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Carrie Fisher Roasts Herself with a Toast at Berkeley Rep

By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: March 12, 2008

Carrie Fisher's solo show feels less like a play and more like cocktails over at her house. Within five minutes, Fisher has kicked off her shoes, poured herself a massive glass of Diet Coke, lit a...

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By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: March 5, 2008

The Scene. Theresa Rebeck's 2006 drama bears many of the traditional hallmarks of a daytime soap. Set in various glamorous New York lofts, the play takes as its departure point a chance...

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A Secret for Next Sunday

Intriguing elements still don't add up to a compelling storyline.

By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: March 5, 2008

Set in Chicago in 1991, with flashbacks to 1950s Alabama, Charles Johnson's play is about two African-American couples who share a dark past that prevents them from returning to the South. The...

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By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: February 27, 2008

Day 19. There's a shroud of mystery around performances of Day 19. There's no phone number to get tickets, only an e-mail address for a gentleman from Poland. The Web site for the Scrap and...

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Day 19

By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: February 20, 2008

There's a shroud of mystery around performances of Day 19 . There's no phone number to get tickets, only an e-mail address for a gentleman from Poland. The Web site for the Scrap and Salvage...

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By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: February 20, 2008

Disney & Deutschland. Imagining a 1935 meeting between Walt Disney and Adolf Hitler is a great spark for a play, but playwright and director John J. Powers' production never ignites. The...

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Inside Albert's Head and Lost & Found

By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: February 13, 2008

The first play in this double-header by Canadian scribe David Ackerman is, as its title suggests, a mishmash of thoughts from inside a man's head. While Damian Lanahan-Kalish has an assured,...

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By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: February 13, 2008

Dead Mother, or Shirley Not All in Vain. Like the ghost of an unpopular relative returning for a visit years after its demise, David Greenspan's surreal play is enjoying a belated — and...

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By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: February 6, 2008

Dead Mother, or Shirley Not All in Vain. Like the ghost of an unpopular relative returning for a visit years after its demise, David Greenspan's surreal play is enjoying a belated — and...

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Savage Arts

By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: February 6, 2008

What the hell is it with artists, especially the exotic French ones? They like to drink, smoke, have affairs, and paint naked women. That creates a dangerous scenario when an artist moves in next...

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By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: January 30, 2008

reOrient. What makes Golden Thread's collection of five short plays about the Middle East better than your average festival aimed at a Large Theme or Important Cause is the theatrical...

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Territories

By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: January 23, 2008

Set during the Crusades and based on much conjecture, Betty Shamieh's play tells the story of a Muslim woman who changed the course of history. Alia (Nora el Samahy), a beautiful yet crippled...

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Nathaniel Eaton

Published: January 23, 2008

reOrient. What makes Golden Thread's collection of five short plays about the Middle East better than your average festival aimed at a Large Theme or Important Cause is the theatrical...

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Speed-the-Plow

By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: January 16, 2008

There's a growing collection of behind-the-scenes Hollywood plays involving coke-addled Tinseltown assholes stomping on good people in their single-minded quests to make celluloid drivel....

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By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: January 2, 2008

The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) and Completely Hollywood (abridged). The founders of the Reduced Shakespeare Company (RSC) brilliantly anticipated society's chronic case of...

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Siddhartha: The Bright Path

By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: January 2, 2008

The Marsh Youth Theater doesn't hold back when mounting its original production about the life of Gotama Buddha. It has assembled three award-winning playwrights, an Indian/jazz-fusion composer,...

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By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: December 26, 2007

Based on a Totally True Story. Halfway through New Conservatory Theatre's production about a young writer trying to navigate the temptation and disappointment of Hollywood, the protagonist...

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Lorraine Hansberry's Black Nativity is at its best when it's not taking itself too seriously

By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: December 19, 2007

There is nothing better than watching Bay Area blues singer Faye Carol, with her four-inch nails and bright blue eyeshadow, swaggering around the stage belting out bluesy, gospel songs about...

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Cirque du Soleil's Kooza is its best show in years

By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: December 12, 2007

The last few Cirque du Soleil touring shows ( Dralion, Varekai, Corteo ) were so slick and so mass-marketed to general audiences that the action under the blue and yellow tent had become ho-hum....

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Based on a Totally True Story

By Nathaniel Eaton

Published: December 5, 2007

Halfway through New Conservatory Theatre's production about a young writer trying to navigate the temptation and disappointment of Hollywood, the protagonist exclaims, "I refuse to be a...