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Press coverage

praise for past productions

 

season 09/10

About In the Wake

  • San Francisco Chronicle interview with Lisa Kron
  • New York Times’ annual Summer Stages issue
  • Photos on Broadway World
  • “Remarkably impressive, highly entertaining…a wild ride through the frustrations of the urban left during the past decade…The characters are smart, quick and attractive. But what’s astonishing is the ease and wit with which Kron and director Leigh Silverman—the same team that created the brilliant Well—make the rapid volley of political arguments and artistic concepts not only exciting but also funny, moving and undeniably sexy. The heady blend of smart dialogue and characters, depicted by a superb cast, at times makes it a candidate to be the Angels in America of the Bush II decade…You’ll want to be able to say you saw it.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “Compelling…a startling examination of the politics of class and entitlement…The personal and the political collide in this riveting world premiere coproduction between Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group. It’s a smart and savory feast of angst and ideas…A brainy soap opera bursting with equal parts metaphor, romance and rhetoric.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
  • “It’s another magical evening of great theatre at Berkeley Rep…brilliantly directed by Leigh Silverman…The ensemble cast of seven actors is remarkable, handling emotional situations in top form. There is plenty of great humor, mostly in the first act, and then it becomes deep in human feelings. It is extremely well written and directed and is wonderfully performed.”—KGO-AM

About Girlfriend

  • Spinner feature
  • Los Angeles Times feature
  • San Francisco Chronicle feature
  • Feature in the Contra Costa Times and Bay Area News Group
  • Playbill story
  • Bay Area Reporter story
  • San Francisco Bay Times story
  • Interview on ABC-TV
  • Interview with Les Waters on KPFA
  • “Sweet and simple…This gay teen romance, which is having its world premiere at Berkeley Rep, is quaint in every sense—appealingly old fashioned, unusual in a pleasing way and just plain incongruous, the latter pertaining more to the work’s form than subject matter. To call this two-hander a show is almost to misrepresent its uncaffeinated charms…High schoolers have a knack for turning even banal occasions into karaoke moments, which is why Will and Mike’s eruptions seem perfectly natural. Granted, most such spontaneous outpourings aren’t backed by a band as hard-charging as the all-female one led by musical director Julie Wolf that accompanies the boys, but the effect of hearing “I’ve Been Waiting” and “You Don’t Love Me” will bring you back to your own awkward age, even if this is your first encounter with Sweet’s accessible sound…The ultimate impact of Girlfriend reminded me of a recent channel surfing experience, in which I happened to catch Justin’s first kiss with a boy on the ABC series Ugly Betty. Any appraising thoughts about the tenderly handled scene were quickly eclipsed by gratitude that some young person out there watching might understand that he’s all right and not alone. If he has eclectic good taste in music, he could even have Sweet blaring from his headphones.”—Los Angeles Times
  • “Beguiling…Love is in the air at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage. Throbbing teen hormones burst through the power-guitar chords and yearning anticipation trembles in the lyrics of Matthew Sweet’s songs. The flayed-skin raw nerves of adolescent insecurity and the awkwardness of first romance inform every glance, gesture and warbled note in the performances of Ryder Bach and Jason Hite…It’s a very different, much more intimate musical than the Rep’s previous two, Stew’s dynamic, art-rock Passing Strange and the extra-high-powered American Idiot, both of which moved to Broadway. Author, vocal arranger and co-orchestrator Todd Almond uses the melodic rock ballads and mood of Sweet’s 1991 album, Girlfriend, to craft a gentle, heartfelt, two-character chamber musical that celebrates the pain and joy of first love between gay teens in early ‘90s small-town Nebraska…The music, two attractive actors, and music director, keyboard player and vocalist Julie Wolf’s electrifying four-woman band make it an exhilarating joy.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “A blast from a universal past everyone seems to share…Not content with rocking Broadway with the Green Day blockbuster American Idiot and the funky alt-rock tuner Passing Strange, Berkeley Rep is raising the bar on hip new musicals again with the world premiere of Girlfriend, which revolves around the ‘90s power-pop hits of Matthew Sweet. Thoughtfully directed by Les Waters, Girlfriend is actually a simple, old-fashioned love story that happens to be about two boys falling for each other in the heartland. It’s a delicate gem of a musical that’s genuinely, well, sweet…From the clammy first date to the world-stopping first kiss, Girlfriend welcomes you back to the age of inarticulate innocence. Todd Almond nails the awkward pangs of teenage turbulence. He has a pitch-perfect ear for the peculiar musicality of gawky adolescent conversations [and] the show soars during the musical interludes as Sweet’s pop anthems sweep us away with their irresistible exuberance…At its most powerful, Girlfriend takes you back to the time in your life when your favorite pop songs took on an almost-religious significance. It’s as if you turned up the dial on your own redemption.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
  • “Girlfriend, the world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, represents an extraordinary feat in modern theater: This musical based on 1990s pop rocker Matthew Sweet’s cult-classic album of the same name is wholeheartedly sweet…Bach and Hite’s exceptional harmonies add oomph, making the tunes even richer than the recorded versions, while the crucial music is provided by the kick-butt, all-female band…Director Les Waters and choreographer-storyteller Joe Goode deftly focus both on touching details and the universal experience of young love, making Girlfriend a rare treat—authentic, intimate and romantic, and, as the ‘I’ve Been Waiting’ lyric goes, ‘perfect in so many ways.’”—San Francisco Examiner

About Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West

  • Interview with Naomi Iizuka in the San Francisco Chronicle
  • Playbill story about the show
  • Video on The Oregonian
  • Interview with Les Waters on KPFA
  • “Scintillating…a sexy puzzle…The shards of story, vintage and modern photos, lies, surmises, history and tattoos set the mind spinning about topics as varied as the art and commerce of photography, the ways in which humans love and use one another, a century of intercourse between Japan and America and the mutable relationships between appearance and reality. The latest Rep world premiere, Devices is an interlocking triptych of scenes from the past and present, smoothly articulated by director Les Waters on Mimi Lien’s sleek, inventive set of antique and modern locales. In scenes sharply punctuated by the photographic flashes of Alexander V. Nichols’ lights, and richly, cryptically upholstered in Leah Gelpe’s still and moving projections, the action spins forward from late 19th century Yokohama to 21st century Tokyo…Iizuka packs the 90 minutes of Devices so full of casual clues and odd payoffs that every moment is worth close attention. It helps that the premiere is so attentively staged and expertly performed. Waters and the actors mirror the questing poetry of Iizuka’s dialogue to assemble a puzzle that haunts the mind long afterward.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “Dazzling…Tantalizing images shimmer throughout Concerning Strange Devices From the Distant West. A sly, elliptical play in its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Naomi Iizuka’s drama touches on issues of art, authenticity and the elusive nature of perspective. It’s shot through with provocative visuals and intellectually stimulating themes…Sensitively directed by Les Waters, the intricate, 95-minute piece unfolds as a triptych of tales that form a complex jigsaw puzzle of a plot.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
  • “Prolific scribe Naomi Iizuka’s latest, Concerning Strange Devices From the Distant West, packs much food for thought into 95 intermission-less minutes: meditations on Japanese-U.S. culture clash, mutual attraction and stereotyping, the ambiguities of photography as art form and documentation, plus narrative mysteries spanning nearly 150 years. Like 36 Views, a prior Iizuka premiere at Berkeley Rep, Devices folds commentary about Western acquisitiveness and exoticization of the ‘mysterious East’ into complicated intrigue, albeit this time in less arch fashion. Expertly directed by Les Waters, this is a delicate yet piquant evening likely to do some traveling of its own.”—Variety
  • “Attention Broadway—get ready for another winner from Berkeley Repertory Theatre! Berkeley Rep just opened the world premiere of Naomi Iizuka’s Concerning Strange Devices From The Distant West, and it’s brilliantly directed by the Rep’s associate artistic director, Les Waters. From the opening curtain, I was mesmerized by the elaborate staging of this stunning story—the best staging that I’ve ever seen…There is a superb ensemble cast of five actors playing multiple roles, and with its intricate, clever combination of lights, sound and visuals, it will absolutely amaze you. When I say this is a ‘must-see,’ I really mean it.”—KGO-AM

