Imagine a world where gender doesn’t exist.
That’s the scenario in “The Left Hand of Darkness,” now on stage at Tucson’s The Rogue Theatre.
The play is an adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1969 classic science fiction book of the same name. It touches on themes such as gender, sexuality, connectedness, religion and spirituality.
The book, the first in a genre that came to be known as feminist science fiction, is complex. So complex it is hard to imagine why the Rogue decided to take it on. But Cynthia Meier, the company’s co-founder and adapter of the novel, doesn’t let the seemingly impossible stop her; she has adapted many complex pieces for the Rogue.
The story takes place on the planet Gethen, where an Earthling named Ai has come to try to convince the beings there to join Ekumen, a coalition of planets.
Ai first lands in Carhide, one of the countries on the planet. He doesn’t know the customs or the politics, and he is especially confused that the inhabitants are gender-neutral for all but a few days a month. Those days, they become either male or female, mate, and often get pregnant. One month you might be male, the next female. It all depends on the gender your partner takes on. As a result, the typical male/female roles don’t exist.
Ai finds a friend in Carhide’s prime minister, Estraven, who believes in Ai’s mission of peace and unity.
The road to bring the universe together is a long and winding one, and challenges and confusion are constant companions in Ai’s quest.
Matt Bowdren’s direction is nuanced and precise. He juggled the multiple characters and locations with a seeming ease.
The cast was led by Kevin Aoussou as Ai and Matt Walley as Estraven.
Together, they made the characters’ friendship palpable and the journeys they took vivid.
The strong ensemble cast that made up the rest of the players portrayed multiple characters with commitment and expertise.
This tale crosses continents and climbs glaciers. An impressive wooden sculpture by John Farrell is the lone set piece. It travels across the stage and twists and turns to indicate different locations. Helping differentiate locales — including the steep, icy glacier — is Deanna Fitzgerald’s beautiful lighting.
Meier has extracted the main story in the book — Ai’s odyssey — and dispensed with many of the details and side stories in the novel.
That was a wise decision. Still, the rich tale loses a great deal in this journey from book to stage. And if you don’t know the book, you may well get lost in space.
“The Left Hand of Darkness” continues through Nov. 19 at The Rogue Theatre, 300 E. University Blvd. in the Historic Y.
Tickets are $47 at theroguetheatre.org or 520-551-2053. The play runs about two hours, 20 minutes, with one intermission.
Website Collider recently offered readers a guide to some of the best sci-fi novels of the last decade.
