A passionate transformation of Ovid's tales, done with simplicity

Theatre Intime's production of Mary Zimmerman's "Metamorphoses," directed by Molly Silberberg '11, seems to function first and foremost as a fascinating exercise in the artistic potential of theatrical limitations. The play is a modern adaptation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and is organized as a series of disparate vignettes from classical mythology, brought together by the storytelling of actors who slip in and out of roles in the stories.

The quality of the acting is difficult to assess, since each of the eight actors plays somewhere between four and eight roles over the course of the production. The characters tend toward a certain flatness of representation, while the narrators surprisingly function as a frequent source of comic relief. On the whole, however, the acting is decidedly overshadowed by the power of the simple, innovative staging.

Throughout the successive tales, the production draws on a surprisingly sparse array of props, costumes, scenery and music. The characters all wear relatively nondescript white garments, irrespective of the numerous roles each actor plays. The set is limited to a washed-out tableau in the background and fog that billows up to suggest the presence of an ambiguous body of water. The background music is limited to the sounds of a lone cello.

While this seeming lack of complexity might have created a flat, colorless performance, it ultimately adds an interesting artistic element. The audience members are, by necessity, drawn into the creative process, forced to meet the performance with an imaginative labor of their own in order to experience what the stage suggests.

This fits appropriately with the storytelling that goes on in the performance as well as with the dreamlike quality of the myths: The audience is forced to imagine the distant world of the gods along with the narrators.

With the dearth of elaborate props and costumes, the production makes effective use of fog, lighting and music to convey extreme changes in scene and mood. In a play that explores a sweeping range of human emotion - pride, jealousy, passion, loss, egotism and humility, among others - this is an impressive feat. The fog not only builds on the dreamlike aura of the play, drifting off the stage and into the audience, but also serves as a versatile "prop." It functions as both various bodies of water - from a magic pool to the river Styx to the wind-whipped sea - and as a means for representing mood, be it the furtive passion of daughter for father or the marital bliss of Cupid and his maiden Psyche.

Dramatic shifts in lighting as well as the clear, deep resonance of a cello further contribute to creating "scene" without the usual trappings of scenery. Bright, colored lighting accompanies the sudden, thunderous melody of the cello to create the setting of stormy death at sea; a soft, pale glow with light, staccato notes conveys Midas' delight as, with every touch, he turns his world to gold.

The production's cellist (Jacob Denz '10) remains on stage through the duration of the performance. While this was slightly distracting at first, it was appropriate to the production's overall approach that the production of the music was made visible. Indeed, in the lack of scenery, props and costumes, the play emphasizes the artistry and inherent creative qualities of storytelling, music and dance, resulting in a performance that is artistically multi-dimensional. In this sense, the visual - rather than purely auditory - inclusion of the cello highlights the many layers of art that come together to transport the audience to the land of classical mythology.

Dance - or at times, something closer to exaggerated bodily movements - is used at various moments during the telling of myths to give color and depth to the characters' experiences. The tortuous longing of incestuous desire, avian transformation, the union of Psyche and Eros (the Soul with Love) and even the gruesome figure of Hunger are all dramatized through brief but poignant, routines choreographed by Lianna Kissinger-Virizlay '10 and Jeff Kuperman '12.

Flashy accoutrements largely absent, the play is stripped to the bare elements of artistic expression. In one of the last scenes, in which Psyche and Eros' dance conveys the torment of their separation and passionate reunion, the audience hears only the thumping of bare feet against the stage and the drawn-out, moving melody of the cello. In its relative simplicity, "Metamorphoses" succeeds in exercising artistic restraint while drawing out fundamental elements of expression to their full, transformative potential.

4 paws

Pros Effective, minimalist staging