Exciting, fast-paced, kinetic — these aren’t words usually associated with “Pericles, Prince of Tyre.” With its convoluted plot, multiple locales and huge cast of characters, Shakespeare’s sprawling late-life romance can add up to a very long night.
That’s what makes the new Berkeley Repertory Theatre production a welcome surprise. Director Mark Wing-Davey delivers a buoyant, ingeniously theatrical staging — one that almost triumphs over the play’s flaws, but not quite. Read More
It’s no wonder journalist-playwright Lawrence Wright was drawn to Italian superstar author-reporter Oriana Fallaci as the subject for “Fallaci,” his two-character drama receiving its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre under the assured direction of Public Theatre artistic director Oskar Eustis. Read More
Bradley Boatwright is in big trouble. The title character of “Troublemaker” has more on his mind than any 12-year-old kid in working-class Rhode Island should have to face.
In Dan LeFranc’s rollicking comedy, now making its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Bradley doesn’t really make trouble. He just attracts it. Read More
The legend of “The White Snake” lives.
The ancient Chinese fable about a serpent who assumes a woman’s shape gets a mesmerizing theatrical update in the new Berkeley Repertory Theatre production written and directed by Mary Zimmerman.
In her seventh show for the company, Zimmerman emphasizes the magical, shape-shifting qualities of this timeless story of enduring love. Read More
The stage doesn’t fill with a cast of thousands.
“An Iliad,” the mesmerizing theater piece that opened Wednesday at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, manages to create the sights and sounds, the epic sweep and tragic immediacy of the Trojan War in the performance of a single actor. Read More
No one gets girl power quite like Eve Ensler. The Tony Award-winning playwright, activist, performer and author of “The Vagina Monologues” has spent much of her career writing about, advocating for, and celebrating the lives of women. Read More
Female empowerment has seen its share of manifestations. The 1990s alone gave way to Spicemania and riot grrrl punk of the Pacific Northwest, allowing girl power to surge as a commodity and cultural phenomenon.
Tony Award-winning playwright, performer and activist Eve Ensler, best known for 1996’s “The Vagina Monologues,” continues to harness girl energy in her new show “Emotional Creature” premiering at Berkeley Repertory Theatre this month. Read More
Flaco, a Puerto Rican kid in New York, was molested by his psychotic mother, but no one believed him when he told them. Larry, a groundskeeper in Central Park, watches for years as an upper-middle-class father and older brother bully the younger brother, trying to make him “act like a man.”Ian, a New Yorker from Manchester, England, was so severely abused in his youth, physically and emotionally, by his alcoholic Irish father that he can’t contain his inner rage. Read More
Even when he isn’t dancing, Mikhail Baryshnikov is a graceful stage presence. As the leading man of “In Paris,” the acclaimed dancer — one of the ballet world’s most celebrated stars — is currently making his Bay Area debut as an actor at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. But even his command of movement doesn’t carry this slight, and often static, theater piece. Read More
Even when he isn’t dancing, Mikhail Baryshnikov is a graceful stage presence. As the leading man of “In Paris,” the acclaimed dancer — one of the ballet world’s most celebrated stars — is currently making his Bay Area debut as an actor at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. But even his command of movement doesn’t carry this slight, and often static, theater piece. Read More
