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Season 2008/09 plays
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Main season
In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)
Limited season
Subscribe now and enjoy substantial savings on tickets to all these plays, as well as other benefits, discussed here.
We reserve the right to change plays and dates in order to bring you extraordinary theatre.
yellowjackets
Written by Itamar Moses
Directed by Tony Taccone
Main Season / Thrust Stage
August 29–October 19, 2008
World Premiere
The play
The season kicks off with the world premiere of an incisive play set in Berkeley and written by a Berkeley native. Nationally known playwright Itamar Moses returns to his hometown with a script set just around the corner in the halls of his alma mater, Berkeley High. When the school newspaper publishes an insensitive story, students suddenly find themselves embroiled in a volatile controversy—and even their teachers seem unprepared to deal with the repercussions. Artistic Director Tony Taccone directs Yellowjackets, a compelling collision of race and class that forces us to examine familiar surroundings with fresh eyes.
The players
After graduating from Berkeley High, Itamar Moses attended Yale and New York Universities—and later taught playwriting at both schools. Although only 30 years old, he’s penned popular plays like Bach at Leipzig, Celebrity Row, The Four of Us and Outrage that have been produced off Broadway and nationwide.
Tony Taccone took two recent shows from Berkeley Rep to New York City: he made his Broadway debut with Sarah Jones’ Bridge & Tunnel, which won a Tony Award for its star, and also directed a sold-out run of Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak’s Brundibar in Times Square. With Yellowjackets, he generates the same mix of intense emotion and timely politics that electrified shows like Continental Divide, Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell and Taking Over.
The buzz
“Moses clearly has a playful mind, an adventurous breadth of curiosity, and a delightful appreciation of the tension between form and meaning.”—Newsday
His writing is “brashly sophisticated, cuttingly comic, boldly brainy, verbally baroque, structurally complex, and altogether virtuosic.”—Chicago Sun-Times
joe turner’s come and gone
Written by August Wilson
Directed by Delroy Lindo
In association with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre
Main Season / Roda Theatre
October 31–December 14, 2008
The play
Renowned actor Delroy Lindo returns to Berkeley Rep with the play that netted him a nomination for the Tony Award—but this time, he’s in the director’s chair. Following last year’s triumph with Tanya Barfield’s Blue Door, Lindo takes on August Wilson’s African-American epic, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Haunted by seven years on a chain gang, Herald Loomis appears in Pittsburgh to reunite his family. Surrounded by the vibrant tenants of a black boarding house, he fights for his soul and his song in the dawning days of a century without slavery.
The players
Delroy Lindo came to prominence with his Broadway performance in Master Harold…and the Boys, and he reinforced his reputation with major roles in films such as The Cider House Rules, Get Shorty and Malcolm X. In his third outing as a director, Lindo works on a bigger stage: Berkeley Rep’s state-of-the art Roda Theatre.
August Wilson’s countless accolades include two Pulitzer Prizes, the Tony Award for Best Play, two Drama Desk Awards, an Olivier Award and eight prizes for Best Play from the New York Drama Critics Circle—including one for Joe Turner’s.
The buzz
“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is an intoxicatingly hopeful blend of history, mystery, myth, ribald humor, music, dance, and enduring faith.”—Chicago Reader
“Wilson gives haunting voice to the souls of the American dispossessed…The clash between the American and the African shakes white and black theatergoers as violently as it has shaken the history we’ve all shared.”—New York Times
the arabian nights
Written and directed by Mary Zimmerman
Adapted from The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night
A co-production with Kansas City Repertory Theatre
Main Season / Thrust Stage
November 13, 2008–January 4, 2009
The play
Mary Zimmerman’s Argonautika was a sold-out, seven-week sensation. Now she returns to Berkeley Rep with her remarkable take on The Arabian Nights. The Tony Award-winning creator of Metamorphoses made her career by reanimating ancient myths, and here she breathes new life into the legend of the 1,001 nights. To save her life, a beautiful bride must spin hypnotic tales of genies, jesters, thieves and kings—winning her freedom by eventually winning her husband’s heart. As he falls under Scheherazade’s spell, Zimmerman enchants the audience as well with her signature style that transforms simplicity into the sublime. Amidst a thousand tales of honor, revenge and humor, only love emerges victorious.
The players
Mary Zimmerman received the 2002 Tony Award for directing Metamorphoses. Like her other hits—Argonautika, Journey to the West, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci and The Secret in the Wings—that show made its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep. This is her sixth production at Berkeley Rep, and this time she works her magic on the intimate Thrust Stage.
