created and performed by carrie fisher
directed by tony taccone
in association with jonathan reinis productions, jamie cesa and eva price
special presentation | roda theatre
july 9–23, 2009
Running time: 2 hours
including one 15-minute intermission
Carrie’s back! Last year, Carrie Fisher was a sold-out sensation at Berkeley Rep with her hilarious solo show, Wishful Drinking. Since then, it’s enjoyed a national tour and become a New York Times bestseller. Now she’s back at Berkeley Rep—the last stop before Broadway!
the show
In Wishful Drinking, Carrie 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 became a silver-screen princess in the original Star Wars when just 19 years of age. But it isn’t all sweetness and lightsabers. Aside from a demanding career and her role as a single mom, our heroine spends her free time battling addiction, weathering the wild ride of manic depression and lounging around mental institutions. It’s an incredible tale—from having Elizabeth Taylor as a stepmother, to wedding (and shedding) Paul Simon, from having the father of her baby leave her for a man, to waking up one morning and finding a friend dead in her bed. Entertainment Weekly declares Drinking “drolly hysterical,” and the Los Angeles Times dubs it a “Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes.” Berkeley Rep is Wishful Drinking’s final stop before opening on Broadway this fall—don’t miss this outrageous chance to get Carried away.
the dates
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
plan to arrive early
Park yourself in the courtyard with one of our out-of-this-world cocktails—Princess Leia’s Pleasure, Rum and Coke Zero and the Darth Vodka. Light side, dark side, whatever—experience the power of the force!
multimedia
Carrie invites YOU to watch Wishful Drinking
Visit Carrie’s blog
Wishful Drinking is a New York Times best seller—all the insanity that’s fit to print. On sale now (also available as a CD) at the Berkeley Rep gift shop, along with the classic Carrie titles Postcards from the Edge and The Best Awful.
Press Photos
