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It seems unlikely that UC’s Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies bribed the Nobel Prize Committee to choose Oct. 3 to announce they had awarded the world’s most high falutin’ literary prize to South African author J.M. Coetzee. But there must have been at least some dancing in the hallowed academic corridors when the word came over the news. It happened last Friday, the same day that Assistant Professor Peter Glazer’s beautifully staged adaptation of Coetzee’s novel “Foe” opened at Zellerbach Playhouse. 

Coetzee based his book on Daniel Defoe’s great standard of childhood fiction from 1719, “Robinson Crusoe.” But before you rush out to take the kids to Glazer’s fine production—he directs his own adaptation—you might check to see how skilled they are at deciphering postmodern thought. For that matter, there are a couple of bedroom scenes which, though not designed for erotic titillation, are probably more explicit than anything you may want to explain after the show. 

It should be made quite clear that although both the novel and this play are based, or adapted from “Robinson Crusoe,” the plot and the characters vary significantly from the original story. Indeed, what remains of the traditional plot is over and done with by the end of the first act. That’s where we have “Cruso” (Daniel Etcheverry) and the black “Friday” (David Moore) stranded on a desert island, (both very well played parts) but they are wildly different from the pair we may remember from our childhoods. Cruso is a grumpy old man who has no interest in leaving his island, or “civilizing” Friday. That concept is carried by “Susan” a significant addition to the original pair. She is another survivor from an ocean disaster, who assumes the production’s lead role. 

The short version of the differences between “Foe” and “Robinson Crusoe” is that Coetzee’s novel is definitely adult intellectual fare, described by more than one critic as “the archetypal postmodern novel.” Thus the play, the result of years of work on Glazer’s part, is challenging. There is, for example, the fact that for no very clear reason the role of Susan is played simultaneously by three different women, distinguished mainly by the color of their dresses: “Susan in White”( Amy Delores Hattemer) who seems most clearly to carry the plot line, “Susan in Brown” (Stacy Tillett), and “Susan in Green” (Caroline Barad).  

The three versions of Susan always appear on the stage simultaneously and all of them seemingly present pretty much the same aspects of the character. Since they are all quite effective actresses, it does raise some question about why they are all there. Admittedly, they serve a real purpose in breaking up what might otherwise be extraordinarily long speeches if delivered from only one mouth. Rather nice, actually.  

The second and third acts take place back in Great Britain after Susan and Friday are saved (poor Cruso didn’t survive). This part of the play is primarily concerned with Susan’s (all three of her ) efforts to get the author, “Mr. Foe” (Ken Jensen) to write a novel about Cruso’s and Friday’s (and presumably her own) experiences on the desert island. The author sees it as being an idea which is headed in the wrong direction and wants to make a very different kind of book.  

A theme which was mentioned but not significantly developed in the first act appears rather abruptly as a significant factor in the second and third: A young girl (Khloe Alice Lin) abruptly arrives and claims to be the daughter from whom Susan had been separated and for whom she has searched. Curiously, Susan insists that the girl could not possibly be her child and goes to great lengths to get her to go away.  

It’s another of the issues that are raised and left with no clear resolution. This is, after all, a theater piece created from a novel by a master of postmodern fiction.  

Fair warning: Coetzee, who is, of course, the guy behind all of this, gave a lecture at Stanford in 1997, where he was asked if his book “Boyhood” was fiction or a memoir. He responded: “Do I have to choose?” 

With an attitude like that, do you expect a play based on his work to have a really clear beginning, middle and an end? 

“Foe” will be performed at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 19 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Playhouse. For tickets go to www.ticketweb.com or call 866-468-3399.