The buzz
“If you want theatre at its most unpretentiously poetic, most fetchingly stylish, as humane as it is elegant, I commend to you The Arabian Nights. [It] sails as smoothly and magically as the caliph’s boat on the moonlit waves of the Tigris.”—New York magazine
“The fables delight and instruct while steaming toward an unsettling finish.”—Washington Post
“Zimmerman has the kind of transforming theatrical touch that reconnects audiences to what live theater is all about.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“[A] feast for the eyes and ears.”—Chicago Magazine
“Zimmerman could stage the Chicago phone book and have it be fascinating.”—USA Today
in the next room (or the vibrator play)
Written by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Les Waters
Main Season / Roda Theatre
January 30–March 15, 2009
World Premiere
The play
Coming in January, it’s the world premiere of In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), written by Sarah Ruhl and staged by Les Waters. Last time these two extraordinary talents teamed up at Berkeley Rep, they gave birth to Eurydice, the beguiling show which went on to New Haven and New York—hitting the year’s Top 10 list in Time magazine and the New York Times. Now the prominent pair reunites to consummate another play of love and longing, commissioned by Berkeley Rep. In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) illuminates the lives of six lonely people seeking relief from a local doctor—but, despite his expertise with a strange new technology, all they really need is intimacy. It’s a tender tale that takes place in the twilight of the Victorian age, an elegant comedy lit by unexpected sparks from the approaching era of electricity, equality, science and sexuality.
The players
Sarah Ruhl is the author of acclaimed plays such as The Clean House, Dead Man’s Cell Phone and Passion Play: A Cycle. The young writer has already earned a MacArthur Fellowship, the Helen Merrill Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a Whiting Writers’ Award and a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize.
Les Waters won an Obie Award for Big Love and his shows have ranked among the Top 10 Plays of 2007 in Time Magazine, 2006 in the New York Times and 2005 in TimeOut New York. His recent hits here at home include The Glass Menagerie, The Pillowman and TRAGEDY: a tragedy.
The buzz
“Many playwrights aspire to geniusdom, but few have it thrust upon them at the ripe age of 32…Soft-spoken and refined, Ruhl has a girlish quality that belies the emotional and artistic complexity of her plays.”—TimeOut New York
“Ruhl, like Dickinson, is a wild original…Even when she tackles darker topics—heartbreak, loss, disease, and death—her touch is light.”—Smithsonian
“I have worked with many stunning young voices, but I have been blessed with a continuing conversation with Ruhl over the years…I turn to Sarah as a trusted and beloved colleague who still has one of the most unique minds in theater I’ve encountered.”—Paula Vogel, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
“The Golden Ruhl has the Midas touch.”—Washington Post
you, nero
Written by Amy Freed
Directed by Sharon Ott
Co-produced with South Coast Repertory
Main Season / Thrust Stage
May 15–June 28, 2009
World Premiere Production
The play
In a new comedy from local writer Amy Freed, not only does Nero fiddle while Rome burns, he fills the Colosseum with an incendiary mix of sex and decadence. The egotistical emperor commands a washed-up scribe to create an extravagant show which flatters his regime. But to stage the script he must survive the real spectacle at the palace, where his mother, his mistress and an entourage of eunuchs play an elaborate game of deceit and seduction. Sharon Ott directs this smart and sassy show, as beloved actor Danny Scheie portrays the preposterous king. In You, Nero, Freed lets loose the tigers on a crumbling empire obsessed with shallow celebrities, violent sports and sensational entertainment. When Rome unravels like its reality TV, everyone wants to get in the emperor’s new clothes.
The players
Amy Freed, an artist-in-residence at Stanford University, has delighted local audiences with clever comedies like The Beard of Avon and Restoration Comedy. Her script Freedomland was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
In her 13 years as artistic director of Berkeley Rep, Sharon Ott led the company to new artistic heights, national prestige and a well-deserved Tony Award. During her tenure, she directed memorable productions of Heartbreak House, Twelfth Night, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, The Woman Warrior and Yankee Dawg You Die.
The buzz
“Gloriously funny…I’m tempted to quote at length, but the play’s delirious charm would surely fizzle in sober newsprint. For evidence of its irresistible appeal I’ll just report that the audience staggered out into the sunny spring afternoon with stomachs sore from laughter, and that I await a New York production with unusual relish.”—New York Times
“Freed has a striking comic voice that is dark but exhilarating and honest…she shows a hunger for drama and a divine spark of wit [with] a gift for antic detail.”—Los Angeles Times
crime and punishment
Written by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Adapted by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus
Directed by Sharon Ott
Limited Season / Thrust Stage
February 27–March 29, 2009
The play
Sharon Ott returns to the stage where she earned her national reputation with a gripping production of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic Crime and Punishment. As a police inspector interrogates a man about murder, we journey through the mind of a criminal. What did he do? Why did he do it? And what would you be capable of in certain circumstances? Before Law & Order, there was Crime and Punishment. Performed in 90 minutes with only three actors, this chamber piece compresses all the tension and pathos of the novel into a powerful evening of theatre. Dive into the greatest crime story ever written, a tale of murder, motive and redemption that plumbs the depths of the human soul.
The players
In her 13 years as artistic director of Berkeley Rep, Sharon Ott led the company to new artistic heights, national prestige and a well-deserved Tony Award. During her tenure, she directed memorable productions of Heartbreak House, Twelfth Night, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, The Woman Warrior and Yankee Dawg You Die.
