Leave your attitude at the door. Culture Clash has more than enough to go around. This time the venerable (22 year-old) performance group -- aka Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza -- rides boldly out of the Mission into Berkeley Rep to take on one of the most durable California legends of all time, that masked man who signs his name with a slash of a “Z.” With a little help from their friends: Joseph Kamal, who plays the title role as well as Don Diego, his effete flip side, Sharon Lockwood, who takes all the female parts and musician/actor Vincent Montoya, they have put together a zany show that also qualifies as protest art.
    Peopled by over-the-top characters like the 200 year old woman who has slept her way around literary history (Lockwood), Don Ringo, the world’s first Chicano (Siguenza), and Kyle the Talking Bear (Salinas), as well as Homeland Security agents, Wild West desperados, exploited native Americans, worshipful little boys raised on Guy Williams’ portrayal of the hero on television and more than one tyrannical governor, Zorro in Hell careens through the past two centuries, skewering just about everything from romance (both gay and straight) to Hispanic pride on the point of its satiric sword. If there is a serious side to all this foolery (and there is) it is the question of land grabbing and eminent domain, no less a problem in our own time than it was when the state was young. Berkeley Rep artistic director Tony Taccone has directed at a breakneck pace, which is the only way such slapstick silliness can go down smoothly.
    Clever and liberal use is made of film footage, from clips of our own “Gubernator” to re-enactments of the old Zorro films. After all, what would a show about California be without movies? Or authors? Our hero is one such, a failed sitcom writer desperately trying to come up with a script about the legendary Zorro. Richard Montoya plays him as a kind of hip nebbish, lazy, cowardly and rooted in his own reality. But, after he checks into a remote desert inn, in search of background information, the locals (200 year-old woman, Chicano, Bear et al) transform, not only his point of view, but his entire being. He actually becomes Zorro, defending the weak, fighting for justice, crossing swords with the bad guys and getting into some pretty deep doo-doo in the process.
    It’s all hilarious, very well done and highly political, which is perfect for Berkeley, perhaps a little less so for La Jolla Playhouse, the co-producer which will show it in September. Just make sure to bring your funnybone and leave your preconceived notions at home. War and Peace this ain’t.