Press > Press coverage > Praise for past productions

Press coverage

praise for past productions

season 10/11

About Let Me Down Easy

Interview on NPR’s Forum
Interview on NPR’s California report
Interview on CBS’ Bay Sunday
Interview on KPFA’s Cover to Cover
San Francisco Chronicle feature
AlterNet feature
“Extraordinary…This is Smith at the top of her unique documentary theater form, in writing, performance and timeliness. As she did in her landmark 1990s ‘riot’ plays—Fires in the Mirror (about the Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn) and Twilight: Los Angeles—Smith picks a topic, conducts numerous interviews and weaves excerpts from a dozen or more into a compelling, multifaceted dramatic exploration…The result is pure theatrical gold and something more—a topic of vital interest looked at from so many different angles that it can’t help but advance the conversation.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Dazzling…a mind-blowing 105-minute, one-woman show. While some actors lose their laser-sharp edge after taking TV gigs, Smith remains at the top of her craft…Certainly the Pulitzer nominee raises the bar for herself in terms of distilling complex ideas, from the politics of class to the relationship between death and culture, into tiny little vignettes that resonate with a universe of nuance. Smith invites us to attend a town hall of one where she channels a chorus of 20 voices that seem to speak for us all.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group

About Three Sisters

San Francisco Chronicle feature
“A three-ring circus of impending, new and ongoing heartbreaks…The painful frustrations of misplaced hopes in Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters can be excruciating. So are the pleasures in director Les Waters’ luminous production that opened Wednesday at Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage. Working with a crisp, breezy new English version by Sarah Ruhl (based on a literal translation), Waters’ sterling cast brings Chekhov’s masterpiece to life as if it were taking place today…This is Chekhov orchestrated with the immediacy of Waters’ stagings of Ruhl’s Eurydice or In the Next Room. Its fierce beauty suffuses every moment and reaches for immortality in the riveting locked eyes of Payne and McKenzie when circumstances tear them apart.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Remarkable…In Sarah Ruhl’s exhilarating new take on the classic at the Berkeley Rep, where it will run through May 22, she beautifully captures what happens when your dream dies but you must keep forging ahead anyway, as regret slowly erodes your soul. Ruhl is no stranger to the realm of the melancholy. The Pulitzer and Tony nominee (Eurydice, The Clean House, Dead Man’s Cell Phone) has made her name on heroines as wistful as they are quirky. She has peerless theatrical instincts, as does her longtime collaborator Les Waters, who directs this sparse new translation with electrifying results. Ruhl doesn’t call attention to herself here. Instead she lets the play breathe with a simple, unmannered approach to the drama that makes it seem shockingly contemporary. She’s faithful to the master dramatist, but she also opens the play up so that these Three Sisters speak to us as directly as if they lived next door instead of in a remote country house in the Russian hinterlands.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s latest production is the fresh translation by Sarah Ruhl and Les Waters of Anton Chekhov’s classic, Three Sisters…It is both happy and sad yet it does have plenty of humor. There’s a superb ensemble cast of 14 talented actors and a magnificent changeable set with wonderful lighting. In Berkeley Rep fashion, it is a sensational dramatic presentation…It’s classic drama at its very best.”—KGO-AM
“Anton Chekhov’s bleak and masterful Three Sisters opened at the Berkeley Repertory Theater last night, and for three bold hours, held the audience suspended in the liminal space between hope and despair; love and utter ambivalence as well as a bit of humor. Playwright Sarah Ruhl’s new version is based on a literal translation by Elise Thoron with Natalya Paramonova and Kristin Johnsen-Neshati and it is magnificent. Directed with consummate skill by Les Waters and performed by a splendid ensemble cast, Berkeley Rep’s Three Sisters is a powerful adaptation of Chekhov’s classic that captures the lyricism and ennui of his work in an accessible and compelling production that is sure to be talked about for years to come.”—Broadway World

About Ruined

San Francisco Chronicle feature
NPR/KRCB-FM review (mp3)
Interview for Wanda’s Picks
“Riveting…Ruined seethes with the brute energy of combat and soars with hard-won compassion and love…Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize winner and a dynamic cast make the drama as engrossing as it is thought-provoking…More remarkably, Nottage finds a ray of hope, even joy, for the women and men trapped in this ongoing nightmare. The pain and the glory make an indelible impression in director Liesl Tommy’s richly textured staging.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Undeniable…Randy Duncan’s choreography is explosive. The cast is uniformly riveting. Each actress sensitively delivers her own aria of suffering [and] for her part, Patano captures Mama’s gentleness as well as her steel. She’s tough enough to suggest a diamond hardened under pressure but soft enough so that the play’s rare moments of uplift ring true. Sophie’s singing has a transcendent quality that suggests the healing power of art. Christian’s mockery of the butchers that plague the land is unexpectedly funny. And an unexpected romance has tearful charm.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group

