Smart fare coming to UCI next season

Tom Titus

The curtain rises on intellectually challenging fare for UC Irvine’s

2003-04 theater season as the university’s drama department heads

into its 39th campaign. While production dates haven’t yet been

announced, nor have directors, the productions themselves have, and

it’s an eclectic lineup, from the ancient Greeks to modern,

confrontational theater with a little Shakespeare and Sondheim thrown

in.

Stephen Sondheim leads off the UCI season on the university’s main

stage with “Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” a bloody

musical epic based on actual events in the London of yesteryear. The

title character administers exceptionally close shaves to his

customers, who then are transformed into meat pies.

For some welcome comic relief, wait for the song “Try the Priest.”

Classical theater in a more traditional vein is next on the main

stage as Shakespeare’s timeless story of teenagers in love, “Romeo

and Juliet,” is revived. For modern audiences who might not be

familiar with this one (if any), it inspired the musical “West Side

Story.”

Charles Mee’s slightly skewed sense of satire was on display at

UCI last season with “Big Love.” He’ll be back on the main stage with

an allegorical piece titled “War to End War.”

Orange County Performing Arts Center audiences may remember “Blood

Brothers,” a musical tragedy about two separated siblings destined to

die when they discover the truth about themselves. UCI will take a

crack at the Willy Russell epic as its final main stage production.

“The Lady’s Not for Burning,” Christopher Fry’s 1948 verse drama about a medieval witch hunt, will open the university’s Stage 2

season. It centers on a soldier who wishes to be hanged for murder

and a young woman suspected of witchcraft who definitely doesn’t.

The female of the species is deadlier than the male, they say, and

Euripides illustrated it in ancient Greek times with “Medea.” This

classic tragedy occupies the second slot in UCI’s Stage 2 season.

Drama professor Robert Cohen, who’s been teaching and directing at

UCI since they opened the school in 1965, has adapted Henrik Ibsen’s

“Peer Gynt” for modern, ethnic audiences. The new title is “Pedro

Gynt.” The play is the third entry in the Stage 2 season.

Henry James’ classic novel from the late 19th century “The

Portrait of a Lady” has been adapted for the stage by Valerie

Rachelle. This mannered English drama will close out the Stage 2

season at UCI.

It shapes up as a typically heady season of comedy, drama and

musical theater. Season tickets and more information are available by

contacting the UCI Fine Arts box office at (949) 824-2787.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.