GAle GAtes et al [sic], purveyors of a visually surreal type of theatre have extended their latest show, The Filed of Mars, through Feb. 7. The production takes place at their recently opened 40,000-square-foot performance space/gallery in Brooklyn.

The Field of Mars, designed and directed by Artistic Director Michael Counts, is an enormous image-oriented piece inhabited by performers, which partially based on Tacitus' book Rome Burns. Guests to Field will experience various shifting landscapes that takes them from Ancient Rome to a New York City apartment, from a lavishly set formal dining table to an 8,000 square foot forest to one of the world's skankiest toilets. Counts' states that mission of GAle GAtes is to create "expansive pieces that the audiences wanders through as if they were guests in another world."

GAle GAtes et al, founded in 1995 by Counts and Stern created 90 Degrees, an installation (a piece of art creating an environment) containing half a million stalks of marsh grass that filled 65,000 square feet. In the spring of 1997, GAle GAtes et al created Wine-Blue-Open Water, an adaptation of Homer's "The Odyssey," with text by recent New Dramatist inductee Ruth Margraff. The opening in September of their new Brooklyn home was celebrated with a performance of Gertrude Stein's Yes Is For A Very Young Man.

The Field of Mars was written by Counts and Molly Gallagher with music composed by Joseph Diebes. Choreography is by Michelle Stern and lighting design by Jason Boyd. The cast of Field includes Brian Bickerstaff, Ben Busch, Phil Collins, Cynthia Hopkins, Anika Trumholt Kristensen, Beth Kurkijian, Josh Stark, and Michelle Stern.

For tickets or more information on The Field of Mars call (718) 522-4597. -- By Sean McGrath