Seattle's Intiman Theatre will play host to Anna Deavere Smith's drama, Fires In The Mirror, playing July 24 - Aug. 14.

In a departure from the original version, four actors are playing the multiple roles, which were enacted solo by the author herself at the NY Shakespeare Festival in 1992.

Fires is Deavere Smith dramatization of interviews she did with people who were directly affected when, on Aug. 19, 1991 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a car in a rabbi's motorcade ran a stoplight, hit another car and swerved onto the sidewalk, killing Gavin Cato, a 7-year-old Caribbean-American boy. The dead child was left on the sidewalk, while a private Jewish ambulance tended to the driver and his passengers.

Three hours later, and a mere five blocks away, a 16 year old Trindadian American stabbed to death Yankel Rosenbaum, a visiting Australian Jewish scholar, in apparent retaliation.

Steven Alter, who directed the play for Seattle's Center Stage in 1998, directs a cast including Leslie DoQui, Dawson Nichols, David Scully and Joanne Klein. By having a white woman play Al Sharpton, and a black woman play a Hasidic rabbi, the intention is to get beyond appearances and focus on the essence of the characters. For tickets or more information, (206) 269-1900.

-- By Sean McGrath