Anton’s Well Theater Company and Actors Ensemble of Berkeley are proud to present the Bay Area premiere of Sam Shepard’s last play, A PARTICLE OF DREAD: OEDIPUS VARIATIONS.

The play runs from October 18-November 10 at the Old Finnish Hall, 1819 Tenth Street in Berkeley. Tickets now on sale: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=107407

Particle of Dread brilliantly fractures the Oedipus myth into the times of both then and now—with many of the actors playing both the roles of the ancient central characters:  Oedipus, Jocasta, Laius, Antigone, Tiresias, and their modern counterparts:  Otto, Jocelyn, Langos, Annalee, and Uncle Del.

As the play delves deeply into the mysteries of family and fate, Shepard’s signature rambunctious language is gorgeously present in numerous monologues, and, in the searing, conflicted encounters between the mythic characters.

It’s as if Shepard is revisiting and deepening his exhumation of society’s buried secrets that began in the 1970s with the world premiere of his family plays (BURIED CHILD, CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS, TRUE WEST, and FOOL FOR LOVE) at the Magic Theater in San Francisco, where he was the resident playwright.

In bringing Shepard’s last play to the Bay Area, where so many of his great plays began, AWTC and AEB hope once again his always timely and prescient theatrical voice will thrill local audiences.  The New York Times says the play is a “must-see for fans of Shepard.”

The cast includes the accomplished local actors Amanda Artru, Bruce Avery, Zoe Curzi, Clay David, Leticia Duarte, Francisco Rodriguez, and Don Wood. 

The play is directed by Robert Estes, who previously helmed Anton’s Well’s Bay Area premiere production of Sam Shepard’s AGES OF THE MOON, which the San Francisco Chronicle praised for its “great feeling in the stillness.”

A PARTICLE OF DREAD: OEDIPUS VARIATIONS tickets are $20-$25 at www.antonswell.org.  Presented October 18-November 10, Fridays and Saturday, 8PM; Sunday, 2:30PM. One Tuesday performance on November 5, 8PM.  No performance on Sunday, October 20.  Old Finnish Hall, 1819 Tenth Street, Berkeley, 94710