The Irondale Ensemble Project will present the New York City premiere of Italian playwright Dario Fo's The Pope and the Witch, April 26 to May 21 (opening May 3). Jim Niesen will direct. Christian Brandjes, Heidi K. Eklund, Michael-David Gordon, Terry Greiss, Sven Miller, Patrena Murray and Damen Scranton form the cast. Fo's play tells of a radical hypnotist and healer who forces the Pope to alter his opinions on hot-button issues like drugs and birth control (a plot which rather explains why the Vatican was so dismayed when Fo won the Nobel Prize for Literature a few years back). Fo's other works include Accidental Death of an Anarchist and We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!.
Tickets are $25. For information, call (212) 633-1292.
-- By Robert Simonson