British director Emma Rice’s production is ingenious, though the dancing, prancing and antics alter the story’s overall feel.
Emily S. Mendel
Freelancer Emily S. Mendel reviews Berkeley’s vibrant theater scene for Berkeleyside. As a native New Yorker (although now a 37-year East Bay resident), Emily grew up loving and studying theater, from Off Off to On Broadway, as her multi-volume Playbill collection attests. Ending her 30-year law practice has given Emily the time to indulge in her love of the arts and travel.
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Dramatic world premiere adaptation of Book of Sand
For a small company, Oakland Theater Project productions are professional and proficient. The play based on Borges’ 1975 short story is no exception.
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A brilliant West Coast premiere of ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812’
It was thrilling to see Shotgun Players produce the West Coast premiere of such a complex, multifaceted and challenging production.
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Pho-focused play tackles food appropriation
In “Colonialism is Terrible, But Phở is Delicious,” playwright Dustin Chinn offers an oft-comedic take on thorny issues of race, history and dining.
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The Great Comet of 1812 from Broadway to Berkeley
An interview with playwright Dave Malloy and Shotgun Players’ co-director Patrick Dooley. The sung-through musical premieres Saturday at the Shotgun Players’ Ashby Stage Theater.
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At Berkeley City Club, clever comic sketches explore range of Black women’s experiences
Playwright Mildred Inez Lewis’ world premiere, ‘The Museum Annex’ is a clever homage to the 1986 classic, ‘The Colored Museum.’
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‘We’re a theater, not a museum’: As he leaves Cal Shakes, Eric Ting reflects on making the classics relatable
Ting says he’s grateful for the community who “practice their art with a sense of justice at its core.”
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The king is a Fillmore District real estate magnate in Cal Shakes’ twist on ‘Lear’
The production, by Oakland’s Marcus Gardley, mirrors Shakespeare’s story, but reimagines it with a 21st-century, modern-verse vocabulary.
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Berkeley Rep’s ‘Ripple’ captures upstream swim for racial justice
A nuanced, poignant world premiere from playwright Christina Anderson reflects on a family’s campaign to integrate their hometown swimming pool.
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Adolescent girls fight their peeping pastor in Shotgun Players comedy ‘Man of God’
The astute comic revenge fantasy at the Ashby Stage has a somber, realistic ending.
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Thinking fast and thinking slow in Aurora Theatre’s ‘This Much I Know’
This adaptation of a best-selling nonfiction book is a thoughtful play about a psychology professor, his wife, an accident, Joseph Stalin’s daughter, and a white supremacist’s son.
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Young politico falls for jazz-singing ‘Goddess’ in jubilant Berkeley Rep musical
Ten years in the making, this world premiere at Berkeley Rep combines a Kenyan myth with a modern twist.