Review: Zeus in Therapy by Tutto Theatre
by Michael Meigs

Tutto Theatre's Zeus in Therapy by the late UT classics professor Douglass Stott Parker is dazzling, and at times, as his brilliant wordplay coincides with the gesturing and capering of the astonishing Greek chorus, it is simply stunning.

 

'Stunning' is a word thrown about lightly in the casual talk of our day.  But I mean it literally.  The brilliance, complexity and sheer entertainment value of this staging and this cast is sufficient to blow your circuits, if you're trying to absorb everything this production is offering you.

 

Perhaps only literature geeks and poetry lovers stand in danger of that.  You may be happy simply to settle back in your seat in the Rollins Theatre and ride with this lengthy evening on any of its several levels.

  

Most of us have at least a rudimentary recall of Greek mythology, perhaps from storybooks in middle school.  You can enjoy the revelation of the stories of this quirky, cranky bunch of deities: Zeus himself, the all-powerful principal god with that rampant lust; Hera his demanding wife and sister ("wifster"); the Titans who pre-dated the Greek gods and old Cronus, Zeus's father; trident-brandishing Neptune and hammer-swinging Hephaestus; Dionysus, god of wine, born from the thigh of Zeus; cup-bearer Ganymede;  the incarnations of all the lovely maidens who gave Zeus's life its zest; and a vast additional number of mortals and immortals.

 

This is no color-by-the-numbers version of those stories.  Parker uses our own modern mythos of Freudian analysis to relate the tales. Zeus is closeted with his therapist, the patient, non-judgmental and ever-silent Court Hoang -- and variously accompanied by nine additional avatars of himself, collectively dubbed 'Big Zee' and numbered from Zeus alpha (Α) through Zeus iota (I) plus another Zeus as a youth.

 

Any and sometimes all of those chorus members may be voicing the Big Guy's stream of consciousness. Some in the audience may be momentarily disconcerted, but the convention quickly becomes clear. The Talker is Zeus; all others who dance, float, participate, embody and evoke, constitute everything that is Other in his narrative (even though, as he points out, he himself is everything, all the time).

 

 

 

Jaffe and choreographer Lynn Randon make that reductive approach virtually mpossible, however, for they create such a riveting sequence of mime, clowning and balletic dance that shutting one's ears and simply watching would also be enough.

  

 

 

 

 

  

All the technical arts intensify these experiences:  Justin Cox's stark set design (yes, watch that face of Zeus on the center wall-- it is, in fact, flickering and changing); the music by Chris Humphrey and the otherwise silent Court Houang, for a capella performance or accompanied by cello, lute or didgeridoo; costumes and make-up brilliantly realized by Austin Rausch; and the evocative lighting design by Natalie George that is dramatic, mood-enhancing and yet never intrusive.

 

 

 

 

 

Jaffe seems to have had his pick of Austin's thespian talent, who appear to be having the time of their lives. Justin Scalise, veteran Shakespearian clown and Hamlet, has an enormous voice in that tiny frame and features that can be wickedly mobile. Nathan Osburn and Mario Ramirez look like imposing wrestler twins, one from Anglo highlands and the other from the Rio Grande valley; Suzanne Balling as Artemis and Karen Alvarado as Aphrodite could be sisters, a pair of confident, attractive, sexy, brainy goddesses. Annamarie Kasper is the essence of fragile femininity and Julie Linnard that of confident womanhood; Chris Humphrey is senior to them but not a whit less energetic or less talented -- Hera on a trampoline is a sight to behold. Joe Hartman has the smooth confidence, energy and untouched good looks of Ares, god of war.

 

John Austin as the youngest Zeus and as Ganymede is a revelation. This Boston-College-bound recent graduate of Westlake High School has the gift, and he matches the mimetic ability and confidence of the immense talents around him. As the evening progresses, we see Austin repeatedly represent to us the lost enthusiastic innocence of the Talker who obsesses so inventively in these stories. And in the final instant of this performance we see him once again, garlanded and hopeful on far stage left, ready to bound forward yet again for the first time into the arms of the achingly enticing Annamarie Kasper, far stage right. 

 

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Zeus in Therapy
by Douglas Stott Parker
Tutto Theatre