`THE YELLOW BOAT'

"One was blue, one was red, and one was as yellow as the sun."

-- Scandinavian folk song

Benjamin Saar always wanted to be the yellow boat when he sang that song with his mother.

In the chorus, the red and blue boats returned to harbor but the yellow boat always sailed up to the sun.

Benjamin achieved his wish when his father wrote a play about his life. "The Yellow Boat," by David Saar, tells Benjamin's courageous story.

The Metro Theater Company of St. Louis will present Saar's play at 2 and 8 p.m. today at Academic Auditorium as part of the campus-wide Martin Luther King Jr. activities.

Benjamin Saar was born with congenital hemophilia -- a disorder in which his blood lacked a clotting factor.

He was 8 years old when he died of AIDS-related complications in 1987. He was infected with the HIV/AIDS virus during a blood infusion.

The play's purpose is to help people understand the impact AIDS had on this little boy and his family, said Jeannie Troy of the university music department.

"Some people may turn their minds off. It's not trying to say that it's OK to be gay."

"It's a timely topic that presents an aspect of AIDS that is overlooked," said Sterling Cossaboom, chair of the university's cultural programs committee.

Although the play is written from Benjamin's viewpoint, it is not a documentary.

"It's an immediate theater piece," said Carol Evans, producing director. "It's not realistic because Benjamin's eight years are condensed into one hour."

However, the production does incorporate death, dying and AIDS into Benjamin's struggle to live.

"It's moving, fun and inspirational," said Evans, who also plays Benjamin's mother in the play. "There's a lot of hope in it. It's not a depressing play. It takes you through all the experiences."

The Metro Theater Company co-commissioned the play and has been performing it for two years.

The company has a long history of presenting original work on controversial topics, Cossaboom said.

"The arts themselves are very important to society because they bring things to the public eye in a way that goes beyond the obvious sound bites of the media," Cossaboom said. "They really touch the human soul and go beyond political, social arguments."

Metro Theater Company is partially sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Missouri Arts Council.

Tickets are $4 for the public and $2 for senior citizens and children under 18. Students, faculty and staff are admitted free with a University ID. For more information, call 651-2141 or 651-2273.

"Yellow Boat" will also be performed at 1 and 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Malden Community Center in Malden.

A community dialogue, sponsored by the Southwestern Bell Foundation, will be held after the play, Evans said.