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Press coverage

In four decades, Berkeley Repertory Theatre has built an international reputation for work that is adventurous, ambitious, provocative and intelligent. Our shows aren’t just embraced by audiences and praised by critics—they’re also frequently the topic of major news stories. Here’s a look at the media’s recent coverage of Berkeley Rep…

Reviews for Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West

Reviews for Coming Home

Reviews for Aurélia’s Oratorio

Reviews for Tiny Kushner

Reviews for American Idiot

Feature stories on recent shows

Best features on Berkeley Rep

reviews for concerning strange devices from the distant west

“Scintillating…a sexy puzzle…The shards of story, vintage and modern photos, lies, surmises, history and tattoos set the mind spinning about topics as varied as the art and commerce of photography, the ways in which humans love and use one another, a century of intercourse between Japan and America and the mutable relationships between appearance and reality. The latest Rep world premiere, Devices is an interlocking triptych of scenes from the past and present, smoothly articulated by director Les Waters on Mimi Lien’s sleek, inventive set of antique and modern locales. In scenes sharply punctuated by the photographic flashes of Alexander V. Nichols’ lights, and richly, cryptically upholstered in Leah Gelpe’s still and moving projections, the action spins forward from late 19th century Yokohama to 21st century Tokyo…Iizuka packs the 90 minutes of Devices so full of casual clues and odd payoffs that every moment is worth close attention. It helps that the premiere is so attentively staged and expertly performed. Waters and the actors mirror the questing poetry of Iizuka’s dialogue to assemble a puzzle that haunts the mind long afterward.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Dazzling…Tantalizing images shimmer throughout Concerning Strange Devices From the Distant West. A sly, elliptical play in its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Naomi Iizuka’s drama touches on issues of art, authenticity and the elusive nature of perspective. It’s shot through with provocative visuals and intellectually stimulating themes…Sensitively directed by Les Waters, the intricate, 95-minute piece unfolds as a triptych of tales that form a complex jigsaw puzzle of a plot.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Attention Broadway—get ready for another winner from Berkeley Repertory Theatre! Berkeley Rep just opened the world premiere of Naomi Iizuka’s Concerning Strange Devices From The Distant West, and it’s brilliantly directed by the Rep’s associate artistic director, Les Waters. From the opening curtain, I was mesmerized by the elaborate staging of this stunning story—the best staging that I’ve ever seen…There is a superb ensemble cast of five actors playing multiple roles, and with its intricate, clever combination of lights, sound and visuals, it will absolutely amaze you. When I say this is a ‘must-see,’ I really mean it.”—KGO-AM

reviews for coming home

“Beautifully performed…South Africa’s pre-eminent playwright remains the eloquent conscience of the stage…Eugene Lee’s solid, distressed set—the haphazardly tin-roofed house in a trash-strewn landscape—and Jessica Ford’s colorful, ragged costumes vividly establish the social milieu, enhanced by Corrine K. Livingston’s lively sound design. Ruff and Silcott anchor the drama in performances riveting in nuanced watchfulness and unspoken subtext.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Sensitively directed by Gordon Edelstein in its regional premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, it’s a gentle elegy to dashed dreams that strikes a mournful chord in the heart…It’s a poignant coda to Valley Song with a wistful resonance that creaks up on you as the story unfolds. Fugard’s gift for introspection, his ability to see the majesty in ordinary lives, remains unparalleled…Ruff tinges every move Veronica makes with the ache of regret. Her veiled glances at her son reverberate with impending loss. Tragedy laces her laughter and smile. Make no mistake, however, Fugard takes pains to lighten the wistfulness with comedy [and] has a keen eye for the rebirth of optimism in dark times…Edelstein is an old hand with the Fugard canon. He lets the heartbreaking power of the tale build slowly and subtly. Tiny moments echo with emotional intensity as Veronica faces her grief.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“A dramatic masterpiece! Coming Home is a poignant, gripping drama with that special Fugard touch…The cast is superb, magnificently capturing the tormented situation. And, amidst this turmoil, Fugard is able to cleverly include some much-needed humor.”—KGO-AM
“Powerful…The interplay between the mom, son and friend provide the basis of the poignant, moving drama, which, in a beautifully understated way, addresses issues of poverty, disease and disrepair in contemporary South Africa, where things haven’t turned out so rosy, despite the end of apartheid. Key to this production’s success are standout performances by Roslyn Ruff as Veronica and Thomas Silcott as Alfred, whose changing emotions, feelings and physical health are revealed in their every word, song and body movement. They sell every line of Fugard’s often lyrical dialogue.”—San Francisco Examiner
“For over four decades, playwright Athol Fugard has doggedly traced the social currents of his native South Africa. He’s truly a national poet—his themes are sweeping, his style lyrical. His plays build on one another, transcending their individual plots to create a story with historical scope. Fugard’s newest play, Coming Home, which is currently running at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, speaks of dreams deferred then destroyed, and of the crushing disillusionment that follows a failed revolution. It’s bleak stuff, but its also tremendously moving and startlingly funny…South Africa has never been a lucky land, but it is blessed to have Fugard as its bard. Hopefully, he’ll continue to produce works as thoughtful and as moving as Coming Home, which will continue to inspire productions as masterful as the Berkeley Rep’s.”—Daily Californian

