Z SPACE PRESENTS
Dad Fought Hitler, the Bottle, and Me
Written and Performed by Mick Berry
Sunday, May 5, 2019 at 2:00 PM
Z BELOW | 470 Florida Street, San Francisco
Tickets: $20, $15 for patrons 18 and under
Bay Area phenom actor/writer/musician Mick Berry performed the one-man play “Dad Fought Hitler, the Bottle, and Me” some twenty years ago in San Francisco, Winnipeg, Canada and in New Orleans, and had no idea when he would perform it again, although it garnered several smash reviews at the time. It is a story inspired by his father’s B-17 being shot down over Austria and his imprisonment by the Nazis during WWII, taken directly from his father’s memoirs-dictated in July, 1945, only two months after being freed from his captors.
The script was put away and had become a footnote in Berry’s theatrical resume until an unexpected phone call from oversees changed all that. Now Berry is heading off to the actual site of his fathers’ bailout and parachute landing to perform the play on the 75th anniversary of the actual date of the event that neither his father, nor those that saw the downing of the plane, ever forgot. The performance at Z Below on Sunday, May 5 is in preparation for a trip that could certainly be life-changing for Mick and for an Austrian family that he has never met.
Praise for Dad Fought Hitler, the Bottle, and Me
“A tour de force…. an absolute paean…give(s) hope to the most hardened cynic.”
- Brendan O’Hallarn, The Winnipeg Sun called it
“A loving, painfully sincere tribute” and said, “…Berry convincingly becomes his father in two eras.”
- Steve Winn, San Francisco Chronicle
“A funny, sympathetic performance…holds the audience’s attention throughout…Berry’s storytelling finds humor in just about anything.”
-The Pacific Sun
