When God Winked

When most people retire, they're sent home with a gold watch and a bad bout of indigestion. Not Ron Jones. He puts on a play. After 30 years spent working at the Janet Pomeroy Center, a local organization that provides educational and vocational opportunities for people with disabilities, Jones -- who has also garnered respect over the years as a performer (Buddha Blues, Say Ray), Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer (The Wave, Kids Called Crazy), and Special Olympics basketball coach -- inaugurates the Marsh's new Berkeley space with his solo show When God Winked. Mixing video footage and live narrative, Jones chronicles the development of the Pomeroy Center from its humble beginnings in the early 1950s to its growth and struggle to provide adequate services in more recent cash-strapped, bureaucracy-heavy times. He is a charismatic, physical performer with an important story to tell. Yet for all the energy, good humor, and lyricism that he brings to the stage, the video footage is the production's greatest asset: A certain flabbiness of structure, characterization, and delivery in the live sections of the show almost makes one wish that When God Winked were a feature documentary.