reviews for aurÉlia’s oratorio

“Delightfully surreal…Part nouvelle circus, part vaudeville of illusions, part fantastical free association, Oratorio is a whimsical showcase for the talents of Aurélia Thierrée, a performer who practically defines the word beguiling…From the moment she makes her first appearance—one possibly disconnected hand, foot or leg at a time—she has the audience at her intricately inventive mercy…At a mere 70 minutes long, Oratorio is packed with enough delights for a show twice as long. It may not have been designed specifically for the holidays, but it’s like a Christmas stocking stuffed with one gift after another.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Wildly innovative…Aurélia’s Oratorio is top-notch family entertainment. Berkeley Repertory Theatre takes fierce pride in finding and presenting unusual and offbeat holiday entertainment. This year’s prize is Aurélia’s Oratorio, a part-vaudeville, part-circus, part-dance, part-comedy created by Victoria Thierree Chaplin and starring her daughter Aurélia Thierrée…Don’t let the high-flying French titles hold you back, Aurélia’s Oratorio is an effervescent blend of hilarious innovation and old-fashioned knock-your-socks-off entertainment…In short, this is one of the most unusual and uncanny shows to come along in some time. It works well for the holidays simply because it is suitable and entertaining for all ages, and still entertains beautifully on any number of artistic levels.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“A delightful holiday production…A world of wonderment and impossibilities—from illusions, dancing, aerial stunts and puppetry to tricks of physical dexterity…And it’s all performed with plenty of great humor while keeping you mesmerized by the cleverness of the talented cast. I’ve never seen anything quite like it as it combines a bit of circus, magic and comedy in one show and performed at breakneck speed. It’s perfect for the whole family, and your little ones will never have an attention deficit—it really moves. Don’t miss Aurélia’s Oratorio.”—KGO-AM
“It’s such a relief during the Nutcracker-Christmas Memory-Carol-In Wales season to catch a show that creates a wonderland without the winter. Not a beat is lost as Aurélia morphs from bored vamp trapped in a chest of drawers to tempest-tossed refugee on the high seas (and higher rafters) to befuddled homemaker with a penchant for the topsy-turvy, sometimes pursued by the excellent Jaime Martinez, whose knockout, drag-down street brawls with his recalcitrant overcoat are just one example of the physical wit that permeates the piece…Aurélia’s Oratorio combines the best of mime, acrobatics, dance, and design, to create a circuitous, circus revel guaranteed to transport and to charm.”—SF Bay Guardian
“Aurélia Thierrée grew up in the circus, and she has the rubber-band body to prove it. Her new show, Aurélia’s Oratorio—which runs through January 24 at Berkeley Rep—comprises seventy minutes of body contortions and optical illusions, done in a Frenchy cirque nouveau style…Aurélia and Jaime seduce their audience rather than each other. The idea is to teleport us into a dream world where objects behave in mysterious ways, and everything seems to symbolize something else…Some of Aurélia’s gags are pure childish fun, but others bear deeper implications about mortality, desire, or the intrusion of technology…It’s a show of tricks and ‘aha’ moments, scraped clean of narrative but given a sequential arc nonetheless. And, like a dream, it flies by.”—East Bay Express

