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Berkeley Repertory Theatre has announced changes to its 2021-2022 season, including the replacement of Cambodian Rock Band with Lucas Hnath's Dana H., which will run June 3-July 10. The world premiere of the new musical Goddess has also changed its run; originally scheduled to play this spring, performances will now be held August 13-September 25.
Cambodian Rock Band has been moved to the 2022-2023 season. Berkeley Rep Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer said the shifts have been made in the wake of the Omicron variant "to best support these two wildly ambitions upcoming shows, and honor the visions of these creative teams."
Dana H. tells the true story of Dana Higginbotham, the playwright's mother, who was kidnapped, held captive, and abused by a white supremacist for five months in a series of motel rooms in Florida and across the southeast in 1997. The play features a single actor lip-syncing to clips of interview recordings about her experience; the interviews were conducted by The Civilians Artistic Director Steve Cosson in 2015 over two days.
The play premiered Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in February 2020 under the direction of Les Waters. The solo show subsequently made its Broadway premiere in October 2021 at the Lyceum Theatre. (Read the reviews here.) Dana H. won the 2020 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show; actor Deirdre O'Connell and sound designer Mikhail Fiksel won Obie and Outer Critics Circle Awards.
Goddess, featuring a book by Jocelyn Bioh and a score by composer Michael Thurber, was conceived by director Saheem Ali. It follows a young man returning home to Mombasa, Kenya, to marry his fiancée and step into his family's political dynasty only to find himself drawn to a mysterious new singer.
New dates for Cambodian Rock Band will be announced at a later date. The new play with music tells the story of a Khmer Rouge survivor returning to Cambodia years later as his daughter prepares to prosecute a notorious war criminal. Chay Yew will direct.
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