View site in English, Español, or Français

The fair-trade ticketing company.

Find An Event

Create Your Event

Help

Totem and Taboo presented by Central Works

Central Works at the Berkeley City Club
Berkeley, CA

Share this event:

Written by David Weisberg
Directed by M. Graham Smith

Inspired by Freud's famous book of the same title, Totem and Taboo is a grand epic concoction that mixes together elements of farce, surrealism, theater of the absurd, family melodrama, and classic situation comedy.

Ralph used to be a university professor. Now he's a pill-popping, stay-at-home "house husband," raising a 17-year-old son with his wife, Alice, a genetic biologist. While juggling the cooking and the cleaning and the pain-killers, Ralph has also been working on a very long, very complex book, his life's work: Opting Out of the Social Contract, a critique of liberalism, and its failure to fulfill the promise of a better world. But Ralph is having scant luck finding a publisher for his magnum opus. When a drug-induced hallucination lands him in a real-life episode of The Honeymoonerswith cannibalismRalph's world spins out of control.

A hectic, wild, utterly ridiculous, deadly serious, Oedipal family drama.

World Premiere #50: A Central Works Method Play

Featuring: Caleb Cabrera, Deb Fink*, April Greene and Bob Greene*. Production team: Tammy Berlin, Gary Graves, Vanessa Ramos, Gregory Scharpen & Debbie Shelley.

Production sponsors:: David Harder & Patricia Milton

*member AEA

Feb 20 - Mar 27
Previews Feb 18 & 19 (Feb 18 tickets are only available at the door)
Thursday-Saturday at 8pm
Sunday at 5pm
The show runs 2 hours with an intermission.
Post-show Talk-backs: Sunday Feb 21 & Mar 13

Ticket Prices:
Preview, Oct 16: $20
General Admission: $30

Sliding scale admission for remaining seatsis always available at the theater 30 minutes prior to performance.

Sorry, no late seating; please arrive early - parking can be challenging.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, call 510.558.1381 or email us at info@centralworks.org.