One of the world’s most influential authors, Fyodor Dostoevsky is best known for The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot and Notes from the Underground. He was so popular in his native Russia that he was hailed as a prophet and a mystic in the 19th century.
The buzz
“Stunningly lean, taut, and emotionally searing.”—Chicago Sun-Times
“Remarkably absorbing…Crime and Punishment, in a feat that rivals the construction of the Hoover Dam, has been distilled into a taut 90-minute play by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus [that] will banish any bad memories you might have of trying to struggle through Dostoevsky’s book.”—New York Times
“The novels of Dostoevsky are seething whirlpools, gyrating sandstorms, waterspouts which hiss and boil and suck us in. They are composed purely and wholly of the stuff of the soul. Against our wills we are drawn in, whirled round, blinded, suffocated, and at the same time filled with a giddy rapture. Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading.”—Virginia Woolf
the lieutenant of inishmore
Written by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Les Waters
Limited Season / Roda Theatre
April 17–May 17, 2009
The play
April is the cruelest—and most hilarious—month, when Les Waters lets loose with another shocking script from Martin McDonagh. In 2007, the Obie Award-winning director scored a direct hit with his extended run of The Pillowman; since then, the Oscar Award-winning author released his first feature film, In Bruges. Now Berkeley Rep reenlists these seasoned artists for another vicious comedy. The Lieutenant of Inishmore employs explosive dialogue and a perfectly oiled plot that is brutal, bloody, yet irresistibly funny. As part of an I.R.A. splinter group, Padraic thinks nothing of murdering and mutilating his enemies—but the sudden death of his beloved cat leaves him heartbroken. Amidst the comedy and carnage, McDonagh delivers cutting commentary on the endless cycle of violence that engulfs our world.
The players
Martin McDonagh won a Tony Award for The Beauty Queen of Leenane, an Oscar for his short film, Six Shooter, and England’s prestigious Olivier Award for The Pillowman. The New Yorker places him on the highest plane of playwrights, pointing out that he’s the “first dramatist since Shakespeare to have four works professionally produced on the London stage in a single season!”
Les Waters won an Obie Award for Big Love and his shows have ranked among the Top 10 Plays of 2007 in Time Magazine, 2006 in the New York Times and 2005 in Time Out New York. His recent hits here at home include The Glass Menagerie, The Pillowman and TRAGEDY: a tragedy.
The buzz
“Best bloody play I ever saw…the more outrageously over the top it became as the bizarre evening progressed, the funnier it was…no play I’ve seen in years of theatergoing begins to approach the mad daring of Inishmore. Put simply, this is the first farce about terrorism in the history of the whole wide beautiful world…Its singular playwright has us laughing at our blackest fears.”—New York Observer
“It’s perversely amusing and alarmingly real. Audience members regularly scream in shock…His special genius is creating the onstage moment that is simultaneously appalling and funny, macabre and ridiculous, forcing you to wince, then laugh, and then wince about what you’re laughing at.”—Washington Post
“Gleeful and macabre…McDonagh bravely pushes ugliness to the extreme. As the river of blood becomes a sea, dripping down over the lip of the stage[,] The Lieutenant of Inishmore is a sort of cautionary fairy tale for our toxic times.”—The New Yorker
“Razor sharp…This is a terrific play about a serious subject that’s touched with a Monty Pythonesque insanity.”—London Guardian
“Appallingly entertaining…please turn off your political correctness monitor along with your cell phone…Blood winds up on pretty much every surface in The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Martin McDonagh’s gleeful, gruesome play about political terrorism in rural Ireland, which won the Olivier Award (the British equivalent of the Tony) for best comedy. The red stuff is splashed, spattered and smeared over walls, floors, furniture, clothes, skin and cat’s fur. The fur is the main thing. For it is a mutilated cat that sets off the Euripidean cycle of murderous revenge that occupies two fast hours of hit-and-run traffic on the stage…All that’s left is for the production to keep stepping on the gas, until it runs into one of those twisted snares of an ending that are Mr. McDonagh’s specialty…Lieutenant is brazenly and unapologetically a farce. But it is also a severely moral play, translating into dizzy absurdism the self-perpetuating spirals of political violence that now occur throughout the world…some of the sharpest subversion of classic theatrical talk since the heyday of Joe Orton.”—New York Times
Subscribe now and enjoy substantial savings on tickets to all these plays, as well as other benefits, discussed here.
box office contact info
Location
2025 Addison Street
Berkeley, CA 94704
Hours
Tuesday–Sunday, noon–7pm
CLOSED MONDAY
Telephone
510 647–2949
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Fax
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Special needs?
Both our theatres are wheelchair-accessible, and we offer free assisted-listening devices at all performances. We also offer audio descriptions of the performances for the visually-impaired and scripts for the hearing-impaired through our box office. We are happy to work with you to accommodate any other needs you may have.
In addition, we will offer open captioning of The Arabian Nights on Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 2pm. Please call the box office for specially located tickets.
For more information on these services call us at 510 647–2949.
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