Thrill as the winged woman breaks hearts and taboos! Gasp as the songbird steps in to the tiger's lair! Be amazed at the divination powers of Sybil the psychic pig!

All of this and more awaits in this year's UC Davis Director's Showcase: Nights at the Circus, set to open next week. The play takes you from the backstreets and brothels of 1899 London to the glamour and sleaze of Colonel Kearney's circus.

A hard-bitten reporter pursues a notorious celebrity to prove her wings are false. This picaresque tale gives the heroine all the best and bawdiest lines and places the hero in peril for his life, his manhood and his heart as he plays the everyman in a battle with reason.

The Department of Theatre and Dance describes Nights at the Circus as a sexually charged post-modern fairy tale set in the dark world of Victorian circus and freak shows in Brechtian music hall style.

The play is an adaptation of Angela Carter's novel, with tapestries of transformation and magical realism as metaphors for women in struggle with the world and their dreams.

Master of fine arts candidate Patricia Miller is the director, and the original score is by Daryl Henline.

Performances: 8 p.m. March 13 (preview) and March 14-15, and 2 p.m. March 16, Wyatt Pavilion Theatre. Tickets are available through the Mondavi Center box office: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or www.mondaviarts.org.

The theatre and dance department advises that the production is recommended for mature audiences.