Playwright Bertolt Brecht’s dark, tragic tale of bigotry, sex, and power is adapted from the play by Shakespeare contemporary Christopher Marlowe, with Brecht’s script focusing more on the homoerotic nature of the story. And Director Bill Fennelly embraces its nature unabashedly, turning the UCSD Forum Studio theatre into a veritable bathhouse of lust and betrayal (adult content and situations galore).

Fennelly effectively blends history with modern society, propounding the idea that the prejudices and cutthroat political landscape of 600 years ago are no less relevant in today’s world. We meet Edward’s gay lover Gaveston (Jose Chavarry) in a gay nightclub complete with techno music and neon. Scenic Designer Mina Kinukawa’s fantastic sets include a gilded throne with a brilliantly lit base of electric lights. Ivy Chou’s costumes have fourteenth-century fashions mixing freely with today’s fads. Soldiers are dressed in modern military fatigues and use cell phones, laptops, and a creatively designed weapon that works as either a sword or an assault rifle, depending on the scene.

This script requires some powerful performances to pull it off, which is not a problem with UCSD’s talented corps of MFA actors. Corey Brill is the anguished Edward II whose abbreviated life knew little other than tragedy. Jose Chavarry is his young and cocky lover who toys dangerously with his detractors. Simone Moore is the King’s sensuous wife from France whose search for love leads to war, death, and hatred from her own son. Alex Smith is the initially reluctant baron Roger Mortimer who becomes a single-minded, power-hungry warrior as the crown appeared to be in his grasp. Michael Keyloun is the representative of the Church whose sympathies for Edward II reach a bit beyond the purely spiritual. And the boy who would be king, Adam Smith, is both the amusing narrator and the clueless boy prince who suddenly grows up just in time to change the fate of England (and start the Hundred Years’ War with France – homeland of his rejected mother).

The script itself is good, though it has its weak points. Following a completely compelling first act, the second act drags a bit in the middle as the story flounders in its attempt to gloss over several years of history that are not conducive to Brecht’s basic plot, yet still ends strongly. Some motivations are not very clear, especially in the case of Edward III whose sudden emergence and support of his father are so critical, yet so obscure. But the rest of the story makes it easy to look past that, a story filled with some intriguing characters, fascinating history, and powerful human drama as the forces of power, prejudice, and passion ruled the fates of the rulers of England.