What happens when an exiled Buddhist monk argues with three Yale University professors on the nature of the universe? Don Thompson's new play, Tibet Does Not Exist, attempts to answer that and other existential questions. The show opened Sept. 21 at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center at NY's Borough of Manhattan Community College, and will exist through Oct. 26.

The ideas explored in Thompson's play -- freedom, economics, language, enlightenment and the technological revolution -- are almost as numerous as the actors: Dominic Cuskern, Wynn Harmon, Johann Helf, Stephanie Kovacs, Tiffany Marshall, Les J.N. Mau.

Tibet Does Not Exist is sponsored by Theatre for Human Rights, a non-profit organization that commissions and promotes works that demonstrate the international struggle for human rights. Author Thompson, a UCLA film school graduate, also wrote the play L.A. Book Of The Dead, which was staged at L.A.'s Ensemble Studio Theatre in 1982.

Brian Clay Luedloff directs the piece, which has sets by Jim Bazewicz, lighting by Richard Latta, sound by Bill Kollar and costumes by Laurie Churba.

Opening night invitees include members of a Theatre For Human Rights Honorary Committee, such as Edward Albee, Richard Gere, David Henry Hwang, Patrick Stewart, Alice Walker, Elie Wiesel and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. For tickets and information on Tibet Does Not Exist call (212) 346 8510.

--By David Lefkowitz