‘Hand to God,’ Kneehigh, new plays at Berkeley Rep
An American premiere from Great Britain’s exceptionally inventive Kneehigh company, a recent Broadway hit and two new plays make up four of the seven shows in Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s 2016-17 season, Artistic Director Tony Taccone announced Thursday, March 3.
Robert Askins’ “Hand to God” — a Broadway hit (it closed in January) after two wildly popular off-Broadway runs — is the play best known for its spectacularly foul-mouthed sock puppet, Tyrone.
Drawn from Michael Morpurgo’s popular children’s book — as adapted by Morpurgo and Rice — “Tips” is the story of World War II as seen by a 12-year-old girl whose cat (the titular Tips) disappears from their English coastal farm during the preparations for D-Day.
“The Last Tiger” by Jeff Augustin, scheduled to premiere in co-producer La Jolla Playhouse’s new season in June — and developed in the Rep’s prolific Ground Floor program — is a Haitian tale of five kids entangled in a dark servitude who gather to spin folktales as they dream of freedom.
“Roe,” written by Lisa Loomer (“The Waiting Room”) and directed by Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Bill Rauch, opens in April at OSF, which is co-producing with the Rep and Arena Stage of Washington, D.C. Drawn from the landmark 1973 Roe vs.