Irish Legend Given High-Tech Staging

“Balor of the Evil Eye,” performed by the Irish company Macnas, brought an ancient legend to the stage of UCLA’s Freud Playhouse on Friday and Saturday in a style that emulates that of a high-tech comic-book movie fantasy.

The production was born in Galway but appears inspired just as much by the George Lucas who directed “Star Wars” and produced “Willow” as by its original Irish myth. John Dunne’s well-amplified and nonstop score, played by a live band, draws on rock and jazz as well as Irish folk music. It’s not surprising to hear that members of this company have gone on tour with U2.

Balor (Fred McCloskey) is the tyrant of Tory Island, off Donegal. He has a smattering of supernatural powers--a hand that extends much farther than anyone would guess, an evil eye above his two regular ones that cripples enemies with its baleful ray. Perhaps most miraculous, he avoids tripping on his voluminous black robes (designer: Charmian Goodall).

After ripping his newborn baby girl from the hands of her mother, who appears to be a prisoner, Balor conceals the child in a tower so as to thwart a prophecy that his own grandson will kill him.

After the hapless girl (Hillary Kavanagh) grows up and is impregnated by the longhaired leader (Midie Corcoran) of an oppressed neighboring tribe called the De Danaan (during her one and only escape from the women who guard her), the subsequent birth enrages Balor. He sets the new baby boy adrift in a basket in the sea, prompting Balor’s daughter to jump in after her child, thereby committing suicide.

Why Balor leaves the baby alive in the basket is baffling--maybe the old beast has an otherwise undetected soft spot in his heart. Or perhaps in his brain--for guess-who is rescued by Balor’s De Danaan foes, who raise him to take revenge against the old man.

Under Rod Goodall’s direction, “Balor” is full of flashy lighting effects, but they don’t match those that a movie would offer. The actors who play the De Danaan move with acrobatic grace through a scene involving a colorfully designed cow, but the movement stops short of dance. And as theater, the show is so short--65 minutes--and the story so preordained by both the prophecy and the synopsis in the program that it feels superficial and forgettable.