Play based on the myths of Ovid proves an immersive experience
Water the metaphor at the heart of Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses
National Arts Centre English Theatre NAC Theatre Reviewed Friday, Feb. 1
Water, water ... well, you know the rest. And, in this buoyant production of Mary Zimmerman’s play based on the myths of Ovid, it is everywhere.
It’s in the large, shallow pool that, in Bretta Gerecke’s light and lively set, occupies a chunk of real estate on the thrust stage. It’s in the deep, glass-walled tank above and behind that pool. And, thanks to cast members thrashing around, wading through, and — in the scene that makes this show off-limits for youngsters — making love in it, the water is also in the air. It’s on the stage. And it glistens on the surround of the pool as well as on the large platform that, reached by two metal ladders, leads to the tank and where the company both acts and, at the rear, takes turns playing glass marimbas and other instruments.
Water is also omnipresent as the metaphor at the heart of Zimmerman’s play. Shapeless itself, water changes continually, and each of the vignettes similarly involves change, sometimes good, sometimes not so much.
Wealthy, grasping Midas (a gravel-voiced Joey Tremblay who, like all the cast, plays multiple roles) accidentally turns his daughter to gold and becomes a humble pilgrim to undo the curse.
Alcyone (Petrina Bromley) and her drowned husband Ceyx (Ishan Dave) are transformed into seabirds, the power of their love overcoming death’s sting. The scene of Alcyone scanning the sea for her missing husband is beautiful, with Bromley standing in the pool holding a lantern while, behind her in the tank, another actor mirrors her every move.
Some of the shape shifting is hilarious at the same time it’s unnerving. David Francis plays Erysichthon, whose disregard of the gods is punished when he’s afflicted with terminal hunger. “He’s always yelling at waitresses,” remarks one of the characters about this singularly unpleasant man who becomes immensely obese and, in a classic bit of grotesquerie, ends up consuming himself.
And some of the changes are just plain horrendous. Myrrah (Alix Sideris), daughter of King Cinyras (Andy Massingham, who shines in every one of his roles), repeatedly denies Aphrodite. As punishment, she’s consumed — eating, a metaphor like water, courses through this play — by lust for her father. On opening night, you could feel the audience hold its collective breath as Myrrah approached her father for the first time, a watery encounter foremost in her mind.
This is the first play directed by Jillian Keiley in her new role as NAC English Theatre’s artistic director ( judging from the applause that greeted her pre-show introduction of the play, Keiley and her audience are still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship).
Keiley directs the show vigorously, as the play demands. She also avoids the trap of letting the water swamp the text, integrating it instead so that it quickly becomes an accepted part of the story rather than a mere novelty item.
Despite that, not all the vignettes pan out. Phaeton, son of Apollo the sun god, screws up big time by accidentally burning the earth and tells his story to a therapist. Although Dave is funny as a self-entitled Phaeton and Ryan Allen sporting a ridiculous flaming headdress, carrying a yellow umbrella (Gerecke also did the costumes) and belting out an aria is hilariously over the top, the scene, like this sentence, runs on too long and ends with a whimper.
If water is the play’s element and change its continuity, love is its Noah’s ark. Sometimes that love, perverted, transforms horribly as in the case of Myrrah and her father. In other instances — the old couple Philemon (Francis) and Baucis (Rosemary Dunsmore) whose love for each other and generosity toward others means they are transformed into trees as a way of cheating death — it imparts goodness and grace and a kind of immortality.
Kind of like those old myths.
Continues until Feb. 16. Tickets: NAC box office, 1-888991-2787, ticketmaster.ca.