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This article by Simon Saltzman

was prepared for the March 13, 2002 edition of

U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.

On Broadway: `Metamorphoses’

Last year, U.S. 1 critic Simon Saltzman and audiences gave

accolades

to Mary Zimmerman’s production of "Metamorphoses" when it

opened Off-Broadway on October 9. Extended twice, the show ran until

December 30, and it has now been moved to an even more brilliant

setting

at Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theater. Below is Saltzman’s

updated

review, originally published on October 31, 2001.

Mary Zimmerman, the Chicago-based director whose work

is notable for its imagination, originality, and exotic subjects,

has created another jewel, this time derived from Ovid’s collection

of mythological stories.

Dreamlike and fantastical, "Metamorphoses," is set in and

around a 30-foot lustrous pool — the amniotic fluid of human

hopes,

dreams, and fears. Its dark waters shimmer in the glow of T.J.

Gerchken’s

luminous lighting designs. And although we see heavenly clouds

projected

behind the action, where gods gather overhead, in Daniel Ostling’s

abstract setting, it is through a mere shabby urban doorway that most

of these noble personages are afforded their entrances and exits.

As she did so cleverly with her memorable production of "The

Odyssey,"

(which opened McCarter Theater’s fall 2000 season), Zimmerman has

laced these ancient, fantastical stories of gods and their

interventions

in the lives of mortals with a sparkling contemporary wit.

While Zimmerman’s vision is played out in varying ritualistic and

formalized styles, her text flirting with both flights of heavenly

poetry and more common and earthy prose, there is always a

comedy-enhanced

contemporary edge superimposed upon the stories. These are played

out in waters both tranquil and turbulent. Notwithstanding a violent

storm at sea, or a sustained underwater action, the actors always

emerge and submerge ready to carry on their daunting and diverting

assignments. More than an aquacade of myths, "Metamorphoses"

weaves its dramatic magic from the moment King Midas (Raymond Fox)

goes off on his quest to undo the curse of his golden touch. The need

we have to resolve our relationships with those we have loved and

lost, and for undoing the wrongs we have done to those we love, are

among the notable themes in this episodic tapestry.

One of the most compelling of these ancient tales finds us

eavesdropping

on a psycho-analytical session between a young spoiled teen Phaeton

(Doug Hara) and his pool-side therapist (Lisa Tejero). Wearing

sunglasses

and yellow swimming trunks and paddling about in his yellow inflatable

raft, Phaeton tries to make sense of his relationship with his

ever-on-the-move

father, the sun god Apollo.

While many of the stories reveal the power of love and sorrow to

transform

us, they also serve to remind us how, when tragedies occur, there

are extraordinary powers constantly conspiring to test our mettle

and our wings. The tale of Alcyon (Louise Lamson) and Ceyx, lovers

separated by fate but reunited as sea birds after death, is a moving

tale of metamorphosis through love. Notable is the twice-told tale

of Orpheus and Eurydice (Erik Lochtefeld and Mariann Mayberry). An

initial telling of the story in its traditional form, as one of

unbearable

longing, is followed by the far more nuanced and compelling thoughts

on the myth created by poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Among "Metamorphoses" more unsettling passages is the tale

of a father who unwittingly commits incest when his daughter, Myrrha

(Anjali Bhimani), is tricked by the gods. Trickery by the gods is

common in these tales. In its most luminous moment, Hermes (Kyle Hall)

and Zeus come to earth disguised as beggars, turned away by the

well-to-do,

our fate is redeemed by two humble peasants.

The 10-member cast, most of them long-time members of the Zimmerman

ensemble and familiar to Princeton viewers of "The Odyssey,"

are all exemplars of the director’s sometimes cute, but more often

dazzling, directorial conceits. Many of these conceits are contained

in costumer Mara Blumenfeld’s ravishing and rib-tickling apparel.

While Zimmerman credits Freud, Jung, and James Hillman for part of

her text, we can credit Zimmerman for finding a way to bridge two

worlds, by honoring the ancient while embracing the modern,

illuminating

the present by the looking at the past. "Metamorphoses" is

story theater at its finest and most engaging, especially appropriate

in the unsettling world we have recently inherited. Four stars. Don’t

miss.

— Simon Saltzman