The world premiere of Naomi Iizuka's 36 Views, a co-production with New York City's Public Theatre, kicks off the 2001-02 season at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The drama joins a season of revivals and two West Coast premieres, Adam Rapp's Nocturne and Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul.
Mark Wing-Davey directs 36 Views, playing Sept. 7-Oct. 28 in the Roda Theatre. In the play, a mysterious one-of-a-kind Japanese pillow book is discovered, setting the field of Asian antiquity on its ear. Behind the scenes, multi-media designer Claire and an antique dealer John become caught up in their own lies and deceptions as the alleged pillow book subtly reveals contradictions in their lives. Iizuka is also the author of Polaroid Stories and The Languages of Angels.
Nocturne, currently playing Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, makes its West Coast premiere Oct. 12-Nov. 11 on the Thrust Stage. The drama's protagonist, a disconnected novelist big on images and language, killed his teenage sister and struggles to understand that, while reconciling with his dying father.
Kushner's Homebody/Kabul is the story of The Homebody, an intellectual, emotionally distant English woman who escapes to Afghanistan, a country she has romanticized through an old guidebook. When her husband and daughter arrive, looking for her, they are overwhelmed by the adventures that lie ahead. Kushner wrote the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning Angels in America. Homebody/Kabul runs on the Thrust Stage April 19-June 9, 2002.
Also planned for the season are a Brian Kulick staging of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (Nov. 16-Jan. 6, 2002) in the Roda Theatre and a revival of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros, directed by the Bay Area's Barbara Damashek (Jan. 18-March 10, 2002) on the Thrust Stage. Latino theatre troupe Culture Clash will turn their comic eyes on Berkeley today in Coast to Coast, running Feb. 1-March 3, 2002 in the Roda Theatre. One slot, a mainstage play in the Roda Theatre, has not been filled. That work will run June 7-July 28.
Berkeley Repertory Theatre is located at 2025 Addison Street. For tickets, call (510) 845-4700. Berkeley Rep is on the web at http://www.berkeleyrep.org.
— By Christine Ehren
