Berkeley Rep Theatre has revealed its line-up and opening nights for 2022-2023.
Wes Children’s Wuthering Heights opens the season on November 22,2022.
Next up is Clyde’s directed by Taylor Reynolds, followed by Cambodian Rock Band, English, and Let the Right One In.
The season wraps with Out of Character written and performed by Ari’el Stachel and directed by Tony Taccone on June 28, 2022 in Peet’s Theater.
Full details below.
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THEATER & ARTSBERKELEY REP’S 2022/2023 OPENING NIGHTS
Wuthering Heights
Based on the novel by Emily Brontë
Adapted and directed by Emma Rice
A National Theatre, Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic, and York Theatre Royal co-production
West Coast premiere
Roda Theatre
Opening Night November 22, 2022Acclaimed director Emma Rice (The Wild Bride, Tristan & Yseult, Romantics Anonymous) and her new company Wise Children return to Berkeley Rep with her latest wildly imaginative theatrical experience. Rescued from the Liverpool docks as a child, Heathcliff is adopted by the Earnshaws and taken to live at Wuthering Heights. He finds a kindred spirit in Catherine Earnshaw and a fierce love ignites. When forced apart, a brutal chain of events is unleashed. Emma Rice reimagines Emily Brontë’s gothic masterpiece with live music, dance, passion, hope, and a dash of impish irreverence, creating an intoxicating revenge tragedy for today.
Clyde’s
By Lynn Nottage
Directed by Taylor Reynolds
A co-production with Huntington Theatre Company
West Coast premiere
Peet’s Theatre
Opening Night January 25, 2023Nominated for the 2022 Tony Award for Best Play! Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage returns to Berkeley Rep for the first time since her extraordinary play Ruined. In this feel-good comic drama, the formerly incarcerated kitchen staff at a truck-stop sandwich shop attempt to rebuild their lives. While their tough-as-nails boss – who slings sizzling insults fast and processed food even faster – tries to thwart their dreams, each staff member is encouraged by the mysterious chef to indulge in imagining, then creating, their perfect sandwich. A buoyant play full of witty dialogue, Clyde’s is a transcendent story about people rising above their past mistakes and reconnecting with the world.
Cambodian Rock Band
Written by Lauren Yee
Featuring songs by Dengue Fever
Directed by Chay Yew
A Signature Theatre Production
In association with Alley Theatre
Roda Theatre
Opening Night March 1, 2023Guitars tuned. Mic checked. Get ready to rock! This darkly funny, electric new play with music tells the story of a Khmer Rouge survivor returning to Cambodia for the first time in 30 years, as his daughter prepares to prosecute one of Cambodia’s most infamous war criminals. Backed by a live band playing contemporary Dengue Fever hits and classic Cambodian oldies, this thrilling story toggles back and forth in time as father and daughter face the music of the past. Directed by Chay Yew, this intimate rock epic about family secrets is set against a dark chapter of Cambodian history.
English
By Sanaz Toossi
West Coast premiere
Peet’s Theatre
Opening Night April 5, 2023Award-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi makes her Berkeley Rep debut with English, winner of the 2022 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. Language and identity intertwine in this incisive, funny, and moving seriocomedy set in a classroom in Iran, where four adult students are preparing for the Test of English as a Foreign Language. But as they pursue fluency in a language that for them represents access, opportunity, and even escape, they find that while English may expand their world, it might also limit their voice.
Let the Right One In
Stage adaptation by Jack Thorne
Based on the Swedish novel and screenplay of the film by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Directed by John Tiffany
Associate Director/Movement Steven Hoggett
A National Theatre of Scotland production
West Coast premiere
Roda Theatre
Opening Night May 24, 2023Tony Award winners Jack Thorne and John Tiffany (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), along with Obie Award winner Steven Hoggett, have entertained audiences on both sides of the Atlantic with their exhilarating, cutting-edge brand of theatrical storytelling. Now they bring us a supernatural thriller that’s part brutal vampire myth and part coming-of-age romance. Oskar, a bullied boy from a broken home, and Eli, a young girl who moves in next door and rarely leaves the house, become devoted friends. When their neighborhood is haunted by a series of mysterious murders, a shocking truth tests Oskar and Eli’s growing love. A hit in London’s West End and New York, Let the Right One In makes its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep.
Out of Character
Written and performed by Ari’el Stachel
Directed by Tony Taccone
World premiere
Peet’s Theatre
Opening Night June 28, 2023Before he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (The Band’s Visit), Ari’el Stachel grew up in Berkeley, an Israeli American of Yemeni Jewish descent. Then came 9/11. Desperate to avoid taunts and threats at school, Ari hides his Middle Eastern background – setting off a years-long journey of trying on different identities, code switching, and navigating debilitating anxiety. Now a successful stage and screen actor, Ari comes home to Berkeley and joins with former artistic director Tony Taccone to tell his story in his new solo show. Out of Character explores the intersections of race, mental health, and survival in a way that’s raw, authentic, and entertaining.
Lead photo: The cast of Wise Children’s Wuthering Heights. Photo by Steve Tanner.
