David Weisberg's TOTEM AND TABOO Comes to Central Works

By: Sally Henry Fuller Jan. 25, 2016

Central Works' 26th Season takes off with Totem and Taboo by David Weisberg, opening with a press night on Saturday, February 20 (previews Feb 18 & 19) and running through March 20 at the historic Berkeley City Club. Inspired by Freud's famous book of the same title, Weisberg's new play is a grand, epic concoction mixing together elements of family melodrama, surrealism, and classic situation comedy from the Central Works Writers Workshop.
Ralph is a pill-popping, stay-at-home "house husband." He's also been working on a very long book, his life's work: Opting Out of the Social Contract. When a drug-induced hallucination lands him in a real-life episode of The Honeymooners - with cannibalism! - Ralph's world spins out of control.

"Freud remains one of the most controversial thinkers of the modern age," observes playwright David Weisberg. "Engaging his most controversial, speculative, and disturbing work, Totem and Taboo, I devised a darkly comic and surreal domestic drama about the waning of the baby boomer generation."

The script was created using the Central Works Method of collaborative play development. Director M. Graham Smith remarks, "I love the humor of David's writing, his sense of combining vaudeville comic routines with big cultural and philosophical questions. Essentially, he's written a comedy about the end of Western Civilization - specifically, the way we understand the family unit." Totem and Taboo features actors Caleb Cabrera, Deb Fink*, April Green and Bob Greene* with costumes by Tammy Berlin, lights by Gary Graves, sound by Gregory Scharpen, and props by Debbie Shelley. (*member AEA)

Central Works launches its 26th Season with: Totem and Taboo A hectic, wild, utterly ridiculous, deadly serious, Oedipal family drama Written by David Weisberg, Directed by M. Graham Smith A new play from the Central Works Writers Workshop Feb 20-Mar 20 (Previews Feb 18 & 19) Performing at the Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley

For more information call 510.558.1381 or visit centralworks.org

Performing at the Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley Tickets: $30 online at centralworks.org or $30 - $15 sliding scale at the door. Previews and Thursdays are pay-what-you-can at the door. For more information call 510.558.1381 or visit centralworks.org

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