Student Matinees

Two-time Tony Award winner—and A.C.T. favorite—Bill Irwin (A.C.T.'s Fool Moon, Texts for Nothing) returns to the Bay Area in Molière's chaotic classic. In this lively baggy-pants comedy, the rascally title character balances his penchant for mayhem and mischief with a promise to help two pairs of wide-eyed lovers. Irwin—who adapted, directs, and stars—uses commedia dell'arte, live music, and his trademark sophisticated clowning to turn this 17th-century farce of mistaken identities and theatrical mishaps into a sparkling tour de force perfect for all ages.

"The greatest piece of writing by an American playwright under 30 in a generation or more." —Chicago Tribune

Days before Hurricane Katrina strikes, the barometer rises and the air below sea level closes in on a young black man, pressured to balance his identity with the creeds and the cultural landscape that surround him. Marcus; or The Secret of Sweet, with its warmth, myth, humor, and Louisiana argot, is the finale of the West Coast premiere productions of Tarell Alvin McCraney's internationally acclaimed trilogy, The Brother/Sister Plays—presented in partnership with Marin Theatre Company and Magic Theatre. This magical coming-of-age play prompted the New York Times to call McCraney's work "a new, authentically original vision. . . . It's what people must have felt during productions of the early works of Eugene O'Neill in the 1920s or of Sam Shepard in the 1960s."

A.C.T.'s A Christmas Carol is a Bay Area holiday tradition as beloved as the festive window displays around Union Square. Bring a group to this annual favorite and experience the best of the season with nasty old Scrooge, adorable Tiny Tim, and a multigenerational cast of dozens of the Bay Area's best actors and singers.

Home is where the heart—and history—is in Clybourne Park, a "spiky and damningly insightful new comedy" (The New York Times). In 1959, a couple sells their home in a middle-class Chicago neighborhood to a black family, causing uproar in their all-white community. Fifty years later, the stakes are different, but the debate is eerily familiar as negotiations about a white couple's renovation plans for the house—in what has become a historic black neighborhood—whirl into lightning-quick and uncomfortably-revealing repartee. A "buzz-saw sharp new comedy" (The Washington Post) from an adamant provocateur, Clybourne Park stirs up the incendiary ghosts of race and class hidden beneath the contemporary veneer of political correctness.

A.C.T. celebrates Nobel Prize–winning playwright Harold Pinter's legacy with his most sexually provocative play. A long-absent son and his attractive wife, Ruth, return to his contentious childhood home in London's East End. In this grueling power struggle, father and sons vie for Ruth's attention and affection with outrageous consequences in a play that changed the face of 20th-century drama. Longtime Pinter collaborator and A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff directs this brilliant classic, which features A.C.T.'s acclaimed core acting company along with A.C.T. favorite Andrew Polk (A.C.T.'s November).

Fresh from sold-out performances across Canada, Jean-Paul Sartre's redefined classic makes its U.S. debut at A.C.T. A mysterious valet ushers three people into a shabby hotel room, and they soon discover that hell isn't fire and brimstone at all—it's other people arguing about their lives. Sartre's 1944 existential classic, skillfully reimagined through the perspective of a series of hidden cameras, turns the stage into a cinema, and the audience into voyeurs, as a thrillingly staged "live film" takes place before your eyes. A.C.T. continues its tradition of welcoming the work of innovative international artists to the Bay Area with this riveting multimedia event.