UK Theatre Presents Fantastical Farce

Photo of UK students Jenny Fitzpatrick, Dana Chester and Lauran Osborne.
(l to r) Jenny Fitzpatrick, Dana Chester and Lauran Osborne will take the stage in “Goodnight Desdemona, (Good Morning Juliet).”

Tickets are $15 for general admission; $10 for UK faculty and staff; and $8 for students and senior citizens. To reserve tickets, call the Singletary Center for the Arts ticket office, (859) 257-4929.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 11, 2005) -- The University of Kentucky’s Theatre Department will present an award-winning fantastical farce titled "Goodnight Desdemona, (Good Morning Juliet),” which offers an original revision of Shakespeare’s plays “Othello” and “Romeo and Juliet.” Russell Henderson, an associate professor of acting and voice, will direct UK’s production.

The first solo work of Canadian Ann-Marie MacDonald, an author later recognized by Oprah’s Book Club, the play tells the story of Constance Ledbelly. Ledbelly, a drab and dusty academic, deciphers a cryptic manuscript she believes to be the original source for the Shakespearean tragedies. In doing so, she is transported into the plays themselves and through interaction learns all about the stories’ leading ladies, Desdemona and Juliet. Ledbelly eventually saves the heroines from their certain demise. Through her adventures, she plunders the plays’ thoughts and ideas and creates something entirely new while learning more about herself. The end product is full of fights, dancing, seduction and plot twists.

MacDonald’s play was commissioned by Toronto’s Nightwood Theatre in 1988. The piece, performed for audiences from North America to Asia, has become one of the most popular Canadian plays written in English.

The play will be presented at 8 p.m. Feb. 17-19 and Feb. 24-26 in the Guignol Theatre in the College of Fine Arts Building on Rose Street. A matinee is scheduled at 2 p.m. Feb. 27. Opening night there will be a reception for the audience and cast in the Tuska Gallery following the performance.