Within the Greek myths lie a vast number of humanity’s archetype morality tales. Playwright Mary Zimmerman has lifted a handful of these tales from Ovid’s epic poem Metamorphoses, in which the Roman poet integrated many of the earlier Greek myths into a “history of the world.” What follows is a mixture of stories, both lighthearted and dark, that is engagingly told and visually stunning.

The tales begin with the birth of the universe from the darkness of chaos. Out of that darkness, the gods are seen “lighting up” the emptiness  (enter a god lighting a cigarette) and creating the stars in the heaven (a chandelier of flickering flames). The waters are gathered together to form the pool of black water on stage, which the play and actors use in various creative ways throughout to enhance their storytelling. And then humans are created in order to make words, using those words to create the stories that give everything meaning.

Those stories begin with the arrogant and greedy King Midas (David Cochran Heath) who, already wealthy, is granted one wish. Instead of something useful like immortality, he foolishly wishes that everything he touch turn to gold – a fateful decision for him and his sweet, jump-roping daughter (Chrissy Reynolds-Vogele), and a painful way to learn that money, even gold, ain’t everything.

Sometimes vengeance is handed down by the hotheaded gods themselves. In one story, a selfish man (Greg Thompson) angers the gods when he treats the earthly environment with reckless disdain, including the tearing down of special trees with callous disregard. When the spirit of one of those trees calls to the gods for help, the Gollum-like demon Hunger (Chrissy Reynolds-Vogele) is sent to punish him, driving him into an all-consuming gluttony that doesn’t end until he has only one thing left to feast upon – himself. While in the darkest story of the evening, a young woman who refuses to allow herself to love angers the goddess Aphrodite, and she curses the poor woman into desiring only her father.

Then we have a far more amusing glimpse into the life of these gods who can seem at least as foolish as humans. Nick Cordileone stars as Phaeton, the spoiled and irresponsible son of the sun god Apollo, who decides to take dad’s car out for a spin and accidentally scorches much of the earth, an event wittily recounted by a sunbathing Phaeton, a chagrined Apollo (David Cochran Heath), and a psychoanalyzing Deborah Gilmour Smyth.

And finally there are the epic struggles for life and love. Included is the tale of the musician Orpheus (Paul Maley) descending into the Underworld in a desperate attempt to bring his wife Eurydice (Ayla Yarkut) back from the dead – a tale told both in its original version and in an updated edition from the viewpoint of Eurydice. Love is explored through the story of Psyche (Colleen Kollar) who loves the god Cupid but is forbidden from looking at him, for love should not be based on outward appearance, but what on what lies within.

Performs through May 22, 2005.

Rob Hopper
San Diego Playbill