Authentic Irish music - "real foot-tapping, dancing-in-the-aisles stuff" - will stir up the audiences for Bismarck State College's production of "AMan of No Importance" Wednesday to April 5, said Dan Rogers, associate professor of theater at BSC.

Rogers, directing the production of this new play, which opened in New York City's Lincoln Center in 2002, says that the production has invested in Irish instruments, such as an electronic flute, to give the music played by the on-stage pub band its distinctive Irish sound.

"A Man of No Importance" tells Alfie's story, an unassuming bus conductor in 1994 Dublin who spends his time reading poetry to his passengers and directing the St. Imelda Players.

Their community theater production of Oscar Wilde's "Salome" becomes controversial because of its sexual themes, but as Alfie says,"It's not dirty. It's art."

Interestingly enough, Rogers said, "Salome" is still considered somewhat scandalous because of the Dance of the Seven Veils, and Salome's fascination with John the Baptist.

As Alfie deals with the controversy, "he comes face to face with his own longings and need for love," Rogers said.

"He has put all his energies into art and aesthetics, because he thought that's what Oscar Wilde did," although as history shows, Wilde was a homosexual who was tried for gross indecency, Rogers said.

The play's structure finds echoes and parallels between time periods and themes as it spirals from Wilde's play and Wilde's life, to Alfie's play and his life, and to Rogers and his real-life directing of his actress, Kim Fredricks, as he guides her in how to portray Adele, the 1994 character who is playing Salome.

The audience discovers that Adele is pregnant by a man who doesn't love her, and Rogers, as director, tries to get Kim to relate to that, he said.

Moments are repeated through all three levels of the play, Rogers said - the scene in which Adele as Salome, with the head of John the Baptist on a plate, kisses his lips, reverberates two scenes later when she kisses Alfie's bruised face after he gets beaten up.

This cast has added outstanding performers from the community to its cast of students, Rogers said - Erin Drevlow, who has come from a New York tour, playing off-Broadway in "Into the Woods," as Lily, Alfie's doting sister, upcoming graduate student Dan Wolstad as Alfie, and local weatherman, Ryan Davidson as Carney, the bitter, stage-struck butcher.

Set on a sparse stage, "A Man of No Importance" reveals Alfie's reveries and flashbacks as the actors from his troupe interpret his former life in real time.

Other leads are BSC students Kim Fredricks as Adele, as bus rider/Salome; Reuben Hushagen as Robbie, bus driver/man about town, and Sara Friesz as the flirtatious Mrs. Patrick.

Rounding out the St. Imelda Players are Samantha Foley, Emily Eslinger, Matt Manders, Adam Frank, Micky Leer, and Andrew Buchmann. Others in the BSC cast are Tyson Austen, Jason Janes, Eric Morris, Kevin Gutman, Mercer Sage, Lindsey Barrios, Cameron Keller, Farren Gunderson and Greg Frank.

This is the play's North Dakota premiere. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through April 4, and 2:30 p.m. April 5 in BSC's Sidney J. Lee Auditorium.

Admission is $10 for adults and $3 with a BSC I.D. Call 224-5511 for reserved seat tickets.

"A Man of No Importance" won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical. "Ragtime" musical collaborators Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens wrote the score and songs such as "Love Who You Love" and "The Streets of Dublin."

(Reach reporter Karen Herzog at 250-8267 or karen.herzog@;bismarcktribune.com.)