Playwright Martyna Majok’s ‘Sanctuary City’ is an unsentimental drama that will seep into your soul.
Theater
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At Berkeley’s Central Works stage, mothers and daughters are ‘Dreaming in Cuban’
An adaptation of Christina García’s 1992 novel, the play is about love, loneliness, suspicion, autonomy, patriotism, phantoms and spirituality.
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Women through the ages spar comically in Aurora Theatre’s ‘Wives’ but play fails to coalesce
The West Coast premiere of Jaclyn Backhaus’ play tries to jam four skits into one comedic show. The result lacks structure and cohesiveness.
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In ‘The Mojo and the Sayso,’ family’s love takes a turn after boy is killed by police
The Oakland Theater Project’s one-act production follows the Benjamin family, three years to the day after their 10-year-old son Linus was killed by an off-duty police officer.
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New play ‘Balikbayan Box’ tells a Filipino immigration love story
Jeffrey Lo’s play at TheatreFirst presents a modern arranged marriage, where love grows during the quest for a green card.
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A bravura performance by Desiree Rogers in Shotgun Players’ ‘A Small Fire’
How would we cope if we could no longer walk or lost the capacity to reason? The play explores how one exists when the inner life remains as the outer life fails.
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Berkeley Rep’s melodic musical ‘Octet’ explores the cacophony of the internet
Dave Malloy’s ingenious a capella chamber opera about an internet addict support group pierces a stake into the heart of the net, song by glorious song.
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Black Cal students’ theories of political change play out over decades in Aurora Theatre show
‘The Incrementalist,’ written by Berkeley City College professor Cleavon Smith, is steeped in Berkeley history and explores the ongoing conflict between students and the administration.
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‘Endlings’ resists sentimentalizing elderly Korean deep-sea abalone divers
All’s not paradise for the aquanauts in a new Oakland Theater Project production. But one Korean-American character, both tempted and pressured by the white gaze, is cynically writing a play about them.
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‘Escape from the Asylum’ is a delightful madcap comedy
The Berkeley Central Works production — a world premiere — has wit, a well-executed umbrella-sword fight and a comically melodramatic séance.
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Shotgun Players’ exuberant rock musical ‘Passing Strange’ explodes with youthful energy
Playing at the Ashby Stage through April 23, ‘Passing Strange’ is a picaresque journey of growing up set in South Central L.A. and pot-hazed Amsterdam.
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Berkeley psychiatrist’s first play follows family living under the shadow of Huntington’s disease
‘Red Winged Blackbird,’ on view at Live Oak Theater, is Alyosha Zim’s heartfelt story about brotherly love, generational strife, religion and life-and-death choices.
