On Theater:

Orange Coast College this weekend is putting “Hamlet” into perspective — 90 minutes’ worth — while South Coast Repertory’s Young Players will be opening a production of the children’s classic “The Velveteen Rabbit.”

Retired OCC teacher and director John Ferzacca has adapted the renowned tragedy into an hour and a half of basic questions the Bard left unanswered, as Ferzacca puts it when talking about Shakespeare’s classic. Like “Why is Ophelia crazy? Why is Hamlet so angry?”

Ferzacca has taken a few artistic liberties with his adaptation. Costumes represent all periods between Shakespeare’s Elizabethan times and the present.

And actors selected their own attire based on each character’s personality.

“It was great fun to write,” said Ferzacca. “If you’re a Shakespeare purist, you’ll hate it.”

This despite the fact that every word of the production was penned by the Bard himself.

Ferzacca, who officially retired in 2003 after teaching and directing at OCC for 33 years, still teaches two acting classes part time at the college. He’s also published five plays, including some staged locally such as “A Failure to ZigZag,” “Comeback Memories” and “Nightfalls.”

OCC’s production of “Hamlet” opened Wednesday in the Drama Lab Theater and runs through Sunday afternoon under the direction of Alex Golson.

Curtain time is 8 tonight and Saturday, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available at (714) 432-5990, ext. 1

South Coast Repertory’s Young Players will be on stage in the Nicholson Studio this weekend and next with Margery Williams’ “The Velveteen Rabbit,” adapted for the stage by Thomas Olson. Directing is Mercy Vasquez.

This tale of an abandoned toy that clings to receiving enough love to bring it to life will feature the Junior Players, from sixth- through eighth-grades, one of the young ensemble groups of SCR acting students.

“Working on this piece has been a joy for us to rediscover the story and watch the actors connect to its powerful message about love, self-sacrifice and the true nature of beauty,” director Vasquez said.

“The Velveteen Rabbit” will be staged at 4 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 4 p.m. March 26 and 27.

Tickets may be ordered by calling the box office at (714) 708-5555.

East meets West head-on in ‘Garden’

Architecture is not a subject around which tense and often inflammatory dramas revolve. One must reach back to Ayn Rand’s melodramatic “The Fountainhead” to find a story in which the architect’s vision is of paramount importance.

Playwright Howard Korder in his new play “In the Garden,” receiving its world premiere at South Coast Repertory, traces an architectural project over 15 years in a fictional Middle Eastern country. He even has the brass to devote his entire first act to a philosophical game of cat and mouse between an American architect and his culture minister client-patron, where intriguing ideas are exchanged but little of substance emerges.

What does emerge in this carefully crafted drama, deftly directed by David Warren, is a study in frustration, primarily on the part of the architect who needs this project to jump-start his career. And it may end up as a gazebo in a private courtyard, unseen by the outside world.

Korder makes important use of subtlety in his examination of the two cultures, with each man mildly correcting the other on matters of pronunciation. While the American squirms and battles for his vision, the culture minister keeps him ever at bay — and the years pass.

The second act is as vibrant as the first is mundane. The prime minister arrives in a tension-laced battle of wits, and the final scene — set in 2004 — grimily portrays the outcome of internecine conflict.

The casting for “In a Garden” is, in a word, brilliant. Matt Letscher superbly portrays the American architect who must suppress his emotional reactions to the endless postponements and is consigned to simmer in silence while clinging to his creative vision — an exemplary performance.

Mark Harelik, who’s headlined two previous Korder plays at SCR (“Search and Destroy” and “The Hollow Lands”), also excels as the inscrutable minister of culture who delights in discussing politics, culture and American movies, but not the specifics of his summer house design. He does an excellent job of keeping key pieces of the puzzle hidden both from his opposite number and from the audience.

As the powerful prime minister (first as a doppelganger and then as his true character), Jarion Monroe is an imposing presence excelling more in physicality than in actual performance. Phillip Vaden completes the company as an officer of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division whose mission should not be recounted here.

The cold, forbidding setting by Christopher Barreca is as impressive as the production, shielding any sense of cordiality. Lap Chi Chu has come up with a vibrant lighting design, while Vincent Oliveieri contributes resounding original music and sound.

“In a Garden” continues the impressive string of Howard Korder plays to receive their initial performances at South Coast Repertory. Certainly it will ring true to students of foreign affairs and modern politics.

If You Go

What: “In a Garden”

Where: South Coast Repertory, Julianne Argyros Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 7:45 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays until March 28

Cost: $28 to $65

Call: (714) 708-5555

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear Fridays.