The Bard comes to Berkeley

Actors from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre perform a scene from Love’s Labour’s Lost in front of Wheeler Hall Wednesday, a preview of their five-day Cal Performances engagement. (Wendy Edelstein/UC Berkeley)

BERKELEY — Actors from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre — the preeminent purveyors of the Bard’s immortal works — assembled near Wheeler Hall at noon Wednesday to perform a scene from Love’s Labour’s Lost. Their preview was a taste of what they’ll be serving up at Zellerbach Hall tonight through Sunday, when the Globe troupe performs its 2007 production of Shakespeare’s most farcical comedy, a send-up of those who try to hold life at bay. Directed by Globe artistic director Dominic Dromgoole, the play features Shakespeare’s characteristic puns, heady language, rhymes, and bizarre syntax — as well as sub-plots, impersonations, and pratfalls.

For information about performance times, visit calperfs.berkeley.edu. For select performances, Cal Performances offers rush tickets, limited to one ticket per person, cash only. Rush prices are $10 for UC Berkeley students; $15 for Berkeley faculty and staff (UCB ID required), and seniors 65 or older; and $20 for all other community members.

Rush tickets are announced three hours before a performance and must be picked up in person at the Zellerbach Hall ticket office, beginning one hour before showtime; quantities may be limited. Information is available at 642-9988, press 2 for the rush hotline.