Massachusetts' Provincetown Repertory Theatre will present a dramatic reading of George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell Oct. 12 featuring two actors more well-known as writers, Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer. Artistic director (and wife to the latter novelist) Norris Church Mailer will also star with Mike Lennon.

Vidal wrote his first novel, "Williwaw", about his experiences serving in the army during World War II. His future novels would include "The City and the Pillar," — one of the first mainstream novels to deal frankly with homosexuality, — "Myra Breckenridge," "Burr," and "The Golden Age." Also a playwright, his stageworks include Visit to a Small Planet, Weekend, An Evening with Richard Nixon and The Best Man. Vidal has also acted before in the films "Gattaca," "Bob Roberts" and "With Honors".

Fellow war veteran Mailer wrote "The Naked and the Dead," based on his personal experiences in WWII. He would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize twice — for "The Armies of the Night" in 1969 and for "The Executioner's Song" in 1980. Other novels include "Advertisements for Myself," "The White Negro" and "Why Are We in Vietnam." The co founder of the Village Voice is also a sometime actor earning credits for the films "Wild 90," "Beyond the Law" and "Maidstone" — all of which he directed — as well as Milos Forman's "Ragtime."

Don Juan in Hell is the often-detached third act dream sequence from the lengthy Man and Superman by Shaw. The work is populated with characters from the Mozart opera "Don Giovanni" including the seducer Don Juan, his love interest Doña Ana and her slain father — appearing as the Statue and the Devil.

For tickets to the special reading of Don Juan in Hell at the Provincetown Town Hall, on Commercial St., call (508) 487-0600. The performance begins at 7 PM and admission ranges are $50 or $150, the latter includes preferred seating and a reception with the cast at the Mailer residence. — by Ernio Hernandez