Daring, captivating, gregarious\u2026 Irish. The Berkeley Playhouse\u2019s rendition of \u201cOnce\u201d brings Dublin to your doorstep. Directed by Josh Marx and playing through March 29, this is a production you won\u2019t want to miss.<\/p>\n
Entering the theater, your eyes adjust to the dim, hazy lighting, and suddenly you\u2019ve left Berkeley far behind. Before stepping foot in the playhouse, audience members are greeted by an invigorating surge of live music spilling from the patio onto College Avenue.<\/p>\n
Once inside, spectators are swallowed by the immersive decor spanning the walls of the theater: The mise-en-scene bleeds from the stage around the perimeter. Walls decorated with curtains, signage, records and window shutters bring \u201cOnce\u201d to life before the show even begins. The musicians swim jovially through the crowd, instruments rambunctious with spirit, while actors converse casually on stage amid the artfully crafted set, an Irish pub, from which audience members may purchase real beverages prior to the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce\u201d follows disheartened Irish busker \u201cGuy\u201d (Jake Gale) and his encounter with spirited Czech immigrant \u201cGirl\u201d (Gillian Eichenberger) as they connect over their shared love of music. Based on the 2007 film adaptation directed by John Carney, the musical braves the complexities of love, heartbreak and artistry in the face of hardship. The cast and crew of the Berkeley Playhouse offer an unforgettable, addictive and fierce rendition of the piece, every detail of audience experience infused with daring electricity.<\/p>\n
Silence falls over the crowd as violinist Sarah Jiang takes the stage. The notes from her instrument awaken the drum and, suddenly, the cast erupts in a lively crescendo. The lights dim and Guy enters, who, with a mere strum of his guitar strings, incites a wave of emotion so powerful, it\u2019s hallowing.<\/p>\n
The onstage chemistry between leads Eichenberger and Gale was deliciously captivating. Gale plucks heartstrings like guitar strings, complemented by Eichenberger\u2019s vibrant and luminous stage presence. Together, the embodied protagonists push each other to grow and love through an enchantingly organic onstage dynamic. Like the harmony between their respective instruments, the voices and attitudes of the pair intertwine like two birds in flight, with each duet falling like an immobilizing spell over the audience.<\/p>\n
The cast brilliantly mastered the balance between comedy and heartbreak. Michael Barrett Austin, playing Billy the bar owner, was particularly popular with spectators, sending heads rearing with laughter at his exaggerated impressions and hysterical devotion to Girl. The versatility of humor executed by the cast guarantees laughter for all ages: Racing between moments of catharsis and comedy, the pace of \u201cOnce\u201d is inviting and engaging, keeping spectators on the very edge of their seats.<\/p>\n
The ensemble is the pulse and the lifeblood of the Berkeley Playhouse\u2019s rendition of the musical. The performers never leave the stage, but instead are visually and auditorily the foundation of the piece, the fabric onto which the story is embroidered. Each interlude offered a surge of gregarity, the steady heartbeat of the production. Erin Rose Solorio\u2019s choreography turns music physical, capturing the erupting power of the instruments in movement. Jiang, on the violin, was particularly striking in her fierce and beguiling stage presence at her Berkeley Playhouse debut.<\/p>\n
In a time when immigrant communities in the United States face immeasurable injustice and a torrent of discriminatory rhetoric, Marx\u2019s portrayal of an immigrant household \u2014 brimming with love, ambition and vivacity \u2014 is especially pertinent. \u201cOnce\u201d shines a light on the persistence and bravery of families searching to secure their futures and the futures of their children, with resonance and gravity transferable to our collective present.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the people of the world\u201d is the breathless line that echoes in the mind of spectators as they discover a world of flamboyant music, inexhaustible passion and love so powerful it\u2019s hallowing. This production is so enthralling and ever-pertinent, seeing it just once is simply not enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daring, captivating, gregarious\u2026 Irish. The Berkeley Playhouse\u2019s rendition of \u201cOnce\u201d brings Dublin to your doorstep. Directed by Josh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[5994,98456,7626,98457,98453,98454,98452,143,145,144,93231,98451,98455],"class_list":["post-214670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-austin","tag-carney","tag-dublin","tag-eichhenberger","tag-gale","tag-jiang","tag-marx","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-once","tag-playhouse","tag-walash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}