Berta, Berta

Genre
Magical Realism, Historical Fiction, Romance

Photo by Seth Freeman Photography

Credits
Director: Reginald L. Douglas
Playwright: Angelica Chéri
Producer: The Contemporary American Theater Festival
Cast: Jason Bowen & Bianca LaVerne Jones

About

After committing an unforgivable crime, Leroy is granted one final wish: a chance to make amends with his long-lost lover Berta. Their reunion swells from a quarrelsome conjuring of the past to an impassioned plot to escape their impending fate.

The play is inspired by the prison chain gang song "Berta, Berta" which originated on Parchman Farm, Mississippi State Penitentiary. It is a fictional origin story.

View on New Play Exchange

Berta, Berta premiered in the 2018 Contemporary American Theatre Festival (CATF), and encored in the 2019 National Black Theatre Festival, directed by Reginald L. Douglas. It has also been produced at Everyman Theatre, Mile Square Theatre and many others across the country. Its West Coast Premiere was at the Echo Theatre in Los Angeles’ Atwater Village. Berta, Berta is published with Theatrical Rights Worldwide.

Berta, Berta was one of six plays selected for the 2018 PlayLab at Florida Repertory Company. Out of 500 submissions, Berta, Berta was one of 25 finalists for the 2017 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and the only play to be selected for a slot in the Playwrights Foundation's Rough Reading Series with staged readings at the National Black Theatre's and Elephant Run District's hERD Podcast series.

videos

Gallery

Photography Credits: Seth Freeman 1–5 • Makela Yepez Photography 6–10 • Teresa Castracane 11

Charles McNulty

“
MYTHIC SCOPE…leaps over the safety of realism…laden with history and floating on a song.”
Jordan Ealey

“
yet another gorgeous entry into a genealogy of Black Southern gothic”
Dondre Tuck

“
I left the theater asking myself, ‘What am I willing to give up for the people I love, and what does it mean to be bound by pain, promises and hope?’’”