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Whetting your appetite for the 2010/11 season

posted by Chad Jones on Fri, Aug 13, 2010
in At the theatre , Our shows

Rehearsals have begun for Compulsion, our season-opening show, which means the new season is officially under way.

There's buzz on an international scale for the shows of our 2010/11 season, so here's a little peek into what you can expect in the coming months.

The Great Game: Afghanistan

You may remember playwright David Edgar for his work on the momentous two-play cycle known as Continental Divide, a co-production of Berkeley Rep and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from 2003 or from his extraordinary adaptation of Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby (seen a few season ago at the California Shakespeare Theater). Well David will be back at Berkeley Rep as one of 12 playwrights addressing the complex history of Afghanistan in The Great Game: Afghanistan.

David recently wrote a fascinating piece about the play for The Guardian in London. He describes The Great Game as a "mosaic of fiction and faction," which is to say imagination and fact. He continues:

"The Great Game is thoroughly contemporary: a hybrid of hybrids. Nonetheless, unlike much postmodern drama, it retains a central, coherent theme: that western interventions in Afghanistan have almost always produced the opposite effect from that which was intended."

You can read David's essay in its entirety here (and also watch a very cool video about the show).

Above photo: (l to r) Jemma Redgrave, Tom McKay, and Nabil Elouahabi star in The Great Game: Afghanistan, an epic production from London receiving its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep. Photographer: John Haynes

Mike Daisey's The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs

In the new year, Mike Daisey brings not one but two shows to the Thrust Stage. he'll perform his critically acclaimed The Last Cargo Cult in repertory with a newer piece, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.

Mike performed the show last month in Boston, where the Boston Globe chatted with him about its development with his longtime director (and wife of 10 years), Jean-Michel Gregory.

In the interview, Mike talks about fascination with and admiration for Apple's "arrogant, elegant, game-changing  design" as well as his horror about the conditions under which Apple (and other company's) products are made in Shenzhen, China.

Read the article here.

Stay tuned for more peeks inside the shows of Berkeley Rep's 2010/11 season.

Above photo: In 2011, Mike Daisey debuts two audacious new monologues at Berkeley Rep, including The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Photographer: Ursa Waz