reviews for tiny kushner

“A thinking person’s comedy…the West Coast premiere of Tiny Kushner took place on Wednesday at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where so much of the nation’s talked-about dramatic product seems to come from these days, and the double pedigree—playwright and theater—is attention-getting…Individually and even collectively, the five entries here are snacks in the Kushner canon. However, that doesn’t make them nonnourishing or the evening unsatisfying; Mr. Kushner’s fierce liberal conscience (he’s Arthur Miller’s heir, in that regard), colossally fanciful imagination and virtuosic gift for composing verbal arias are too much in evidence for that…They have been directed with wry precision by Mr. Kushner’;s longtime collaborator, Tony Taccone, the Berkeley Rep’s artistic director; the four actors all handle Mr. Kushner’s serious humor with engaging aplomb, but you never lose the sense that it’s the playwright who is performing…Tiny Kushner might well find a wide audience. Given Berkeley Rep’s recent history, that wouldn’t be a surprise. Like ballplayers, theaters sometimes get hot, rapping out hits with unlikely regularity, and the Rep, 41 this year, is on fire.”—New York Times
“Five easy pieces: Kushner’s short plays stand tall…broad reach and Kushner’s eclectic, wicked wit make for a great deal of charm and excitement in Tiny Kushner, an anthology of five short plays…it’s impressive how well the five plays fit together, because they were written at different times for different purposes…Hefty political and moral issues dance with buoyant shtick [as] penetrating comedy and theatrical strokes light up the stage, fully exploited by director Tony Taccone and four versatile actors.”—Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle
“It’s just bloody amazing…One of the five plays in the new anthology of Tony Kushner’s short works, Tiny Kushner, now playing at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, is called Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy and is clearly the star of the show…It was published in the Nation in 2003, and it was performed many times around the time of the 2004 Republican convention, with various luminaries—Susan Sarandon, Holly Hunter—playing the central role of Laura Bush. I can’t imagine any of them doing a better job than Kate Eifrig.”—Jon Carroll, San Francisco Chronicle
“Scintillating…makes a thundering impact…Keenly directed by Tony Taccone in its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, it’s a multifaceted theatrical crown of small gems, all of which offer dazzling insights into the teeming brain of one of our most celebrated playwrights. Dizzying gyrations in tone and theme come with the territory as Kushner contemplates the postmodern American experience. By turns quirky and cosmic, these wee one-acts were written at different times for different reasons, but they coalesce in a tartly existential meditation on the bedrock national themes of death, taxes and redemption…Kushner’s genius for the idiosyncratic speech patterns of a universe of characters, from militant survivalists to petulant teens, remains mind-blowing.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“The only tiny thing about Tiny Kushner is that it’s made up of five short one-acts. The play, by Tony, Emmy and Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner, perhaps best known for the epic Angels in America, is a really big show. It’s brainy, complex, political, crazy, funny, sarcastic and a little bit touching…An evening of one-of-a-kind entertainment that dares to raise—as well as try to answer—questions about humanity and morality.”—San Francisco Examiner

reviews for american idiot

“American Idiot is that rare creature, a true rock opera…directed with polish and precision by Michael Mayer, on a spectacular set by Christine Jones…Green Day’s potent gift for irresistible tunes delivers the emotional contours of the story…their lushly melodic music is played with impressive raw power…American Idiot possesses a stimulating energy and a vision of wasted youth that holds us in its grip.”—New York Times
“Irresistible…visually mesmerizing…aesthetically dazzling and socio-politically stark…Attention, everyone. We have a theatrical bulletin coming in: Music videos have just made an artistic breakthrough. And the form has gone live. The site of this unexpected and, yes, rather loud development is Berkeley Rep, where American Idiot, the show based on Green Day’s multi-platinum 2004 concept album, is having its world premiere…Kinetically entertaining in a way that intentionally reflects the shallow, media-saturated culture the album rails against, American Idiot (the musical) does what rock bands have set out to do from the beginning—lay down a style that defines a new zeitgeist…American Idiot translates Green Day’s generational angst into a moody theatrical fantasia…Gallagher has the slacker charm and seductive snarl of a rock god [and] Mayer does an astonishing job of keeping everything in fluid motion.”—Los Angeles Times
“Wildly entertaining…The music of Green Day practically blasts the lid off Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre. The cast and creative crew match the pulsating wall of sound for sheer energy and pump it up with Broadway-quality pipes, stage-rattling, thrashing choreography, flying bodies and walls crammed with pulsating video and projected images. Never has the Roda appeared more expansive yet bursting with images and action.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Rock on! The much-anticipated Green Day musical delivers big-time. It really does explode in your heart like a hand grenade…this genre-bending 95-minute show runs through Nov. 1. It’s a stream-of-consciousness punk epic that rattles the brain, and if there’s any justice in the world it will head east shortly thereafter…On the heels of Passing Strange, the last alternative-rock musical Berkeley Rep sent to Broadway, this production marks the troupe’s emergence as a major player in the development of hip, new musicals that harness the effervescence of pop culture.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“A wonderful, dream-like show…There’s a cast of 19 who are the most energetic performers I’ve ever seen, and a nine-piece band located on five different levels…It’s going to be some crowded houses. It’s going to be a tough ticket to get—but if you can get it, go for it!”—KGO-AM
“A sure-fire crowd pleaser…The cast, led by Tony-winner John Gallagher Jr., is phenomenal and the physicality they bring to the show and Steven Hoggett’s punk-esque choreography deserves a lot of praise. The sets, lighting, video and projection design are all amazing…It’s always cool to see a work as ambitious as this in its early stages and to be able to say you were there at the beginning.”—SFist.com