Foothill Music Theatre has taken on a major challenge by staging “Sunday in the Park With George.”

Stephen Sondheim’s music and lyrics always are tricky. There are design challenges, too, in this 1984 fictionalized account of the creation of French artist Georges Seurat’s monumental painting, translated as “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”

The first act in James Lapine’s book for the show takes place between 1884 and 1886, mostly on the island in the Seine near Paris as George (Tyler Bennett) paints his model/mistress, Dot (Katie Nix), other people and their surroundings. Other scenes take place in his studio as he continues to paint.

George is so absorbed in his work that he neglects Dot. Because he’s developing a new technique, his work baffles fellow artists. Even when Dot becomes pregnant with their daughter, Marie, he remains focused on his art, causing Dot to marry a kindly baker, Louis, (Michael Weiland), and go to America with him.

Act 2 takes place 100 years later in an American museum, probably the Art Institute of Chicago, where the painting hangs today. George’s great-grandson, also named George and played by Bennett, is displaying his latest creation, “Chromolume # 7,” a kind of light show, and trying to raise money for the next one during a reception. He’s accompanied by his grandmother, Marie, played by Nix.

Later, he goes to Le Grande Jatte in hopes of finding a new direction for his art.

Seurat experimented with color and light by using only 11 colors, no black. Instead of mixing them on his palette, he applied them in tiny dots so that the eyes would do the fusing. This technique came to be known as pointillism.

Inspired by Seurat, Sondheim orchestrated the work for 11 instruments and emulated pointillism with staccato notes in some songs, especially those George sings while painting. Throughout the score, Sondheim fans will recognize echoes of his earlier “Sweeney Todd” and foreshadowings of “Into the Woods.”

Musical director Dolores Duran-Cefalu, who conducts from the keyboard, uses a scaled-down orchestration for six other musicians, but it works well.

Bennett as George (Sergey Khalikulov appears in some performances) convincingly portrays his prickly personality and sings well.

Although Nix as Dot/Marie looks the part and acts well, she doesn’t blend well with Bennett in songs like the title song, “We Do Not Belong Together” and “Move On.”

Noteworthy in the strong supporting cast is Linda Piccone as his mother in Act 1 and an art critic in Act 2.

Many of the design challenges in this show radiate from the coup d’ theatre that ends Act 1. That’s when the cast and designs gradually move into place to recreate Seurat’s painting. Costume designer Robert Horek and lighting designer Michael Rooney play their parts well, as does scenic designer Bruce McLeod. However, FMT’s Lohman Theatre is perhaps too small to allow the audience to sit back far enough to get to full effect.

The show hasn’t been seen often locally. ACT presented the Bay Area premiere in 1986, followed by TheatreWorks in 1987 and again in 1999.

Patrons who aren’t familiar with the show or who want to learn about the cast are advised to arrive early to read that pertinent information in the lobby. Budget constraints presumably prevent FMT from providing it in the program.

Overall, though, director Milissa Carey, her colleagues (including choreographer Amanda Folena) and the performers have created an enjoyable production.

“Sunday in the Park With George” will continue through March 8 in the Lohman Theatre, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos. For tickets and information, call (650) 949-7360 or visit www.foothillmusicals.com.

Domestic violence is the catalyst for Sam Shepard‘s “A Lie of the Mind,” staged by the Magic Theatre.

The perpetrator is the volatile, paranoid Jake (Sean San Jose), who believes he has killed his wife, Beth (Jessi Campbell). No, she hasn’t died, but she’s been badly brain damaged.

Both wind up in the care of their brothers and then their families, where the seeds of their combative relationship were sown. Beth’s brother, Mike (James Wagner), is initially solicitous of Beth as he tries to help her recover, but he has his unsympathetic side, too. In that respect, he takes after their father, Baylor (Robert Parsons), who disregards the feelings of others and treats his wife, the sweet-tempered Meg (Julia McNeal), like a servant.

Jake’s brother, Frankie (Juan Amador), is a basically good guy though none too bright. Their mother, Lorraine (Catherine Castellanos), is protective of Jake, essentially denying that he could have done anything wrong. However, their sister, Sally (Elaina Garrity), sees things clearly.

Running about three hours with one intermission, the play explores family relationships and the way that people often don’t listen to one another. However, it would be a mistake for the audience not to listen, because each scene is loaded with emotional information about the characters and their motivations as well as their relationships with the others.

The program notes say that this is one of Shepard’s more feminist plays. It certainly seems so because each of the four women eventually forges some kind of new future for herself.

As directed by artistic director Loretta Greco, some scenes might benefit from different pacing, but overall the play moves inevitably along. Except for Amador as Frankie, who tends to overact, the acting is outstanding. San Jose is downright scary as Jake, while Campbell skillfully portrays Beth’s frailties as well as the insights she articulates despite and because of her brain injury.

Robert Brill‘s raked, wood plank set is sparsely furnished, allowing quick transitions between scenes. Seated off to one side are Nicholas Aives and Jason Cirimele, who composed and play mood-setting music.

Lighting by Burke Brown, sound by Sara Huddleston and costumes by Alex Jaeger enhance the production.

Shepard was the Magic’s resident playwright for more than 10 years and premiered seven of his plays there. However, this is the first time that it has staged the 1985 “A Lie of the Mind.” American Conservatory Theater presented it in 1987.

It’s a challenging play for both actors and audiences, but it has its intellectual and emotional rewards.

Long-held resentments along with secrets and surprises trickle upward and sometimes spew forth in Nicky Silver’s “The Lyons,” presented by Aurora Theatre Company.

The catalyst for this play about a dysfunctional family is the pending death of the father, Ben Lyon (Will Marchetti).  Although he and his wife, Rita (Ellen Ratner), have known for several months that his cancer will be fatal, she doesn’t inform their two adult children until death could come within a few days.

Naturally both Lisa (Jessica Bates) and Curtis (Nicholas Pelczar) are shocked at the news and angry that they haven’t been told sooner. As the family gathers in Ben’s hospital room, known information emerges first: Curtis is gay, and Lisa, a recently divorced mom raising two young sons, is a recovering alcoholic.

There’s much more than that, however, as playwright Silver reveals in the family’s often scathing, often hilarious conversations. One thing is clear: There hasn’t been much love to go around. However, there’s lots of bitterness, and everyone is scared in some way, mostly of being alone.

The play’s other two characters are a nurse (Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe) and a real estate agent, Brian (Joe Estlack). Brian appears in only one scene, when he shows a vacant New York City studio apartment to Curtis, who’s supposedly interested in buying it. Nevertheless, Brian plays a pivotal role in the play’s outcome.

Director Barbara Damashek paces this two-act, two-hour work well, allowing time for the laughs and carefully pacing speeches that leave the audience raptly quiet. One such scene comes as Ratner’s Rita tells about the time many years ago when she bought a gun, presumably to kill Ben.

In fact, Rita carries some of the play’s heaviest loads, especially in one of the final scenes, when she acts on her intention to snare whatever happiness she can.

Marchetti is marvelously grumpy as the dying Ben, while Bates and Pelczar embody all of the anxieties felt by his two offspring.

Except for the apartment scene, the rest of the action takes place in a hospital room (set by Eric Sinkkonen with lighting by Kurt Landisman and sound by Chris Houston). Costumes are by Callie Floor with fight direction by Dave Maier.

This Bay Area premiere production is a highly entertaining, thought-provoking evening of theater.

“The Lyons” will continue through March 1 at Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, through March 1. For tickets and information, call (510) 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org.