About Coming Home

  • San Francisco Chronicle feature on Athol Fugard
  • Broadway World on the kids in the show
  • Playbill story
  • “Beautifully performed…South Africa’s pre-eminent playwright remains the eloquent conscience of the stage…Eugene Lee’s solid, distressed set—the haphazardly tin-roofed house in a trash-strewn landscape—and Jessica Ford’s colorful, ragged costumes vividly establish the social milieu, enhanced by Corrine K. Livingston’s lively sound design. Ruff and Silcott anchor the drama in performances riveting in nuanced watchfulness and unspoken subtext.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “Sensitively directed by Gordon Edelstein in its regional premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, it’s a gentle elegy to dashed dreams that strikes a mournful chord in the heart…It’s a poignant coda to Valley Song with a wistful resonance that creaks up on you as the story unfolds. Fugard’s gift for introspection, his ability to see the majesty in ordinary lives, remains unparalleled…Ruff tinges every move Veronica makes with the ache of regret. Her veiled glances at her son reverberate with impending loss. Tragedy laces her laughter and smile. Make no mistake, however, Fugard takes pains to lighten the wistfulness with comedy [and] has a keen eye for the rebirth of optimism in dark times…Edelstein is an old hand with the Fugard canon. He lets the heartbreaking power of the tale build slowly and subtly. Tiny moments echo with emotional intensity as Veronica faces her grief.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
  • “A dramatic masterpiece! Coming Home is a poignant, gripping drama with that special Fugard touch…The cast is superb, magnificently capturing the tormented situation. And, amidst this turmoil, Fugard is able to cleverly include some much-needed humor.”—KGO-AM
  • “Powerful…The interplay between the mom, son and friend provide the basis of the poignant, moving drama, which, in a beautifully understated way, addresses issues of poverty, disease and disrepair in contemporary South Africa, where things haven’t turned out so rosy, despite the end of apartheid. Key to this production’s success are standout performances by Roslyn Ruff as Veronica and Thomas Silcott as Alfred, whose changing emotions, feelings and physical health are revealed in their every word, song and body movement. They sell every line of Fugard’s often lyrical dialogue.”—San Francisco Examiner
  • “For over four decades, playwright Athol Fugard has doggedly traced the social currents of his native South Africa. He’s truly a national poet—his themes are sweeping, his style lyrical. His plays build on one another, transcending their individual plots to create a story with historical scope. Fugard’s newest play, Coming Home, which is currently running at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, speaks of dreams deferred then destroyed, and of the crushing disillusionment that follows a failed revolution. It’s bleak stuff, but its also tremendously moving and startlingly funny…South Africa has never been a lucky land, but it is blessed to have Fugard as its bard. Hopefully, he’ll continue to produce works as thoughtful and as moving as Coming Home, which will continue to inspire productions as masterful as the Berkeley Rep’s.”—Daily Californian

About Aurélia’s Oratorio

  • Playbill feature
  • Broadway World feature
  • “Delightfully surreal…Part nouvelle circus, part vaudeville of illusions, part fantastical free association, Oratorio is a whimsical showcase for the talents of Aurélia Thierrée, a performer who practically defines the word beguiling…From the moment she makes her first appearance—one possibly disconnected hand, foot or leg at a time—she has the audience at her intricately inventive mercy…At a mere 70 minutes long, Oratorio is packed with enough delights for a show twice as long. It may not have been designed specifically for the holidays, but it’s like a Christmas stocking stuffed with one gift after another.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “Wildly innovative…Aurélia’s Oratorio is top-notch family entertainment. Berkeley Repertory Theatre takes fierce pride in finding and presenting unusual and offbeat holiday entertainment. This year’s prize is Aurélia’s Oratorio, a part-vaudeville, part-circus, part-dance, part-comedy created by Victoria Thierree Chaplin and starring her daughter Aurélia Thierrée…Don’t let the high-flying French titles hold you back, Aurélia’s Oratorio is an effervescent blend of hilarious innovation and old-fashioned knock-your-socks-off entertainment…In short, this is one of the most unusual and uncanny shows to come along in some time. It works well for the holidays simply because it is suitable and entertaining for all ages, and still entertains beautifully on any number of artistic levels.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
  • “A delightful holiday production…A world of wonderment and impossibilities—from illusions, dancing, aerial stunts and puppetry to tricks of physical dexterity…And it’s all performed with plenty of great humor while keeping you mesmerized by the cleverness of the talented cast. I’ve never seen anything quite like it as it combines a bit of circus, magic and comedy in one show and performed at breakneck speed. It’s perfect for the whole family, and your little ones will never have an attention deficit—it really moves. Don’t miss Aurélia’s Oratorio.”—KGO-AM
  • “It’s such a relief during the Nutcracker-Christmas Memory-Carol-In Wales season to catch a show that creates a wonderland without the winter. Not a beat is lost as Aurélia morphs from bored vamp trapped in a chest of drawers to tempest-tossed refugee on the high seas (and higher rafters) to befuddled homemaker with a penchant for the topsy-turvy, sometimes pursued by the excellent Jaime Martinez, whose knockout, drag-down street brawls with his recalcitrant overcoat are just one example of the physical wit that permeates the piece…Aurélia’s Oratorio combines the best of mime, acrobatics, dance, and design, to create a circuitous, circus revel guaranteed to transport and to charm.”—SF Bay Guardian
  • “Aurélia Thierrée grew up in the circus, and she has the rubber-band body to prove it. Her new show, Aurélia’s Oratorio—which runs through January 24 at Berkeley Rep—comprises seventy minutes of body contortions and optical illusions, done in a Frenchy cirque nouveau style…Aurélia and Jaime seduce their audience rather than each other. The idea is to teleport us into a dream world where objects behave in mysterious ways, and everything seems to symbolize something else…Some of Aurélia’s gags are pure childish fun, but others bear deeper implications about mortality, desire, or the intrusion of technology…It’s a show of tricks and ‘aha’ moments, scraped clean of narrative but given a sequential arc nonetheless. And, like a dream, it flies by.”—East Bay Express

