Wednesday, September 24, 2008

A modern version of Ovid's Metamorphoses at Centenary College

The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a narrative poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world, says Wikipedia. Completed in 8 AD, it has remained one of the most popular works of mythology, being the Classical work best known to medieval writers and thus having a great deal of influence on medieval poetry.

At Centenary College the contemporary Metamorphoses is an award-winning play by an extraordinary playwright and director, Mary Zimmerman. . .

Metamorphoses is a play by American playwright Mary Zimmerman adapted from the classic Ovid poem, Metamorphoses. The play premiered in 1996 as Six Myths at Northwestern University and later the Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago. With the change of title, play open off-Broadway in October 2001 at the Second Stage Theatre, and later transferred to Broadway on 21 February 2002 at the Circle in the Square Theatre,


Characters
Creation
King Midas
Alcyone and Ceyx
Erysichthon
Orpheus and Eurydice
Pomona and Vertumnus
Myrrha
Phaeton
Eros and Psyche
Baucis and Philemon

The play is staged as a series of vignettes based on scenes from the Ovid poem, with some given contemporary characteristics on a 3/4 thrust stage, engulfed in one meter of water.

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