Curtain Calls: Michelangelo and da Vinci compete in ‘The Contest’ at Berkeley City Club

Historical fiction has always fascinated me. I love it when an author takes real events and using his/her imagination adds behind-the-scenes drama that might have happened. That is certainly the case with Gary Graves newest play “The Contest.”

Here Graves takes a real event in 1504 when Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were commissioned by the Republic of Florence to paint a battle scene on opposing walls in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. In Graves’ play, none other than Niccolo Machiavelli...