THE WAITING PERIOD To Return to The Marsh Berkeley
General admission tickets are free. Supporters may donate $50/$100 for reserved seats.
Continuing its efforts towards suicide prevention, The Marsh Berkeley will offer free performances of The Waiting Period this January. Now in its 11th year of no-cost to the public performances, this ongoing suicide prevention project showcases the deeply moving and surprisingly funny show written and performed by award-winning playwright and actor Brian Copeland, developed with and directed by David Ford.
The Waiting Period provides a look at a key turning point in Copeland's life — the mandatory 10-day waiting period before he could lay his hands on the newly purchased gun with which he planned to take his own life. Featuring humorous, poignant, and riveting insights, The Waiting Period will play 7:00pm January 23 & 29, 2026 at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. Thanks to the support of generous donors, general admission tickets are FREE. Supporters may donate $50/$100 for reserved seats, funds which make it possible for others to see the show at no cost.
“This play saves lives,” said Copeland. “Since we started offering free performances at The Marsh in 2014, so many audience members have told me they suddenly recognized their own symptoms or those of a loved one, in time to intervene before they committed the ultimate harm to themselves and devastated their families.”
The Waiting Period shares Copeland's personal experience with depression and suicidal thoughts, offering an honest, heartfelt look at the internal battles so many face in silence. Laced with surprisingly comic moments that serve as a buffer against the grim reality of his intentions, Copeland hopes this very personal, and ultimately redemptive, story will reach people who struggle with depression — often called the last stigmatized disease — as well as their families and loved ones. As critic Sam Hurwitt put it in The Idiolect, “It's a play I'd strongly recommend to anyone who is now or has ever been depressed or who knows someone in that situation. But honestly, it's such a strong piece that I'd recommend it just as heartily to anyone who's ever been human.”
The Waiting Period opened in 2012 to overwhelming critical and audience response and has been lauded by survivors and co-survivors of depression. The show won a Theatre Bay Area (TBA) Award for Outstanding Production of a Solo Play in 2015. Copeland launched this series of free performances to provide an opportunity to reach those who need to see the show but have been unable to due to the price of admission. A number of people struggling with suicidal thoughts have told Copeland that seeing his piece has literally saved their lives.
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