“It’s complicated,” Gallathea says of her relationship status, part of her Facebook profile. A Facebook profile for a character in a play written in the 16th century?

Yes, indeed. This is just one way in which UC Davis is updating John Lyly’s Gallathea, a gender-bending Elizabethan comedy, set to open Nov. 11 and run through Nov. 20.

The Department of Theatre and Dance production also features a contemporary set, original music, outrageous costumes — and video and text messaging.

Gallathea also embraces new media offstage — with every actor creating a Facebook page for his or her character, and all of the actors participating in a group page.

Furthermore, audiences are encouraged to bring cameras to the play — with the expectation that UC Davis’ Gallathea may spur a YouTube video or two.

Peter Lichtenfels, the theatre and dance professor who is directing Gallathea, said he is excited by the opportunity to explore how identity and sexuality are so intertwined with technology, in modern society.

The hunt is everything in Gallathea, where girls dressed as men fall wildly in love and the gods furiously battle like schoolyard children. The play is centered in a Lincolnshire village, which is forced by Neptune to sacrifice its most beautiful virgin every five years.

Hilarity ensues when Tyterus and Melebus — both believing their daughters to be the fairest virgin — send the girls into the forest for protection disguised as men.

Fortune-seeking brothers and the divine intervention of Diana, Venus and Cupid complicate the play, but the plot focuses on the two daughters, Gallathea and Phillida, and the suppleness of gender.

Said Lichtenfels: “Early modern ideas about men, women and the flexibility of gender are both remarkably similar and completely different to ours today.

“The similarities help us to think about gender and sexuality through the differences of a society and culture from over 400 years ago — with thought-provoking and challenging perspectives on what many people today take for granted.”

Lichtenfels noted that the play feels like “vaudeville and (almost) stand-up comedy,” and said he thinks audiences will enjoy the bawdy and surprisingly contemporary humor.

A news release states: “With its playful gender-bending, fans of Shakespeare’s As You Like It are sure to enjoy Lyly’s play and Lichtenfels’ fun and uproarious update of this classic. It rocks the world of traditional theatre while exploring sex, identity, lust, love, infidelity, deception and denial with burlesque flair. It is sophisticated and coarse at the same time.”

Read the news release.

Janice Bisgaard, publicity manager for the Department of Theatre and Dance, conributed to this report.

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Gallathea, written by John Lyly and directed by Peter Lichtenfels, professor of theatre and dance

WHEN:

• Nov. 11-13 and 18-19 — 8 p.m.
• Nov. 14 and 20 — 2 p.m.

NOTE: Previous postings gave an incorrect time for the final performance, Nov. 20. It is set for 2 p.m.

WHERE: Main Theatre

TICKETS are available through the Mondavi Center box office: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or mondaviarts.org. General admission $17-$19. Students, children and seniors $12-$14.

DISCOUNT: $5 tickets are available for school and youth groups of 10 or more, at the teacher or group leader’s request. To make arrangements, call the Department of Theatre and Dance, (530) 752 -5863.

More Arts: Tryouts scheduled for Body of Knowledge, while Studio 301 presents Neil Simon's Rumors through Nov. 14. Plus, jazz, flamenco, Beethoven and ZooZoo at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.