“If [you] are uncomfortable with displays of intimacy, or if representations of sexual aggression cause severe discomfort, I would advise [you] not to come.”

With this disclaimer, Tara Murphy, a second year English PhD student, delves into the details of her play Nine Nights’ Love, which is being put on by the English department and will run this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. As artistic director, Murphy has been compiling and arranging the script for the production since the summer of 2009.

JON AND KATE HAVE NOTHING ON THESE TWO. The English department's production of Nine Nights' Love tells the Greek legend of Zeus and Mnemosyne conceiving their nine children in nine nights.

The play is inspired by Greek legend, which says Zeus and Mnemosyne conceived each of their nine children — all of whom happened to be Muses — in nine consecutive nights.

“[Nine Nights’ Love] is a dramatic presentation of Renaissance love lyrics about one nine day relationship as it is seen in the moments before these characters go to bed,” Murphy says.

While much emphasis is placed on establishing the emotions of the characters, Murphy also focused on selecting content that would successfully stir the emotions of the audience.

“Nine Nights’ Love […] merges [drama and lyric poetry] so the audience members on the one hand are encouraged to feel intimately what the actors are feeling — on the other, they can maintain a certain emotional distance from the material if and when it becomes necessary,” Murphy explains.

The performance will be held at Conron Hall in University College because of the hall’s pleasing aesthetics. Additionally, the set has been designed to look like a bedroom in order to provide a fitting, yet curiously humorous setting for the characters to interact.

The cast of the production is a mix of undergraduate and graduate students, non-students and professors at Western. A variety of faculties are also represented in the show.

Although Murphy admits there may be content deemed too racy for some, she reassures that Nine Nights’ Love will provide audiences with an experience that will reaffirm their love for poetry.

“It’s a lovely and tender program, and displays kindness and passion and grieves to equal its traumas — and the verse is stunning,” she says. “You’ll hear some of the most technically accomplished poetry in the language.”

The English department’s production of Nine Nights’ Love will run from Feb. 11-13. It opens at 8 p.m. on Thursday in Conron Hall, room 224 of University College. Tickets are $5 for students/seniors and $7 for general admission.  You can buy them at InfoSource in the University Community Centre or at the door.