A week and a half before Rinde Eckert debuts Fate and Spinoza, he is presenting another of his plays at UC Davis: Orpheus X, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama last year. The UC Davis staging is for one night only, 8 p.m. Feb. 16, as a special presentation of the American Repertory Theatre.

Eckert wrote the text and music for Orpheus X, and he is part of the three-person cast. The play is a riff on the ancient myth in which the poet Orpheus risks death to rescue Eurydice from the underworld. But when he looks back, he loses her forever.

In Eckert's take, Orpheus the rock singer locks himself in his recording studio and dreams of rescuing the poet Eurydice from the underworld. Eurydice, meanwhile, is welcomed to the afterlife by the Queen of the Dead, who offers her something that she could never have in the world above.

The performance at UC Davis is in preparation for the play's staging Feb. 21-24 at the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

The venue for Orpheus X at UC Davis is Main Theatre, with all tickets selling for $5. They are available through the Mondavi Center box office: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or www.mondaviarts.org.