The production currently playing on the thrust stage at Berkeley Rep -- while American Idiot finishes out its raucous pre-Broadway run in the Roda Theater -- is Tiny Kushner, a collection of one-act plays written by Angels in America scribe and Pulitzer-winner Tony Kushner. The plays were all written in the 90's and 00's and originally produced in this grouping by the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Though they all bear some familiar Kushner-esque markings -- psychotherapy, fictionalized portrayals of real people, fantastical premises involving the afterlife, politicized critiques of the government -- they are relatively unconnected pieces and deserve to be discussed separately. So here goes, in brief: more ›

A play by Noel Coward is like a great champagne: bubbly and bright, leaving you intoxicated and laughing with a layered finish. Taking up the torch from Oscar Wilde, Coward was a master of snappy, witty dialogue and his plays chronicle the sexual politics and cynicism of post-WWI Londoners. To modern audiences, a play like Private Lives (written in 1930) might seem surprisingly libertine, centering on a divorced couple who run into each other on each of their second honeymoons, only to abandon their new spouses to sneak off with each other to Paris. But the dialogue has stood the test of time, and something about the clipped, jaded nature of the main characters, Elyot and Amanda, reminds one of contemporary examples like Paul Rudd's character in Role Models -- these are people who are too smart to be fooled by love, and too clever not to be annoyed by social customs and the world around them. more ›

The California Shakespeare Theater's opening production, Romeo & Juliet, is in its last three performances today and tomorrow. It's a lively and fun production directed by Jonathan Moscone, complete with contemporary music and Verona teenagers who smoke, drink Jack Daniels, and carry iPods and skateboards wherever they go. Because it's a play about teenagers in love, all these updates work to reinforce the age and temperament of the characters, and performances by Catherine Castellanos as the Nurse (pictured with the charming Sarah Nealis as Juliet) and Jud Williford as Mercutio deserve special shout-outs -- it's always the supporting characters in Shakespeare who steal the show. more ›