Press > Press coverage > Praise for past productions > Season 04/05

Press coverage

praise for past productions

“a magnetic monologuist…His voice, face and body are remarkably animated for someone just sitting behind a table. His comic timing is impeccable, building in tempo to astonishingly rapid, roared or whispered climaxes. His facial contortions and vocal mimicry are almost worth the price of admission alone.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Daisey’s a doozy…a funny guy and a commanding storyteller”—Oakland Tribune
“a darkly hilarious journey”—Contra Costa Times

“Startled laughter and gasps of recognition were plentiful at the opening of the last show of the Rep’s current season, and tears flowed freely in turn…[Honour] is fresh, funny and often penetrating. It’s also bracingly honest and deeply moving as performed by Kathleen Chalfant and the rest of the excellent cast in Tony Taccone’s insightful staging.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Superb…Berkeley Repertory Theatre concludes its 2004/05 Season on an amazing high. The company has two theaters and two of the best shows going in the Bay Area…The fact that Murray-Smith’s writing is so powerful and director Tony Taccone’s production is so captivating only makes it that much more difficult to look away…watching it feels so good and hurts so much”—Oakland Tribune
“brilliant…Making this all come together is director Tony Taccone, who keeps the show on a relentless pace…Chalfant, particularly, brings an astounding range to her performance”—Contra Costa Times
“dramatic, emotional, gripping…truly a theatrical masterpiece”—KGO Radio

The People’s Temple on NPR’s All Things Considered
Coverage of the show on KQED’s Spark
A feature in The London Guardian
A feature in the Christian Science Monitor
A feature in the New York Times (PDF)
A feature in the Los Angeles Times (PDF)
“a powerful work that deserves to be seen” —The London Guardian
“The unique power of theater to explore compelling stories as a communal experience is profoundly and movingly at work in The People’s Temple…turns the theater into a temple of community healing…one of the most penetrating and significant works of the season.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“What you don’t expect in a story like this one is the joy. But that’s what comes through…it enlivens and illuminates history in ways that feel vital and incredibly personal.” —Oakland Tribune
“true genius…The ensemble cast is simply incredible” —Contra Costa Times
“a revelation, a play so thought-provoking and disturbing that it leaves you wrestling with its ambiguities long after it’s over…the acting cuts to the bone.” —San Jose Mercury News

“expertly timed verbal and physical comedy…performed to perfection by Lockwood and Hoyle.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Geoff Hoyle is a comic genius…a slapstick, perfectly timed production that kept me laughing the whole time.” —KGO

“engagingly sensual…[an] impishly iconoclastic comedy, Fêtes is funny, provocative, wildly inventive and exceptionally well performed…remarkably entertaining.“—San Francisco Chronicle
“ooh-la-la…a decadent little valentine…The City of Lights becomes a canvas on which Mee madly layers brushstrokes of music, poetry and dance in a wildly inventive impressionistic collage.…he toys with language, flirts with music from classical to hip-hop, and revels in his ability to titillate an audience with the unexpected.”—San Jose Mercury News
“Party on! …a lovely and lively bouquet of fragrant Parisian scenes…surprises and delights, right up through its pink feather-filled finale…a scene called, appropriately, ‘Ecstasy.’”—Oakland Tribune

“a one-woman tour de force on race and culture in post-Sept. 11 America…Jones is a lithe multiethnic actress/playwright who can shed her skin on a dime. [She] has the anthropological eye of Anna Deveare Smith, the comic punch of Whoopi Goldberg and the live hip-hop vibe of Danny Hoch, a killer combination of talents.”—San Jose Mercury News
“The opening-night audience had been unceasingly supportive and appreciative.…Those who weren’t already fans were won over as soon as Jones began making her trademark instantaneous transitions from one indelibly drawn character to another.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Because Sarah Jones’ Bridge & Tunnel at Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a workshop production, there will be no reviews (although if there were, you can bet they’d be raves).…Bridge & Tunnel is heading for Broadway where, with any luck, the world at large will finally see what we’ve known for years: Sarah Jones is a genius.”—Oakland Tribune
“It is impossible to imagine Bridge & Tunnel getting any more polished before its Broadway debut. Already the one-woman show being workshopped at Berkeley Rep by writer/performer Sarah Jones is one of the funniest and most pointed theatrical pieces in the Bay Area.”—Contra Costa Times

To listen to Cathy Madison and Kevin Jackson on KPFA’s Against the Grain, click here and scroll down to November 29, 2004.
“searing, uplifting, heartbreaking, sexy, joyful…Polk County is all that and more.…the audience is literally on its feet.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“a blues score that rattles the soul so hard you can feel it in the bones.”—San Jose Mercury News
“remarkable…If this is any indication of the material it can find, Berkeley Rep ought to consider doing more musicals.”—Contra Costa Times
“You don’t want to mess with Big Sweet. But you do want to spend 2 1/2 hours in her company.”—Oakland Tribune
“a holiday show, one which makes you proud to be African.”—San Francisco Bay View

To listen to Paula Vogel speak about Eurydice on NPR’s Morning Edition, click here.
“visually astonishing…Waters’ sumptuously staged and musically paced production mirrors the script’s playfulness at every turn…brought to life by a terrific cast.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“a fresh pearl of a play…a madly quirky score and a ravishing cast.”—San Jose Mercury News
“incredibly beautiful…The actors are fantastic.”—Oakland Tribune

“pure theatrical gold…Captivatingly simple, disturbingly evocative and richly transgressive, Secret is a journey into fantasy and nightmares.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“a haunting tapestry of images and words that seduces the eye and ear…Zimmerman has taken choreography to the realm of poetry.”—San Jose Mercury News
“a breathless delight from beginning to end…”—Contra Costa Times