Cockpit recordings are the inspiration for this air-disaster play.

One of New York's most unique and riveting off-Broadway shows will come to UCR for a one-night performance. "Charlie Victor Romeo," the phonetic spelling of CVR, or cockpit voice recorder, is a theatrical documentary that re-creates the recordings of six major aviation disasters.

It has been called a modern Greek tragedy where eight performers take on the difficult task of re-creating the plight of pilots and flight attendants during the final moments of each disaster. Each of the original six voice recordings will be performed verbatim: uncut and unedited. In addition to the actual transcripts, the play is enhanced by an elaborate sound design to help transport the audience into disasters caused by mechanical failures.

The actors perform on a set that consists of only the nose of an airplane from a common commercial airline. Each scene ends with a blackout and a video monitor that hangs above the stage answers the following questions: How many lived? How many died? What caused the accident?

This 75 minute theatrical production was created in 1999 by Bob Berger, Patrick Daniels and Irving Gregory. The play opened in the same year and was originally planned to run for about five weeks. However, due to the overwhelming response from the press and public, the play has been in production ever since. It is currently touring the United States and other countries.

Recreating the horror sequences was not the main intention of the creators.

"‘Charlie Victor Romeo' was designed to attempt to bring the events depicted to an audience as realistically as possible, focusing on the human component and experience," said Berger.

"By this means we hope to shatter people's preconceived notions about emergencies, aviation, pilots and so on."

The uniqueness of the play attracted the attention of many organizations, including the US Air Force and the New York Times, which heralded it as an important dramatic and technical work. It has even attracted the attention of UC Riverside's Cultural Events Director, Todd Wingate, who first saw this play back in 2001 at UCLA.

"It's not like any other thing I have seen before," said Wingate. "It's really clean and it's not sensationalized, it's not Hollywood. The text is just what happened."

"Charlie Victor Romeo" opens on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at the University Theatre. Performance times will be at 8 p.m. and will cost $30 for general admission and $15 for UCR students. Tickets can be purchased at the UCR Box Office or through all TicketMaster locations. For more information by phone, call (909) 787-4331.