About Tiny Kushner

  • New York Times feature (PDF)
  • NPR interview with Tony Kushner
  • San Francisco Chronicle feature
  • Playbill story
  • “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, and the double pedigree—playwright and theater—is attention-getting…Individually and even collectively, 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 (he’s Arthur Miller’s heir, in that regard), colossally fanciful imagination and virtuosic gift for composing verbal arias are too much in evidence for that…They have been directed with wry precision by Mr. Kushner’;s longtime collaborator, Tony Taccone, the Berkeley Rep’s artistic director; the four actors all handle Mr. Kushner’s serious humor with engaging aplomb, but you never lose the sense that it’s the playwright who is performing…Tiny Kushner might well find a wide audience. Given Berkeley Rep’s recent history, that wouldn’t be a surprise. Like ballplayers, theaters sometimes get hot, rapping out hits with unlikely regularity, and the Rep, 41 this year, is on fire.”—New York Times
  • “Five easy pieces: Kushner’s short plays stand tall…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.”—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
  • “Scintillating…makes a thundering impact…Keenly directed by Tony Taccone in its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 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. Dizzying gyrations in tone and theme come with the territory as Kushner contemplates the postmodern American experience. 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
  • “The only tiny thing about Tiny Kushner is that it’s made up of five short one-acts. The play, by Tony, Emmy and Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner, perhaps best known for the epic Angels in America, is 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

About American Idiot

  • New York Times feature, announcement and review
  • Rolling Stone reports on the cast
  • MTV interview with the band
  • LA Times feature and review
  • Green Day interview on Access Hollywood
  • Cover story in the San Francisco Chronicle
  • Story in the London Guardian
  • Entertainment Weekly interview with Billie Joe Armstrong
  • Cover story in Theatre Bay Area
  • John Gallagher, Jr. on NPR’s Forum
  • Feature in Diablo
  • Story in Spin
  • Billboard story
  • “American Idiot is that rare creature, a true rock opera…directed with polish and precision by Michael Mayer, on a spectacular set by Christine Jones…Green Day’s potent gift for irresistible tunes delivers the emotional contours of the story…their lushly melodic music is played with impressive raw power…American Idiot possesses a stimulating energy and a vision of wasted youth that holds us in its grip.”—New York Times
  • “Irresistible…visually mesmerizing…aesthetically dazzling and socio-politically stark…Attention, everyone. We have a theatrical bulletin coming in: Music videos have just made an artistic breakthrough. And the form has gone live. The site of this unexpected and, yes, rather loud development is Berkeley Rep, where American Idiot, the show based on Green Day’s multi-platinum 2004 concept album, is having its world premiere…Kinetically entertaining in a way that intentionally reflects the shallow, media-saturated culture the album rails against, American Idiot (the musical) does what rock bands have set out to do from the beginning—lay down a style that defines a new zeitgeist…American Idiot translates Green Day’s generational angst into a moody theatrical fantasia…Gallagher has the slacker charm and seductive snarl of a rock god [and] Mayer does an astonishing job of keeping everything in fluid motion.”—Los Angeles Times
  • “Wildly entertaining…The music of Green Day practically blasts the lid off Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre. The cast and creative crew match the pulsating wall of sound for sheer energy and pump it up with Broadway-quality pipes, stage-rattling, thrashing choreography, flying bodies and walls crammed with pulsating video and projected images. Never has the Roda appeared more expansive yet bursting with images and action.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “Rock on! The much-anticipated Green Day musical delivers big-time. It really does explode in your heart like a hand grenade…this genre-bending 95-minute show runs through Nov. 1. It’s a stream-of-consciousness punk epic that rattles the brain, and if there’s any justice in the world it will head east shortly thereafter…On the heels of Passing Strange, the last alternative-rock musical Berkeley Rep sent to Broadway, this production marks the troupe’s emergence as a major player in the development of hip, new musicals that harness the effervescence of pop culture.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
  • “A wonderful, dream-like show…There’s a cast of 19 who are the most energetic performers I’ve ever seen, and a nine-piece band located on five different levels…It’s going to be some crowded houses. It’s going to be a tough ticket to get—but if you can get it, go for it!”—KGO-AM
  • “A sure-fire crowd pleaser…The cast, led by Tony-winner John Gallagher Jr., is phenomenal and the physicality they bring to the show and Steven Hoggett’s punk-esque choreography deserves a lot of praise. The sets, lighting, video and projection design are all amazing…It’s always cool to see a work as ambitious as this in its early stages and to be able to say you were there at the beginning.”—SFist.com

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