Directed by Kimberly Chin, “The Metromaniacs” is a comedic play by David Ives adapted from Alexis Piron’s La Métromanie. It is playing in the Bakersfield College Indoor Theater from April 26-29 at 7:30 p.m. The doors open at 7 p.m. It is also playing on April 29 at 2 p.m. and the doors open at 1:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the door or at www.vallitix.com for $12 or $8 for students, staff, faculty, seniors, and military. Chin said Ives is one of the greatest American comedic playwrights.

“[The Metromaniacs] is a French farce so you could expect, my goodness, just a lot of shenanigans, mayhem, mistaken identity, people, maybe incognito, as they say
in the play,” Chin said. “So there’s a lot of misunderstanding and misinterpretation of, you know, who’s who. It’s just funny.” Chin directed another Ives’ play, “A Flea in Her Ear,” a few years back. “I hope people come to the show and really get that sense this is special and different,” Chin said of the current show. “You really don’t have to come there with your thinking cap on and put a lot of critical thought into this. We hope that you come and have fun, you get to laugh, escape a bit.”

“But all good theater, regardless if it’s just pure escapism, you’re still going to apply your life to it. You’re going to see some reflection of society in the play. You think you’re just getting entertainment and pleasure and escapism, but you’re definitely going to think about some of the themes of the show.”Hanberto Lopez, 21, is a theater art major who is playing the poet Damis.

“[The play] is about me falling in love with a writer, technically, but I believe the writer is a woman, when in reality it’s actually the owner of the house of which I live in,” he said. “The show is great, arrive early and don’t be late.”

Molly Saba, 18, is a child development major playing the role of Lucille. Saba said, “[Lucille] is trying to find her true love Damis. [The play] is basically just about people writing poems and obsessed with poetry and they’re trying to find one another and they all get married. It’s a terrible description, but it’s funny. There are a lot of twists and turns. It’s kind of like a soap opera, but it’s very unexpected; you will be just like very surprised. It’s unlike any other French comedy that you’ve seen.”