The Public’s Oskar Eustis to Direct Pulitzer Prize Winner Lawrence Wright’s Fallaci at Berkeley Rep

Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis will be returning to the Bay Area, where he served as resident director at the Eureka Theatre from 1981-1986, to direct the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Lawrence Wright’s Fallaci at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The new play, which will star Broadway’s Concetta Tomei (Cyrano de Bergerac) and Marjan Neshat (365 Days/365 Plays at Barrow Street Theatre/The Public), will begin previews on March 8 and open on March 13.

Fallaci is named for its main character, legendary Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, who gained fame by grilling the likes of Kissinger, Castro, Khomeini, and Qadaffi and for an antiauthoritarian zeal, fueled by a childhood resisting the Nazis. In the play, a young woman interviews the fiery writer near the end of her life.

“Oriana Fallaci was a hero of mine,” said Wright in a statement. “She was dazzling and fearless and she made journalism seem like the most exciting job on earth.”

Lawrence Wright has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992. He is the author of eight books, including The Looming Tower, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction and most recently Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief.