Excellent news for Christopher Durang fans: The absurd comic playwright's latest Broadway hit, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, will be the opening play of Berkeley Rep's 2013-14 season, fresh off of its run on Broadway.
Durang is most famous for his twisted, funny, provocative plays from the '80s like Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Beyond Therapy, and The Marriage of Bette and Boo. His newest play opened at Lincoln Center last October and moved to the Golden Theater where it is still running through June. The plot centers on two siblings named Vanya and Sonia living in a house in the country who get a visit from their movie-star sister Masha and her young boy-toy Spike. At Berkeley Rep it will be directed by Richard E.T. White, who is a Rep vet from the 80s and early 90s but hasn't directed a show there since 1993.
Casting for the Berkeley production hasn't been announced yet, but the Broadway cast included Durang vets Sigourney Weaver, David Hyde Pierce, and Kristine Nielsen as the three maudlin siblings who were named by their academic parents after characters from Chekhov plays.
In his NYT review from November, Ben Brantley noted that the play "is made up of scattered bits of Chekhov run through a contemporary plot processor," and ultimately "turns out to be a loving rejection of pretty much everything Chekhov stands for in the popular imagination."
The Berkeley run will be September 20 to October 20. You can buy season tickets for next season here.
See a highlight reel below, and a funny promo featuring the Honey Badger guy.