‘1984’ part of Aurora’s 2023-24 lineup
By Lily Janiak
San Francisco playwright Michael Gene Sullivan has written an adaptation of George Orwell’s “1984.”
Costello
Aurora Theatre Company has long distinguished itself as the Bay Area’s theater of intellectual debate. At its intimate stage just steps from UC Berkeley, great minds square off, finding the human and the dramatic in battles of ideas.
That tradition continues with its 32nd season, announced Wednesday, April 5. First up is “Born With Teeth” (Sept. 1-Oct. 1), which imagines a collaboration between Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Liz Duffy Adams, a Will Glickman Award winner who splits her time between New York and Massachusetts, writes, and Artistic Director Josh Costello directs.
Up next is an adaptation of George Orwell’s “1984” (Nov. 10-Dec. 10) by San Francisco playwright Michael Gene Sullivan, who’s best known as a collective member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe and who’s currently hamming it up to uproarious effect in San Francisco Playhouse’s “Clue.”
In the new year, the company mounts “Manahatta” (Feb. 9-March 10) by Cherokee playwright and lawyer Mary Kathryn Nagle, best known to Bay Area audiences for Marin Theatre Company’s “Sovereignty.” “Manahatta” weaves together two stories of colonization on the island of Manhattan, in 1626 and 2008. In the earlier era, the Dutch purchase it from the Lenape people; in the latter, a Lenape woman becomes a trader on Wall Street right as predatory lending targets her family’s Oklahoma home.
Then comes “Blue Door” (April 19-May 19, 2024) by Lilly Award-winning playwright Tanya Barfield. In the two-hander set in one night’s wild sojourn of a dream, a Black mathematics professor meets three generations of his ancestors in order to understand where he comes from and what he owes his heritage with his present and future choices.
The season wraps up with “The Lifespan of a Fact” (June 21-July 21, 2024), Jeremy Kare-ken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell’s stage adaptation of John D’Agata and Jim Fin-gal’s book. Based on the true story of D’Agata and Fingal’s writing and editing relationship, the show follows a magazine intern tasked with fact-checking an essay that stretches, exaggerates and disregards facts, leading to meaty debates about whether creative license can ever be more truthful than verifiable data and nonfiction account.
For subscriptions, which range from $102 to $310, call 510-843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org.
Reach Lily Janiak: ljaniak@sfchronicle.com.