Look at the bear in the photo. He's 15 feet tall, made of rattan and parachute silk that fills with air and gives him body as he towers above the action. Look at the milky Plexiglas floor. The light emanating from beneath illuminates the fabric.

        Rattan, parachute silk and Plexiglas are commonplace materials from which to fashion theatrical magic, but amazement is the stock in trade of Julie Taymor.

IF YOU GO

• What: The King Stag  • When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday  • Where: Aronoff Center for the Arts Procter & Gamble Hall  • Tickets: $24, $20 and $15 at Ticketmaster outlets, 241-7469 and www.ticketmaster.com

        Ms. Taymor shot to stardom when she re-envisioned The Lion King for the Broadway stage, a tale of good vanquishing evil and love triumphant in the jungle.

        She earned fame within the national theater community years earlier, for her design work, including masks, puppets and movement in The King Stag, a tale of good vanquishing evil and love triumphant in the forest. King Stag comes to the Aronoff Center for a single performance at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

        Look closely at that inept hunter in front of the bear, and you'll notice the actor's features are hidden by a half mask. The character combines Italian commedia dell'arte and Asian influences.

        Ms. Taymor's theatrical signature is her ability to combine timeless elements of world theater with an understanding of modern stage methods. It adds up to theater that can amaze contemporary audiences.

        She draws from Japan, the Philippines, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, India and China for The King Stag, layering these Asian influences over an 18th-century commedia dell'arte adventure about a young king's search for a woman who will love him for himself.

        Not unlike The Lion King, The King Stag also has a politically ambitious villain, this time a prime minister who manages to cast spells that puts the young king's spirit in the body of a stag even as the cruel prime minister enters the body of the young king. He sends hunters out to kill the stag.

        The animals of the forest are mirrored Plexiglas shadow puppets, a technique adapted from ancient China. Taiwanese paper bird kites fly above the action. A life-size Bunraku-style puppet plays a bony old man whose body the king inhabits for a time.

        When King Stag debuted in 1984, it was hailed as “a whirlwind of color and motion” by Newsweek.
       

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