Kevin Singer and Brennan Pickman-Thoon Photo by Robbie Sweeny/Central Works

Coaxing, with a fair mixture of cajoling and conniving thrown in, is how most of the characters act in this final play by Central Works, after staging some 80+ world premieres in the company's history. They are ceasing operations after this production, due to lack of funding and the retirement of company co-director Gary Graves, who also wrote and directed The Prince, Part 2.

The high renaissance must have been a fascinating era in which to live, especially with two of history's greatest geniuses–da Vinci and Michelangelo (Brennan Pickman-Thoon)–working simultaneously in Florence while the Borgias and the Medici fought each other for control over Florence and other Tuscan city-states. The competition between those two great artists is referenced here by the commission of what would then have been the largest frescoes in the world, each on opposing walls of the Palazzo Vecchio: da Vinci's "The Battle of Anghiari" and Michelangelo's "The Battle of Cascina." (Neither fresco was completed, but drawings and studies remain.)

The Prince, Part 2 is nearly as fascinating and compelling as renaissance life in Florence must have been. Playwright Graves has managed to achieve a difficult task indeed: keeping the action flowing and the audience engaged over every moment of the three-hour running time. We witness the rivalry between da Vinci and Michelangelo, with da Vinci expressing his disgust at Michelangelo's "David," and Michelangelo screaming at da Vinci that "You stink of tradition!" Act Two, set 10 years later, begins with Machiavelli presenting the manuscript of his book "The Prince" to Lorenzo de Medici II (Kevin Singer) and then imagining a conversation between the two as de Medici II vows that he will be "a good man–and I will be a prince," to which Machiavelli replies, "Good luck with that." de Medici II, grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent, claims he wants "peace and prosperity" for Florence and Urbino and wishes to negotiate a peace treaty with his enemies, which causes Machiavelli to ask, "A peace treaty? To what end?," and de Medici II shoots back with "Peace!"

As their conversation deepens, Machiavelli tutors this new prince in the ways of power. "Craft wins out over honesty, integrity and honor," he says, as well as "Love is good–but fear rules," and "There is no right or wrong, only success or failure." Ultimately, Machiavelli persuades the prince into a plot to murder the entire line of succession of his enemies.

Act Three provides an odd but eminently entertaining conclusion to the proceedings, mixing another plot–to murder Giulio de Medici, soon to be pope–with the performance of a comic play written by Machiavelli. The conspirators, Luigi Alamanni (Michael Ray Wisely) and Battista della Palla (Kevin Singer), are played almost as mafiosi, with New York Italian accents (think "fuhgeddaboutit") and menacing miens. When the actors Machiavelli had hired to perform his play abscond with the florins he had paid them, he recruits these two and their female friend Zenobia Buondelmonte (Marah Sotelo) to learn the lines and rehearse the play before performing it for the soon-to-be-pope. Alamanni and della Palla have ulterior motives, which go wildly awry.

As with The Prince, Part 1, the acting is universally stellar. Wisely, with his flowing hair and three-piece suits, is a passionate da Vinci and a comically ominous Luigi Alamanni. Mark Farrell, who played the firebrand monk Jerome Savonarola in The Prince, Part 1, plays Machiavelli with the unctuous obsequiousness that was likely required of non-nobles in renaissance Italy, mixed with an intellectual rigor and self-possession his character clearly possesses. Brennan Pickman-Thoon is once again cocksure in his role, giving Michelangelo the sense of fervency a man of so many skills must have possessed. Kevin Singer gives the young Lorenzo de Medici II an idealism that borders on naiveté, then sheds that skin for the scheming Battista della Palla. In the smallest role in the show, Marah Sotelo manages to enlarge her presence with a performance that owns the stage.

As the only Bay Area theatre company committed to producing solely world premiere plays, it's sad to see Central Works close its doors. But what an exit! The Prince, Parts 1 and 2 are proof that the time to go is when you are at the top of your form.

The Prince, Part 2, a Central Works production, runs through September 6, 2026, at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley CA. Shows are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:00 p.m., and Sundays at 5:00 p.m Tickets range from $35-$45, with pay-what-you-can available for the Thursday performances. There is also an opportunity to see parts 1 and 2 on the shows' final weekend, with Part 1 playing at 2:00pm and Part 2 at 7:00pm on September 5, and Part 1 at 12:00pm and Part 2 at 5:00pm on September 6. For tickets and information, please visit www.centralworks.org or call 510-558-1381.