The upcoming BYU-Idaho theatre production “House of Desires” will tell the story of four lovers who are entangled in a web love story. The show will open on May 23 at the BYU-Idaho Black Box Theatre.
“It’s a series of lovers who get themselves into trouble by loving the wrong person or kidnapping the wrong person,” Amelia Bahr, director of the production said in an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio.
Bahr said the production was created by a Mexican nun, Sor Juna Inez de la Cruz and the original title is “Los Impenos de Una Casa” or “The Trials of the Noble House.”
The show was translated by a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company which produce the show in Strafford, and Bahr said a BYU-Idaho faculty member saw the show there and thought it would be a good show to put on.
The show was proposed to the play committee and they selected the play and asked Bahr to direct it.
Bahr said the committee is made up of members who are all theater professionals and they decide which shows run. She said as church members they all have a very high moral standard and because of that they think very carefully about the shows they bring to the students.
“We read a lot of plays and we go to a lot of plays and we have plays recommended to us,” Bahr said. “We do not propose anything for the University that we actually haven’t seen or read, so we are very careful about what it is because there are a lot of great theatre out there but there is also a lot of trashy stuff out there.”
For those who are not fans of theatre Bahr suggests to give the show a chance.
“I love theatre and I love film, but there is an element in theatre you cannot get in films,” Bahr said. “Theatre is seating there live and you can see the people right in front of you.”
The show will be performed at the Black Box Theatre in the Eliza R. Snow Building for the Performing Arts. Bahr said the setting of the theatre is a great way to have a lot more interaction with the audience.
“So that element of being right there, live in a performance that will never be done again and nobody will ever see it that way again is really magical and really quite wonderful,” Bahr said.
For more information about the oerfermonce you can visit tickets.byui.edu