Jean Cocteau Rep has once again enlisted the services of critic playwright-translator Eric Bentley. In the past, the Off-Off-Broadway classics company has presented Bentley's translations of Brecht's A Man's a Man and Mother Courage and Buchner's Woyzeck and Leonce and Lena. Now, Cocteau will be staging his version of Brecht's Edward II. Brecht's play takes as its topic the same king found at the center of Christopher Marlowe's better-known play by that name. The 1924 work came into being when Brecht, wishing to direct Marlowe's play but not liking the translation, penned his own script. Edward II begins with the death of the king's father, Edward Longshanks. The new royal's first move is to recall his banished lover, Piers Gaveston, thus firing the ire of the English barony over Edward's rule.

Cocteau Rep veteran Harris Berlinsky plays the title role. Karen Lordi directs. Edward II will begin performances on Jan. 21, open Jan. 23 and run through April 20.

For information, call ( 212) 677-0060.

--By Robert Simonson