UW Department of Theatre and Dance Presents Book of Days

Jan. 31, 2005 -- The University of Wyoming Department of Theatre and Dance will present Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson's lively murder mystery "Book of Days," directed by Professor Lee Hodgson, Tuesday, Feb. 8, through Saturday, Feb. 12, at 7:30 nightly on the Fine Arts Center main stage.

Tickets cost $13 for adults, $11 for senior citizens, and $6 for students. For ticket information or to purchase, call the ticket office at (307) 766-6666, stop by the Fine Arts box office (10 a.m.- 4 p.m. weekdays), or go online at www.uwyo.edu/finearts.

Set in America's heartland in a sleepy industrial town that has more churches than bars and where commerce revolves around the local cheese factory, "Book of Days" is a surprisingly funny depiction of contemporary small-town life and the fragile social fabric that knits a community together. The play chronicles a year in the life of the fictional town of Dublin, Mo., and the tragedy that disrupts and threatens to fragment it.

When an erstwhile Broadway director blows into town to stage George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan," the Dubliners can sense change is in the air, especially Ruth, the factory's bookkeeper who lands the part of Joan of Arc. But no one is prepared for what happens after the sudden "accidental" death of the town patriarch.

"This is a really interesting play because it challenges our ideals and even to a certain extent our morals. It becomes a question about 'truth' and 'right' and those two are not always the same thing," notes director Hodgson. "How far are we willing to go to protect our own or society's version of the truth? Ruth pushes her 'truth' as far it will go, and her whole social structure begins to crumble."

Posted on Monday, January 31, 2005