Review: Metamorphoses by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Call this the Cirque de Soleil approach to Greek myth.
From its 1996 origin at Northwestern University Mary Zimmerman's piece used a pool of water as its central metaphor -- suggesting the chaos at creation and both the life-giving and life-threatening qualities of water and the sea. At Northwestern the piece was staged next to and in an Olympic standard pool. The water setting was retained at the Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago and at the Circle in the Square in New York, although those basins were shallower.
The Zach Theatre expands that metaphor. First, by locating that pool in the circular space of the Whisenhut stage and surrounding it with a raised walkway, so that the water below the pool steps is relatively deep. Audience members in the first and second rows of that circular space are looking up at performers walking by. An occasional, unavoidable splash is sure to wet the nearest spectators. Dress accordingly. Those elements of the setting might be called "earth" and "water."
Second, for this staging director Dave Steakley provides us with "air" and "fire" as well. Austin's muscular, confident aerial dancers from Blue Lapis Light (Andy Agne, Margaret Carter, Stefania Tafuro and Will Zinser) regularly occupy the spaces above our heads, twisting and plunging with grace. The combination of Blair Hurry's witty, circus-gaudy costumes and dramatic, often unexpected lighting from Jason Amato moves action and effects into the higher spheres. The result is the pure, gorgeous spectacle of vivid athleticism, with only a couple of older players serving to contrast with all that youth.
Metamorphoses presents ten stories drawn from Greek mythology, primarily from Ovid's work of that same name, using a free-verse translation by David R. Slavitt. Among them are tales of King Midas (David Christopher, clowning it up as a Texas oilman and then devastated when the golden touch transforms his daughter, Ashley Neves), of the drowned sailor king Ceyx (Aaron Alexander) and his apprehensive bride (Smaranda Ciceu), of Orpheus and Eurydice ( Frederic Winkler and Rachel Wiese), Narcissus (Wesley Scott), and Eros and Psyche (Andy Agne and Sarah Gay).
Physical action is primal in these pieces and director Steakley uses motion, mime, procession and Amato's lighting to impressive effect. Slavitt's translation -- matter of fact and ever so slightly stilted in style -- describes the actions we are seeing and provides the dialogue, without intruding or amplifying.
That fact becomes especially clear at the end of Act I, as the company does two versions of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, walking up from the Underworld, accompanied by the god Hermes (Jonathan Itchon). The musician Orpheus can regain his love, on condition of not turning around to see if she is following. The first version, from Orpheus' point of view, comes from Ovid via Slavitt, and is a slow promenade in costume around the swimming pool.
The second, immediately following, is annonced as representing Eurydice's point of view. It is performed to the verse of German poet Rainer Maria Rilke's 1908 Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes, in Stephen Mitchell's translation. The narrative reads, in part,
But now she walked beside the graceful god,
her steps constricted by the trailing graveclothes,
uncertain, gentle, and without impatience.
She was deep within herself, like a woman heavy
with child, and did not see the man in front
or the path ascending steeply into life.
Deep within herself. Being dead
filled her beyond fulfillment. Like a fruit
suffused with its own mystery and sweetness,
she was filled with her vast death, which was so new,
she could not understand that it had happened.
The sudden impact of Rilke's verse in this setting is so powerful that it is disconcerting. By comparison, scenes both prior to this one and in the second act seem thin and frivolous.
The abounding youth and vitality of this cast provide a consolation, an affirmation that despite the terrors of these old stories, humankind and its offspring will win through. A single story, a tale of incest, gainsays that: the story of Myrrha, who conspired with her old nursemaid and spent three nights in sexual encounters with King Cynyras, her own father. It's a hair-raising cautionary story, working at the most fundamental taboo in our traditions. The staging is balletic and hypnotic, culminating in the destruction of the offender. The message was obscured for me somewhat by the decision to cast actors Aaron Alexander and Rachel Wiese as father and daughter, for each is in top physical condition, with the energy of youth. Steakley would have provided a different, perhaps better context and message if he had cast stolid, bearded and venerable Dirk van Allen or a similar actor as the duped father.
There's a moment of nudity in the story of Eros and Psyche, well managed and appropriate to the story. This tale, done in different form and format by UT and Secondhand Theatre last year, is from Apulieus, not Ovid, but it fits well in Zimmerman's concept. Oddly, it is done entirely in mime, to a voiceover question-and-answer. The naive questions are posed by the childish off-stage voice of Alia Vinson, with the paternal(istic?) and slightly spaced-out answers by KUT's John Aielli. Perhaps the Zach was suggesting some exemplary sex-education dialogue here. It didn't work for me.
As you arrive, the Zach provides a four-page full-color expensively printed guide to the play, its origins, and the myths (click to view). After last Wednesday night's performance managing director Elisbeth Challener invited us to stay for a talk-back with the actors.
All were enthusiastic about the production, humorously apologetic to any of us who got splashed, and eager to welcome audiences to the experience. Jonathan Itchon spoke about the physical challenges of working the pool and walk with their wet surfaces, and David Christopher emphasized that the cast continues to learn and grow with the experience.
In case you didn't catch it, the Apple computer represented Pandora's box, the one that unleashed evils on the world.
One spectator praised Sarah Gay's song in the closing scene and expressed surprise that all other music was recorded. Itchon volunteered an entirely practical explanation: in a play that takes place entirely on wet surfaces or actually in the water, the cast can't wear the electronic gear to amplify their voices.
Review by Spike Gillespie at her blog "Spike Speaks," August 15
Review by Claire Canavan at the Statesman's Austin360 "Seeing Things" blog, August 16
Review by Bastion Carboni at austinist.com, August 19
Review by Ryan E. Johnson at austinist.com, August 24
Review by Barry Pineo for Austin Chronicle, September 9
Review by webmaster, TheatreAustin, Yahoo groups, September 9
Barry Pineo's pre-opening feature in the Austin Chronicle, August 5
EXTRAS
Zach's four-page audience guide to Metamorphoses
Click to view Zach's extensive portfolio of performance images done by Kirk R. Tuck
Click to view excerpts from Zach Theatre program for Metamorphoses
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Metamorphoses
by Mary Zimmerman, adapted from Ovid
Zach Theatre
