Rewritten Tony Kushner mosaic at Berkeley Rep is brilliant, heady, funny

To say Tony Kushner’s play about a dysfunctional Italian-American family in Brooklyn meanders is to miss the point.

And to say “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures” runs a fast 3 hours, 45 minutes (including two intermissions) misses it, too.

What is the takeaway, then?

Like most of Kushner’s work, the complex three-act drama entrenched at the Berkeley Rep is brilliant.

Overflowing with passion and humor.

It’s a heady mosaic, a verbal choreography of truncated sentences and unfinished thoughts, with Kushner hell-bent on tackling a laundry list of philosophical conceits (even as characters simultaneously try to outshout one another, crisscross themes or become tongue-tied).

“The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…,” which the playwright originally planned as an epic novel, first opened as a tragicomic drama in 2009.

But, as with previous plays, the creator of the Pulitzer Prize-winning two-part “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes” was rewriting what his husband Mark Harris nicknamed “iHo” almost until the curtain went up.

The result?

The radiant West Coast premiere — replete with myriad subplots — probes love, parenting, familial relationships and money, not necessarily in that order.

And anyone brought up not to discuss sex, politics or religion is advised to stay away.

Director Tony Taccone, Berkeley Rep’s artistic chieftain for 16 years, has collaborated with Kushner eight times (including the world premiere of “Angels”) and been a friend of his for four decades.

It shows.

When disillusioned Communist and retired intellectual longshoreman Gus Marcantonio announces he wants to commit suicide, his adult kids return to his brownstone with lovers and spouses to stop him.

Instead, they incite tumult.

Gus is portrayed by Mark Margolis, a “Breaking Bad” alum whose ability to let me (and the rest of the audience) share his character’s inner reality is remarkable.

Surrounding him — each displaying extraordinary acting chops — are Randy Danson as aunt Clio, a radicalized ex-nun; Lou Liberatore as Pill, Gus’ super-tormented gay history-teaching son; and Tyrone Mitchell Henderson as Paul, a theologian enraged by virtually everyone he encounters — as well as God.

Other major characters are Empty (Deirdre Lovejoy), Gus’ bisexual labor lawyer daughter; “V” or Vito (Joseph J. Parks), Gus’ son, a building contractor and the family’s “black sheep,” a capitalist; and Eli (Jordan Geiger), a lovesick hustler.

Incredibly, the entire ensemble cast of 11 is stellar.

They become figures that make Eugene O’Neill’s damaged characters tame by comparison.

“iHo” isn’t tidy, though.

Like other Kushner’s pieces, it’s occasionally self-indulgent.

He loves throwing in oblique references — from classic Horace to modern-day pop culture. And pithiness certainly isn’t his long suit, despite pearls like:

• “What’s real, the dream or the dreamer?”

• “The only real death is to live meaninglessly.”

Or, for laughs, “Yeah, baby, talk Commie talk to me.”

Did I “get” everything?

Hell no. Especially the more esoteric theological investigations.

I suspect a second, or fifth, viewing is necessary to grok all Kushner wants us to comprehend.

Taccone is skilled at interpreting Kushner — from putting the “isms” under a microscope, from contrasting labor unions to the union of individuals, from dissecting family dynamics.

He’s aided by scenic designer Christopher Barecca’s bi-level set, probably best described by an Ernest Hemingway title: “A Moveable Feast.”

Opening night, stage lights malfunctioned for a few moments. The distraction was significant, ironically, because it showed how impeccable the rest of the “iHo” production was.

The 14-word title, incidentally, pays homage to George Bernard Shaw’s economic exploration, “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism,” and Mary Baker Eddy’s “Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures.”

Kushner has said he’s “always very happy being back at the Berkeley Rep, the only theater outside of New York where I truly feel at home, in the Bay Area, the only part of the world outside of New York I consider truly habitable.”

Although award panels have lauded him with two Tonys, three Obies and an Emmy, not everything he writes — despite endless attempts at perfectionism — is flawless, compelling, mesmerizing.

But he’s raised the level of American theater.

This version of “iHo,” I’m convinced, deserves a rating of three brilliants and two dazzlings — or, for any who prefers the more familiar, six stars on a five-star chart.

“The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures” plays at the Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley, through June 29. Night performances, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Wednesdays and Sundays, 7 p.m.; matinees, Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $14.50 to $99, subject to change, (510) 647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org.