John Collins Makes Stage Magic with The Great Gatsby by Barry David Horwitz “Gatz” has everything—love, passion, party, class conflict, car culture, and self-involvement. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s scandalous party animals are speeding down the road, running red lights, leaving the rest of us dead in the road. Director John Collins reimagines the novel as…
Michael Moran’s Sorcery Exposes U.S. Excess & Delusion by Barry David Horwitz Watching Macbeth go down the muddy hole, circling the bloody drain of ambition, cynicism, and self-delusion, who can refrain from seeing the connection to our present regime? That same cycle of competition, smug self-satisfaction, and projection—seeing enemies under every rock—resides with us…
Ryan Fogarty Exposes Boys in the Bandwidth by Barry David Horwitz Ryan Fogarty’s gay bromance puts guilt, love, and regret on extravagant display. The hosts, a flamboyant gay couple: Dev (lightning-fast Devon Marra) and Smitty (confident Sal Mattos) attack each other, relentlessly. Their love is crumbling under the invasion of a digital mindset. Photo…
Sarah Ruhl Mixes Witchcraft, Women, & Wit by Barry David Horwitz As you walk into Berkeley Rep, you see life-size mannequins in Puritan costumes, looming over the ground-level stage. It looks like the inside of a hokey Salem Museum of Witchcraft, in Massachusetts—because that’s where we are! That’s the kind of in your face…