Review Roundup: CULTURE CLASH (STILL) IN AMERICA at Berkeley Rep - What Did the Critics Think?

Bay Area natives and provocateurs, Culture Clash, return to Berkeley Rep with their latest production, Culture Clash (Still) in America. The play, written and performed by Culture Clash and directed by Obie Award winner Lisa Peterson, marks the fifth time the satirical group has performed at Berkeley Rep.

In this powerful, pointed, and downright hilarious update they turn their razor-sharp wit to everything from pussy hats to MAGA caps, laying down outrageous, biting, and thought-provoking monologues and sketch comedy about the immigrant experience in America right now.

Previews began on Thursday, February 20, 2020 and the show runs through Sunday, April 5, 2020. Individual tickets begin at $30 ($15 if you're under 35) and can be purchased online at berkeleyrep.org or by phone at 510 647-2949.

Let's see what the critics are saying...

---

Lily Janiak, Datebook: Gluteus muscles whip back and forth like a pendulum on overdrive, yet also with such articulation of motion you might think, just for a moment, that they're talking to you. A hand mimes the unscrewing of a light bulb in a way that just happens to resemble the motion of fondling a breast. Accent and physicality are so thoughtfully envisioned, so meticulously rendered, that you have to consciously remind yourself that you're seeing the same actor who delighted you in the previous scene - until he winks at you without quite winking, carving out a moment of silent exchange between you and him that says, "Yeah, I see you laughing. It's silly and blunt and politically incorrect, and let's just acknowledge that clearly, you're totally into that."

Patrick Thomas, Talkin' Broadway: The trio plays the audience like a Stradivarius, pulling us in with tense drama, prickling our skin with a chilling interrogation of a Mexican man in ICE detention, only to defuse that tension with a sly line or a bit of comic physicality-and then to break the tension entirely by demolishing the fourth wall in a way that makes us roar with laughter. Or they will get you guffawing at a goofy and guileless South Florida couple, only to gasp at their take on the killing of Trayvon Martin, bringing you right back to sad, bitter truth.

Kedar Adour, For All Events: The staging and graphics alone are worth the price of admission. It is an evening of great agitprop performed with a humorous bent that will make you seriously consider a second visit to fully appreciate the blatant but tempered lesson to be learned through humor.

To post a comment, you must register and login.