About The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs / The Last Cargo Cult

New York Times feature
Bay Citizen interview with Steve Wozniak
KCBS-AM interview with Mike Daisey
ABC News feature
Tech Crunch video interviews
MarketWatch feature
San Francisco Chronicle feature
Interview on KPFA’s Against the Grain
CNET feature
Cult of Mac feature
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs

“In one of the indefatigable raconteur’s most tightly constructed, passionate and socially engaged monologues yet, Daisey’s anger and biting comedy stem from his heartbreak as a former longtime ‘worshiper in the house of Mac.’ Together with The Last Cargo Cult, which Daisey is performing in repertory with this piece, Agony fills out a trenchant and funny critique of what might be the most deeply held, if unacknowledged, beliefs in our culture. In Cargo, he visits an actual cargo cult in the remote South Pacific, juxtaposing its overt worship of material goods with a look at the depth of our faith in money. In Agony, he takes on the worship of technology and its high priest, because religion is, in essence, ‘the way we see the world.’”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Mike Daisey takes a bite out of the cult of Apple in The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Daisey first established himself as the bard of the dotcom milieu with his breakthrough hit 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com, a tale of late ‘90s cyber serfdom. Now he returns to his obsession with computers in a stinging indictment of the dark side of technology. A wisecracking cross between Michael Moore and Spalding Gray, the rubber-faced performer fuses the high-voltage nerviness of standup with a muckraker’s sense of gonzo journalism in his latest one-man show…One of the most trenchant pieces of political theater to come down the pike in ages. In this freewheeling theatrical essay, he doesn’t just hold Jobs’ feet to the fire. He doesn’t just question the morality of capitalism. He forces theatergoers to take a hard look at the glowing screens in their pockets and ask where they came from and at what cost…Certainly there is nowhere in the world where Daisey’s call to arms hits closer to home.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Master storyteller Mike Daisey’s one-man-show The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs is a theater piece that every Apple fan should see. It’s a laugh-out-loud monologue about the world of Apple, but it delivers an important message…Daisey’s show would be unpalatable if it wasn’t so funny. It’s a roller-coaster ride. He takes the audience up with funny observations about Apple and Steve Jobs, and then delivers some uncomfortable truths about the modern industrial system that is largely invisible to consumers outside Asia. I laughed my head off for two hours, but I left feeling ashamed to turn my iPhone back on. The show is highly recommended. If you’re coming to Macworld this week, head across the Bay to Berkeley (it’s an easy BART ride) and check out Daisey’s show. It’s an eye-opener.”—Cult of Mac

The Last Cargo Cult

“Scintillating…Daisey applies his robust comic style and challenging insights to the aftermath of the banking meltdown…No other monologist rants as captivatingly as Daisey, or copes so incisively with the transgressive topic of money…Between regaling us with the comic and telling details of our shopping habits and the islanders’ worship of Western material goods—‘the same religion we practice today’—Daisey plunges into thought-provoking looks at the artificial value of money and the ‘pyramid scheme’ of international finance.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Amazing…Mike Daisey returns to Berkeley Rep with hilarious, provocative Cargo Cult. Had it been possible for Garrison Keillor and Sam Kinison to have a child together, the result could easily have been Mike Daisey…His amazing stock-in-trade is his ability to begin discussing two seemingly separated-by-miles topics—in this case the South Pacific island of Tanna, where people worship the vast riches and technological advances of the United States (hence the name ‘Cargo Cult’), and Americans’ love of money yet ignorance of the banking and investment system that nearly brought us to ruin. He manages to bring both topics together, make sense of them and make us realize we have much more in common with this remote island than we might believe.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group

About Lemony Snicket’s The Composer is Dead

San Francisco Chronicle feature
SF Classical Voice feature
“Visual magic…It’s a movie. It’s a vaudeville act. It’s a concert. It’s a puppet show. Actually, it’s all of the above and something all its own. Lemony Snicket’s The Composer Is Dead, a new work that opened Thursday at Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, isn’t quite a play but a curiously engaging concoction of theater, film and musical elements as a genially offbeat arts primer. As performed by master comic Geoff Hoyle and a magnificent ensemble of marionettes and all kinds of other puppets, it’s a funny and often ingenious children’s entertainment elevated to a mainstage position at one of the nation’s leading theater companies.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Wickedly droll…fun for whole family…as wildly funny as it is perverse…a delightful piece of theater. It is a roaringly angry parody of everything those of us who consider ourselves on the cutting edge of cultural literacy hold dear. It is also an unflinching demolition of a culture we who treasure watching PBS and listening to NPR eagerly plunge into our wallets to generously support during the various pledge weeks. In short, it is an opportunity for all of us to laugh our clenched bottoms off as we excuse the hourlong show as a delightfully clever introduction to classical music for the kiddies.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Berkeley Repertory Theatre has opened the perfect show for the holidays. It’s a madcap production called The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket. The only human in the show is the prince of clowns, Geoff Hoyle; the rest of the cast are puppets portraying members of a symphony…There are hilarious characters, visual delights, stage magic and loads of laughs. And, the show runs just one hour, perfect for your little ones’ attention spans. It’s something brand new in theatrical comedy and is a delightful surprise. I loved it.”—KGO-AM

