LOS ANGELES -- Scottish playwright Sharman MacDonald's 1984 play, When I Was a Girl, I Used to Scream and Shout, was originally scheduled to have its Los Angeles premiere Jan. 16 at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble. However, numerous push-backs have now set the show's opening nearly a month later: Feb. 13. The show, directed by Elina deSantos, also changed its final date from March 7 to March 21.

Production spokesperson Jerry Charlson told Playbill On-Line not one, but two cast members have been battling this winter's brutal flu, and until all is healthy, the show's schedule is day-to day.

Among the ailing is lead actress Carol Kane (of TV's "Taxi" and filmdom's "The Princess Bride"), who replaced Sally Kirkland early in the rehearsal process.

Also featured in the cast are Shannon Branham, Dylan Kussman and Rachel Singer. The producers are Ron Sossi and David Mills.

Scream and Shout was MacDonald's first play and received a staging in New York in 1998. It premiered in Scotland and won her the Evening Standard's award for Most Promising Playwright. Her first play, The Winter Guest, was made into a film in 1996 with Emma Thompson and her mother, Phyllida Law. In 1997, MacDonald was commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera, "Hey, Persephone," with music by Deirde Gribbin. It was performed in Scotland this past summer.

Scream and Shout is about "sex, lies and laughter and is set on a Scottish beach in 1983," notes a company press release. "The four characters of a 1996 turning point return to the scene of 'the dirty deed' and the story of 'the girl who got out' unfolds."

The Odyssey is at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Call (310) 477-2055.

-- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent
and David Lefkowitz