on a garden courtyard, elegant chandeliers and a large stone fireplace create dramatic ambience.
Even so, the performance space is like a tiny sandbar, so small in the context of the club’s overall, grand architecture that it could easily be overlooked. The world of live theater is itself a small land mass floating in today’s sea of primarily online communication. Live theater is an intense microcosm of in-person only experience that encapsulates, reflects and responds to large social, political and cultural movements.
This last point comes courtesy of another island — or, it could be said, an island native — in the human form of Alameda’s Liris Robles. The 19-year-old actor, born in Berkeley, lives and grew up entirely in Alameda. She plays Kori, “The Last Goat’s” young woman living in the family farmhouse with her grandmother.
“I know how important live theater and the arts have been for me,” Robles says. “Valuing art, expression, humor, new works — it’s spiritual. It’s connected to the bigger things in life, not just the hardships and mundane things of everyday.
“It’s super-important in a time that’s so divided. It’s an oasis. In the Berkeley City Club, the stage is a tiny room you can walk by and not even notice, but if you go in, anyone can relate to the stories we tell. It’s magical.”
Robles says she enjoyed an unusual education and childhood experience in being what she refers to as “unschooled.” A more specific label that extends into a long phrase might be “interest-led, with generous and continuous support from parents, extracurricular math and science classes at community organizations, the Alameda Free Library, time spent outdoors in nature, sports and arts groups.”
Other mind-expanding experiences occurred in a dance studio with Miss Nora at Alameda’s Dance/10 Performing Arts Center or in her family’s Benton Street home, where Robles and her two siblings immersed themselves in their parents’ house parties.
“My dad was a DJ in his youth and still DJs for fun. I remember watching the adults dance. We loved all styles of music, but there was a lot of house music played, like ‘Sometimes,’ ‘I Deserve to Breathe,’ ‘Finally’ and ‘Follow Me.’ ”
When she is not rock-climbing at an Oakland gym or on stage performing, Robles continues her self-directed education. She is enrolled in a Spanish course at Laney College, teaches acrobatics at her dance studio, and takes classes in theater methods and practices with Studio A.C.T. in San Francisco.
Outside of classrooms and theaters, Robles is most often found in her hometown: playing croquet with friends at Franklin Park, doing handstands on the beach near the Gold Coast neighborhood, or sharing a meal or a drink with friends or family downtown at Julie’s Cafe, The Local (coffee shop) or the Cholita Linda restaurant.
“I’m super-proud of the way I was educated,” Robles says of her childhood and live-to-learn philosophies that she says formed early on and grow stronger with time. “It’s a huge part of my identity. I have better knowledge of myself than most people educated in a box, a room with four walls, have.
“I had freedom to explore my interests. It helps you to know yourself. Opting out of what everyone does breaks the matrix. You get an idea of what the real world is: I was out in the world all the time.”
The “real world” of the character Robles portrays is less idyllic. Kori wants only to escape the grandmother who manipulates and coerces her to stay on the island. Using guilt, lies and seeding doubt about the man who appears, the grandmother’s motivations are entirely selfish but effective. Trust emerges as a central theme, and Robles says none of the characters have it in each other.
“Kori doesn’t ever trust her grandmother to lead her in the right way,” Robles says. “As Kori, I feel she’s been lied to about how her parents died. The man — to leave the island and be on a boat with him and trust he’s not going to kill you, throw you overboard? It’s unresolved at the end, and (her choices) continue to be tumultuous.”
Robles says she personally is deeply trusting; a trait she attributes to having grown up in a unifying, loving family. Robles says Kori “is strong-willed, determined,” characteristics they both seem to have in common. Apparently unlike Robles, though, Kori yearns for an imaginary, Cinderella-like narrative.
“She knows what she wants, and it’s not what she has. She slaves in the fields all day. It’s a miserable future she has in front of her. This man shows up, and she believes it’s her ticket out. She’s actually never seen a man before and has come of age without any ideas about her sexuality, her identity.”
To avoid spoiling the play’s impact by describing the final scenes, the conversation shifts from the synopsis to one last, large theme. Calling it “freedom to choose,” Robles says the desire is universal, timeless, human.
“As a person, you have to find community and test yourself out in the world. Freedom to choose is what everyone wants, no matter the age.”
For tickets or more details online about the play, visit centralworks.org/the-last-goat.
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.