07/08 main season:
wishful drinking

written and performed by carrie fisher
directed by tony taccone
in association with jonathan reinis productions
the roda theatre
february 8–april 12, 2008

running time: 2 hours,
including one 15 minute intermission

must close april 12

the art

Carrie Fisher is the life of the party on Berkeley Rep’s 40th birthday with Wishful Drinking, an uproarious and sobering look at her Hollywood hangover. Fisher tells a true and intoxicating story with the strong, wry wit that she poured into bestsellers like Postcards from the Edge. Born to celebrity parents, she was picked to play a princess in the original Star Wars when only 19 years old. Alas, aside from a demanding career and her role as a single mother, Carrie also spends her free time battling addiction, weathering the wild ride of manic depression and lounging around various mental institutions. It’s an incredible tale—from having Elizabeth Taylor as a stepmother, to marrying (and divorcing) Paul Simon, from having the father of her daughter leave her for a man, to ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed. Entertainment Weekly declares Drinking “drolly hysterical,” and the Los Angeles Times dubs it a “Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes.” Don’t miss this outrageous chance to get Carried away.

the artists

The daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher became a cultural icon when she starred as Princess Leia in the first Star Wars trilogy. Her star-studded career includes roles in countless films such as Austin Powers, The Blues Brothers, Hannah and her Sisters, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, The Man with One Red Shoe, Romancing the Bride, Shampoo, When Harry Met Sally and Wonderland. Fisher’s first novel, Postcards from the Edge, leapt onto the New York Times’ bestseller list—and she turned it into a screenplay for a hit film starring Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep. Fisher followed this with three more bestsellers: The Best Awful, Delusions of Grandma and Surrender the Pink. Her television credits range all the way from Laverne and Shirley to Jack and Bobby. Fisher hosted her own show on the Oxygen network, Conversations from the Edge, and is currently a celebrity judge for Steven Spielberg’s On the Lot. Her experiences with addiction and mental illness—and her willingness to speak honestly about them—have made her a sought after speaker and respected advocate for this community.

After his Broadway success with a completely different one-woman show—Sarah Jones’ Bridge & Tunnel—Tony Taccone directs another wild ride. Last year, he took two shows from Berkeley Rep to New York City: Brundibar sold out its run and was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards while Bridge & Tunnel extended its Broadway stay for five months and won a Tony Award. Taccone’s other recent hits here at home include Continental Divide, Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell and Honour.

the buzz

carrie fisher wows critics and audiences

“Carrie Fisher pioneers a strange form of tabloid theater, telling often hilariously sardonic and inappropriate tales of the many marriages of her mother Debbie Reynolds and father Eddie Fisher, numerous step-parents, marriage to Paul Simon, addictions and a great deal more in a two-hour autobiographical solo…It’s definitely funny. Fisher knows how to write wickedly comic material and, better still, how to deliver it. It’s also quite brave…Princess Leia is just telling her life story—as honestly, sardonically, fetchingly, caustically and comically as she can.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Addiction, mental illness, movie-star parents, bad marriages, really bad hair…Carrie Fisher, right? You got it: Princess Leia has recycled her nightmarish life yet again, this time putting it onstage in the form of an exceedingly clever one-woman show called Wishful Drinking. Berkeley Rep, which brought Passing Strange into the world a year and a half ago, is now giving the hapless daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher an opportunity to be drop-dead funny about a string of personal crises so horrific that the only alternative to laughing at them is slashing your wrists in sympathy.”—Wall Street Journal

“Amazing show…my highest rating of four hats! And hats off to this fabulous, funny, wild ride through showbiz with a remarkable woman! I love this show and so will you!”—Jan Wahl, KCBS radio / KRON TV / Alice radio

“Convulsively funny…A lightsaber-sharp comedy about the dark side of celebrity…Fisher is a cheerfully tart one-liner machine, regaling us with the deadpan jewels that made her autobiography, Postcards from the Edge, twinkle…The lightsaber-sharp comedy will be irresistible to anyone who knows his Jedi from his Jabba.”—San Jose Mercury News

“A red hot, blue and wildly funny soul-baring reminiscence…Fisher made the performance an often blue homage to a hard-knock life, filled with family difficulties, mental problems, the lifelong onus of being Princess Leia in Star Wars, booze and the sort of pharmacological lifestyle that would make Hunter S. Thompson look like a prissy teetotaler.”—Contra Costa Times

“Frank and forthcoming and, I’m delighted to say, occasionally filthy, Wishful Drinking is a theatrical memoir with a whole lot of kick…Fisher is hilarious, which is no surprise to anyone who has read her books…She has a brilliant mind and sharp comic timing…she’s got substance under the stardust [and] boy does that voice convey dark, cynical humor beautifully.”—Oakland Tribune

“Fisher is wickedly funny and undaunted to stand before all of us simply as herself.”—SF Bay Guardian

“She’s an absolute riot. What a surprise performance. I could see it again, and I will…You’ll double over laughing at the skeletons in Carrie’s closet.”—KGO radio

the dates

back to top

press photos

restaurant sponsor

season sponsors