About The Great Game: Afghanistan

San Francisco Chronicle feature
Interview on KPFA’s Cover to Cover
“There’s no doubt that the Tricycle Theatre’s The Great Game: Afghanistan is one of the theatrical events of the season…This is no polemic. It’s a timely history lesson, an animated primer to add context to one of the era’s most pressing issues. It’s also strikingly staged by Tricycle director Nicolas Kent, who created the project, and co-director Indhu Rubasingham…Jemma Redgrave, of the great English acting dynasty, is riveting…It’s performed by 14 fine actors in three parts, separately or in all-day weekend marathons. Go for the marathon”—San Francisco Chronicle
“A masterwork…a stunning, epic look at Afghanistan’s turbulent history…When it’s over, you are numb, frustrated, energized, drained, entertained, more empathetic than sympathetic and more convinced than ever in the belief that those who ignore history are bound to repeat it…If nothing else, this complex and engaging play, directed by Nicholas Kent and Indhu Rubasingham, will give you a better understanding of the situation in Afghanistan and how we got there. But not to be overlooked is the wonderful theatrical ride that is provided by just 13 actors performing a multitude of characters in the plays and scenes that make up the work. Watching these actors (many of whom you might recognize from British TV shows on American television) work is quite amazing.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Berkeley Rep’s Great Game is powerful…Going to see all three plays will definitely provide theatergoers with a deeper understanding of a 170-year swath of Afghanistan’s history. They will see some fine acting as well. Many members of the Tricycle’s London company are simply outstanding, including Jemma Redgrave (of the famous acting family).”—Bay Citizen

About Compulsion

San Francisco Chronicle interview with Mandy Patinkin, with more questions from the interview posted on the Chronicle’s blog
JTA story distributed nationwide, which appeared locally in J Weekly
“Riveting…Virtuoso acting is just one reason to see Rinne Groff’s Compulsion, which opened Thursday at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage: Patinkin and his two castmates deliver the goods. But there is also Oskar Eustis’ sleek, multifaceted staging and the way Groff revels in wrestling with knotty ideas in conflict. Her semifictional dive into one real Jewish writer’s litigious battle over Anne Frank’s diary is a compelling foray along a thin line between idealism and fanaticism…As his understandably fervent advocacy turns to vicious personal attacks on those he thinks are thwarting him—Lillian Hellman and Otto Frank in particular—Patinkin’s descent into paranoia and the fanaticism of a true believer is as chilling as it is thrilling to witness…The spirit of Anne Frank hovers over the proceedings, intervening in unexpected ways, as Groff probes the psychology of politics and what happens when a person becomes an issue and a commodity.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Stunning…It takes only seconds to forget you are watching Patinkin on stage. The actor completely immerses himself into the character of Silver, so the idea of seeing a celebrity on stage is barely considered…His story, based on the true-life author Meyer Levin, is told with puppetry, fantasy, comedy and drama in the aptly named Compulsion, a brilliant and emotional new play by Rinne Groff…Most striking, however, is that puppets (skillfully manipulated from high above the stage by Emily DeCola, Daniel Fay and Eric Wright) are used represent Anne and other members of her family. This allows the show to unfold on a fairly simple set, designed by Eugene Lee, with some stunning video projections by Jeff Sugg. It also lets director Oskar Eustis and his actors move seamlessly from fiction to fantasy and back, and to heighten the emotional explosions of the characters in the unfolding story.”—Bay Area News Group
“Berkeley Repertory Theatre opened its new season in its usual manner, with another winning production: Rinne Groff’s gripping drama Compulsion, skillfully directed by Oskar Eustis, and starring the masterful Mandy Patinkin…Patinkin portrays his character magnificently with dynamic force and appears to be actually living the role. The other two members of the cast are equally superb…It is such a pleasure to witness the outstanding performance of Mandy Patinkin. It’s an acting masterpiece! Compulsion will be heading to New York’s Public Theatre next February, and is now playing at Berkeley Rep thru October 31st. It truly is a must-see production.”—KGO-AM

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