A mood of ghostly regret permeates new play at the Oakland Theater Project  

Count on the Oakland Theater Project to present novel and remarkable productions. And Dave Malloy’s Ghost Quartet, a co-production with New Performance Traditions, is among the most unusual theatrical experiences I’ve seen and heard in a long time. And although it’s called a musical, it’s not like Hamilton or Wicked.

Ghost Quartet, Oakland Theater Project, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, through Nov. 24

Instead, Ghost Quartet, ably directed by William Thomas Hodgson, is a series of 23 songs (divided into four sides of a double album) of sung-through stories about four ghosts who twist and turn through seven centuries with the barest murmur of a connection. They play characters with many different names and lives who appear and reappear out of chronological order.

The recurring leitmotifs through the song cycle include a broken camera, two sisters, a treehouse, an astronomer, a bear, a dead sister’s breastbone and a subway accident. There are references to Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher and Scheherazade from One Thousand and One Nights. But if one had to characterize the ambiance and aura of this strange and curious production, I would say it is the melancholy mood of ghostly regret that permeates through it. 

Creator Dave Malloy wrote the music and lyrics to Ghost Quartet in diverse musical styles, including gospel, folk, a cappella, honkytonk, doo-wop, and jazz (Thelonious Monk). Some songs are soft and lyrical; a few others verge toward atonal with jarring sound effects or are just hard to listen to comfortably. The super-talented singers/musicians Rinde Eckert, Ami Nashimoto, Veronica Renner, Monica Rose Slater and Michael Perez play instruments as varied as the piano, autoharp, cello, glockenspiel, theremin, slide guitar and accordion. And they are a sheer pleasure to watch and listen to as they sing and act with complex emotions.

Dave Malloy graced Berkeley in 2022 with two highly praised musical productions: Shotgun Player’s presentation of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 and Berkeley Rep’s Octet. Ghost Quartet, first produced in Brooklyn in 2014, has been presented about a dozen times since.

The first time you see it, it may be problematic to understand Ghost Quartet as a cohesive whole. You could go online beforehand, where Malloy has kindly provided lots of music and material. Or you could just waltz into the cozy rug-laden theater and enjoy listening to Malloy’s inventiveness, understanding that the “story” does not coalesce in a neat package, and decide not to care too much. Best, you could see Ghost Quartet more than once and see if it all comes together for you. And if it doesn’t, that’s fine —the music is more than enough.

Ghost Quartet plays Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. through Nov. 24 at The Flax Building, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. Tickets are $10–$60.Ghost Quartet will play at San Francisco’s ODC Dec. 5-8. Ghost Quartet runs approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission.