written by tony kushner
directed by tony taccone
main season | thrust stage
october 16–november 29, 2009
west coast premiere
Running time: 2 hours and 20 minutes,
including one 15 minute intermission
the plays
- Flip Flop Fly!
- Terminating or Sonnet LXXV or “Lass Meine Schmerzen Nicht Verloren Sein” or Ambivalence
- East Coast Ode to Howard Jarvis: a little teleplay in tiny monologues
- Dr. Arnold A. Hutschnecker in Paradise
- Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy
It’s time for Tiny Kushner, a series of short scripts by the singular Tony Kushner. The legendary playwright returns to Berkeley Rep to team up with Artistic Director Tony Taccone, who also staged Angels in America, Brundibar, Homebody/Kabul and Slavs! Travel to the moon—and to the afterlife—with Laura Bush, Nixon’s analyst, the queen of Albania and a host of real-life tax evaders, all adrift in an increasingly fragile world. In this co-production with the acclaimed Guthrie Theater, Kushner brings his brilliance and humor to bear in a sparkling string of one-act plays—and his gilded language is guided, as always, by an unwavering moral compass. Don’t miss these gems from a theatrical giant. Don’t miss Tiny Kushner.
the players
Tony Kushner is one of the most important and thought-provoking voices in American theatre. His many honors include a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, three Obies, a Golden Globe, an Emmy and the LAMBDA Literary Award for Drama.
Tony Taccone opened his hit production of Wishful Drinking on Broadway at Studio 54. With Tiny Kushner, he generates the same mix of intense emotion and timely politics that electrified shows like Continental Divide, Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell and Yellowjackets.
the buzz
Five playlets the SF Chron calls “Exhilarating…penetrating…buoyant… blistering…wicked! 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…Tiny Kushner delights!”—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
“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…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, colossally fanciful imagination and virtuosic gift for composing verbal arias are too much in evidence for that.”—New York Times
“Keenly directed by Tony Taccone, 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…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
“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
“A slam-bang series of five plays providing kaleidoscopic windows into the recesses of the artist’s fertile mind…Tiny Kushner exists in its own imaginative realm, engaged in the process of working out the American experience without approval or condemnation.”—Variety
“Tony [Taccone] is one of my oldest friends. We’ve done seven shows now, and I love the theatre he’s built. Any chance I get to work at Berkeley, I take it.”—Tony Kushner
“Mr. Kushner has a curious gene for prophecy…His plays transcend their specific historical time frames because he rides their anxiety at full throttle, resisting the American impulse to invoke closure and wrap things up after they’ve been cracked open…Kushner moves us, instead, by burrowing right into the open wounds of our cataclysmic modern America even as he memorializes the dead and mines the ashes for hope.”—New York Times
“Kushner takes an almost carnal glee in tackling the most difficult subjects in contemporary history…His attempt to see all sides of their predicament has a sly subversiveness. He forces the audience to identify with the marginalized—a humanizing act of the imagination.”—The New Yorker
“One of the best playwrights in the history of American theatre.”—The London Independent
more from the artists
“For people who think I’m an unbearably long-winded playwright, Tiny Kushner is proof that I can be unbearable in short plays as well! It’s always a great moment for me when I have a play opening at Berkeley Rep. It means I get to spend time among the gorgeous and brilliant people of the Bay Area, torturing myself with questions about why I don’t move there. And I get to work again with my great friend Tiny Taccone, oops I mean Tony Taccone—who isn’t tiny in the least; his talent is gigantic! Though in fact he is considerably shorter than me.”—Tony Kushner
“The coolest thing about Tiny Kushner is its endless sense of surprise and delight: five little plays that show off the playwright’s seemingly endless gifts with an economy that puts no pressure on the bladder. This is a man who can deliver words like food for every part of our starving bodies. And he is funny to boot. Welcome back, Tony Kushner. It’s been too long.”—Tony Taccone
multimedia
Comedy doesn’t come much funnier or smarter than Tiny Kushner
Many of the people you’ll meet in Tiny Kushner are based on real-life figures, including…
- Lucia Pamela, who, among other things, created a coloring book based on her trip to the moon (PDF). Get out your crayons and get to work. While on the moon, Lucia also recorded an album, which you can sample here.
- Howard Jarvis, an anti-tax crusader who also co-sponsored California’s controversial Proposition 13. Jarvis appears here on an October 1978 broadcast of The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
Playwright Tony Kushner is the subject of a documentary called Wrestling with Angels. Watch the trailer and clips.
from the blog
One actor, 23 parts and a storyboard
Storyboards help Tiny Kushner actor Jim Lichtscheidl tackle 23 big roles in one tiny play.
more buzz
The New York Times raves about Tiny Kushner and Berkeley Rep
Check in with the Tonys—Taccone and Kushner—in this SF Chronicle interview
Tony Kushner talks Tiny with the San Jose Mercury News
Press Photos
in-kind sponsors
Darling Flower Shop / Hotel Shattuck Plaza / Peet’s Coffee and Tea / Raymond Vineyards / Semifreddi’s / TCHO / Tomatina
season sponsors
